I'll give it this much, the concept here is genuinely creative. It's about a business executive and a mysterious tribe up in the mountains, where some of the members can produce a natural scent from their own bodies. The whole show is built around how that ties into their love story, their pasts, and a bunch of family secrets. It runs eight episodes, each somewhere between 55 minutes and an hour. Scent has just been named vice president of Kusuma, a well known perfume company, stepping in for his dad who recently had a stroke. He hears about this tribe in the mountains whose people give off a natural scent, so he heads out to find them for the sake of the business. Eventually he reaches them and meets Gaysorn, the tribe's heir, who everyone treats very protectively, especially his grandma. Gaysorn has always been curious about the outside world, partly because his mom went there once and never came back. Scent convinces him to sneak off to the city so they can look for his ...
Scent has just been named vice president of Kusuma, a well known perfume company, stepping in for his dad who recently had a stroke. He hears about this tribe in the mountains whose people give off a natural scent, so he heads out to find them for the sake of the business. Eventually he reaches them and meets Gaysorn, the tribe's heir, who everyone treats very protectively, especially his grandma. Gaysorn has always been curious about the outside world, partly because his mom went there once and never came back. Scent convinces him to sneak off to the city so they can look for his mother, though his secret plan is to turn Gaysorn's body scent into perfume. As you'd expect, once the two get closer, Scent starts feeling guilty about how he's been manipulating Gaysorn to get that scent, which hasn't even been turned into a perfume yet. He's only been doing it because his uncle pushed him to after his father's stroke. Slowly the secrets come out and Gaysorn learns what Scent was really after. It turns out his mom had been married to the perfume lab guy at the perfume company, and the company made a fortune off her scent. When they found out what was going on, they killed the father and abused the mother until she died too. The uncle first tries to pin the blame on Scent's stroke ridden father, but an old camera recording exposes that it was the uncle all along. Fed up with city life and now knowing the truth about his mom, Gaysorn heads back to the mountains, and Scent, realizing he's done plenty of damage already, decides to head up to the mountain himself.
The story is creative and has something real to say about nature and people trying to exploit it, but after a few good episodes it slides into being a regular, ordinary show. I did like how Gaysorn and Scent first meet, the way they interact, the stolen glances, and how Scent almost seduces him, all of that was pretty alluring. You do have to forgive the annoying CGI butterflies and pheromone effects. We've seen these actors before, so we already know they look good, act well, and deliver what's expected, and their chemistry was proven long ago. Sadly, the whole manipulation followed by redemption arc is something you can spot from miles away. The storyline with Scent's ex boyfriend and rival, and that guy's boyfriend, was actually interesting. Seeing two ordinary people step in to help Gaysorn was sweet too. I was expecting both of them to turn out evil, and I'm glad they didn't. The happy ending also feels really forced, and it wasn't needed at all, especially since there's already a secret admirer back in the village who's crazy about Gaysorn. I think that's the relationship they should have built up instead. Anyway, it's not a very memorable show, but it's worth a try. It mostly falls short because it's so predictable. Bottom line, a clever idea that never escapes its own predictability. (5.5/10)
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