Revamp: The Undead Story 1×01 Review: Episode 1

At long last, the much-anticipated premiere of Revamp: The Undead Story, the new project from Boun Noppanut and Prem Warut, has finally arrived. And I, for one, could not wait to watch it.

I thought the first episode did a great job introducing the characters and tossing us headfirst into the plot. Right away, we get a sense of the relationships that are going to form the core of the story. And there are enough questions to start the hypothesizing and theorizing, which are my favorite parts of reviewing a series.

The first episode of Revamp gives us enough of the overall plot. Punn (Prem) is an antiques dealer and restorer. One day, he’s asked by his friend, gallery owner Jett (Kay Lertsittichai), to restore the centerpiece painting of his new exhibition, which was destroyed by vandals. Before Punn can get started, he cuts his finger on the painting and gets sucked through a portal to where Ramil (Boun) has been trapped for two hundred years. The scent of Punn’s blood wakes Ramil, and the two fall out of the painting back into the museum.

After Ramil wakes, Punn takes him home, and thus starts all the shenanigans. Ramil explains to Punn that he’s a vampire, but his powers are gone, distributed to his three servants: Methas (Mark Jiruntanin), who has the power of speed, Ciar (Barcode Tinnasit), who has the power of transformation, and Mekhin (Aun Napat), who has the power to heal.

Methas tells Punn all about how vampires have been living hidden among humans for centuries. Ramil is the last of their lineage, and he needs his powers back to lead the others, who are in danger from a group of humans known as Hunters. When Ramil and Methas attempt to re-transfer the power of speed, Punn interrupts and puts himself in danger from an out-of-his-mind Methas.

I’m suddenly very curious to know if vampire lore is different in different parts of the world. I feel like most vampire media have consistent tropes associated with the genre, but this is the second vampire BL that has sort of tossed those conventions out the window. While I wasn’t a fan of the show, I sort of love that Punn shows Ramil My Golden Blood as a way to demonstrate how vampires are viewed nowadays. (Better than Twilight, I guess.) Although he calls it Dracula, which… no.

In the montage where Methas is talking about their history, we see a portion of a book where it says that pureblood vampires are not affected by sunlight. The conversation Punn overhears between Methas and Ramil shows that they are also not affected by garlic. Ramil states multiple times that he doesn’t like the taste of human blood, and he seems fine eating regular food. Ramil’s transformation power, which is currently held by Ciar, changes him into ravens (or crows, I can’t tell which), rather than the traditional animal form of bats. And I’m unaware of a vampire story where anyone has the ability to heal.

This is something that I sort of hope gets explored more later (My Golden Blood at least had the throwaway line of vampires purposely circulating false information), but at the same time, I kind of hope Revamp just rolls with it. After all, vampires are fictional, and while there is some accepted canon based on previous iconic titles, nothing is set in stone as to how they can be portrayed.

There were a lot of comments, after the official trailer dropped, about the humor of the series. The official trailer was very different from the pilot in tone, and quite a few people were concerned that this would be too camp and not the darker series they had been expecting.

Honestly, while I understand where the concern was coming from, I feel like it was a little overblown. Yes, there were a few humorous bits in the trailer, but mostly associated with Ramil waking up two centuries in the future and having to adjust to the modern world (and without his powers). For the most part, the trailer focused on the overall plot and mainly showcased the action scenes.

So while I do think there will be some silly bits, I don’t think the entire show will be like that. And Ramil’s reintroduction to society has to be humorous just by the very nature of it. Of course, after being chained up for so long, he gets a leg cramp. Of course, he’s flabbergasted by the concept of a television. Of course, Punn doesn’t take him seriously with his use of “thee” and “thou” (or whatever the Thai equivalent is).

Could those have been played more seriously? Sure. But if you were in Punn’s position, you’d probably think it was ridiculous, too.

I am somehow both surprised and unsurprised that it looks like Punn and Ramil have a pre-existing connection. For the very first scene to be a bed scene, even before we’ve seen anything else, was a bit of a shock. (But it shouldn’t be, with Boun and Prem.) It turns out that Punn has been dreaming about Ramil before he frees him from the painting. Methas later tells Punn that Ramil chose him; I hope we learn how that happened.

Methas implies that we will, or at least, at some point, Punn will understand. Because he realized as soon as he met Punn that Punn was important. When he shakes Punn’s hand, he gets flashes of what will happen. Now, prophecy wasn’t mentioned as one of the powers, but is this something all vampires are capable of? (Also, shaking hands is such a Western way of greeting someone that I’m curious if there was a specific reason for that, or if they just needed Methas and Punn to touch.)

Ramil is already trying to seduce Punn. He says he wants to keep watching the series so that he can learn about romancing a human. He attempts to manipulate his way into sharing Punn’s bed. But he doesn’t seem to recognize Punn, so I have to wonder if he feels the connection somehow. At least, enough to act on it.

The connection seems to be centered around Ramil’s necklace. In the flashes we get of Punn’s dreams, you can’t clearly see Ramil’s face, which would imply that Punn can’t make it out in the dream. However, he remembers the necklace enough to sketch it out. And later, when he sees the painting, it’s the necklace that he’s drawn to, and the necklace that somehow cuts him. (I originally thought he cut himself on glass, but there is no glass. Is canvas that sharp that it would cut you?)

And I’m dying to know why Punn’s nose bleeds after these dreams. That’s not a detail that’s there for no reason.

Other aspects of the story get a nice setup as well. We meet Punn’s younger brother, Pokpong (Stamp Panachkorn), who is in foster care. Pokpong has been acting out at school in the hopes that his foster family will let him live with Punn, particularly because they plan to move abroad, and Pokpong doesn’t want to. He doesn’t understand why Punn doesn’t want him, while Punn just wants him to have the opportunities that living abroad would grant him.

Our first introduction to Jett is on the television, as Punn magically turns on the news when it’s talking about something vital to the plot. We learn later that Punn and Jett have a history, and Jett is familiar enough to let himself into Punn’s shop. However, their conversation is tense, and while they may have been friends before, they don’t seem to be now. I’m very curious as to what happened, and why Jett is promising that he’ll never bother Punn again after this restoration.

Jett is a very intriguing character so far. He seems like a regular person; he owns an art gallery that seems to be prestigious and renowned. But later, he’s at a church (where he takes a phone call, rude), and he’s just staring at some kid who is praying a few rows away from him. When the nun tells him that the church is closing, we see that the kid is gone. Now I’m wondering, was the kid even there in the first place? And if he was, why is Jett staring at him like that?

Something else I’m wondering about is the destruction of the painting in the first place. The two vandals who break into the gallery and slash it look like Paul (AJ Chayapol) and Caster (JJ Chayakorn), who we know from the trailer are Hunters. And when Methas cuts himself on the painting the same way that Punn does later, he recognizes that it’s finally time to free Ramil. So did Methas hire someone to ruin the painting, as a way to set everything in motion? Or was someone else behind it for maybe the same reason?

After all, in the news piece at the beginning of the episode, Jett mentions that there’s a legend that a vampire is trapped in the painting. So this is something that is common knowledge, at least in certain circles. I refuse to believe it’s a coincidence; there has to be a reason Jett came specifically to Punn, when it’s clear that they’re not currently on good terms.

(It can’t be for his skills as a painting restorer. He was going to restore it at night, in the dark, on the wall. Even I know that’s not going to work.)

I can’t wait to dive even further. I can’t wait to find out more about Punn and Ramil’s connection (and for Punn’s dreams to become reality!). I can’t wait to meet Ciar and Mekhin. I can’t wait to learn why Jett is glaring at people in churches. I am so excited, I’m vibrating.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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