Anguished Love (2018)

Since the synopsis didn't really tell us that there are 3 lifetimes/ reincarnations of our main leads, I thought it might be useful to let those who are potentially interested in watching this lakorn have a rough overview of how the lakorn panned out.

STORY (mild spoilers)
1st Lifetime (Episodes 1 - 8):-
The first lifetime, set in the 1900s (King Rama V reign), takes up bulk of the lakorn airtime. I guess this shouldn't be a surprise because the 1st lifetime has a lot of groundwork to cover. It has to introduce the background of our main characters (our male lead is of noble blood, while our female lead is essentially from the servant class), set up the groundwork for how they met and fell in love, drip through ingredients that make the situation ripe for all sorts of misunderstandings and conflict, put our main characters through this recipe of a wringer and then spit them out bloody and broken at the end.

Typical lakorn formulas abound like flies in this section.
One of my pet peeves - screaming characters - was out in full force here. It wasn't only the females that were guilty of this offence, even the males here were screamers and shouters. Considering the fact that one of the reasons I prefer to watch period lakorns was due to the fact that most period lakorn characters tend to be more soft-spoken and dignified in their speech and demeanour, the number of screamers in this show was an unpleasant surprise.

You also have your famously evil 2nd female lead, all decked out in her signature bright red lipstick and flaunting her two-faced personality with impunity. Thankfully, our male lead has got her number and never really falls for her tricks or for her. It's one of the saving graces in this show - our male lead stays faithful and single-minded on our female lead all the way to the end.

This lakorn also has your honorary villains and bad characters seeking to stir up trouble or increase their powerbase. Irritating, over-exaggerated side characters with their bulging eyes and twisted smirks are not exempt from this lakorn too, and strange leaps of logic or missing pieces in the plot puzzle are not uncommon. Convenient plot devices are regularly used (I can't count the number of times a character 'conveniently' leaves behind or forgets a significant item), and illogical reactions or situations can also feature in this show.

In short, this is your cookie-cutter Thai lakorn.

The pacing in this section can be inconsistent too with some parts or scenes being very long drawn or dragged out with lots of slo-mos, while others skip abruptly onwards to the next.


2nd Lifetime (Episodes 9 - first half of 12):-
This section of the show is set 50 years later after the 1st lifetime and had a lot of supernatural elements with ghosts being the main feature. Our main female lead is a vengeful spirit here and she has plenty of company with her too.

Some of our reincarnated characters undergo quite significant character changes too which can be a nice relief, and the plot starts to come together, or at least head towards a resolution. This section has more unpleasant and scary scenes with vengeful ghosts and weird CGI so viewers with a more squeamish heart might want to be aware and prepare themselves accordingly.

The interesting thing about this section? Our male lead falls in love with a ghost. Welcome to the world of 'Pee Mak'!


3rd Lifetime (last 30 minutes of Episode 12):-
The calm after the storm as our main leads get reborn in modern day time and meet again without all that crazy baggage and issues that featured in the first 11 and a half episodes.


ACTING/ CAST
While I have always liked Bella as an actress and thought she did not disappoint here, it was really the 2nd female lead actress (Kao) who played the more interesting and multi-layered character. Bella's character in the 1st lifetime was very subdued and her 2nd lifetime was full of resentment and anger so I found her characters to be quite fixed and almost stereotyped, rather than complexly nuanced.

Grate was very handsome and very fine in this lakorn in all his incarnations/ lifetimes, and his character stayed very much consistent all the way through but again, it was the 2nd male lead actor (Alex) who played the more interesting role.

The side and supporting characters were pretty much forgettable, really, except for our female lead's father's moustache which was terribly distracting in its monstrosity and degree of inconsistency. It made him look ridiculous but certainly very memorable.


MUSIC
Very heavy-handedly done. The music score literally bludgeoned you over the head with its 'mood' music and it is SO OBVIOUS what the show is trying to tell you within the scene simply by its background score. I found it clumsy, in-your-face, distracting and uninspiring. One of the worst music scores in a drama, for me.


RE-WATCH VALUE
I watched this through all the way to the end because I was intrigued with how our main leads' lives get so complicated that it needed 3 lifetimes to unravel the problem (it's definitely an interesting story, lakorn formulas aside). It's an interesting plot and story but I personally wouldn't be interested in re-watching it again after knowing what happened plus it had too many lakorn formulas for my liking.

The romantic scenes were softly sweet and even sometimes sexy. I would only re-watch this if I wanted to see more of Grate's beautiful and warm smiles and hear him say some of the cheesiest love lines, or to see him in his shirtless glory (because there's quite a lot of that to be had in this lakorn).

It is not a bad watch if you're interested in plots involving star-crossed lovers and re-incarnations and ghosts.

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Some love lasts a lifetime, True Love lasts forever.

It deserves more than 8 or it is just me.It will tell us that True Love never ends even in different lifetime/dimension. This is not bad at all I enjoyed watching this lakorn and I never get bored.The reincarnation was very confusing it should be 100 years every lifetime.Their are Three Lifetimes.The First Lifetime their love was began Luang Yot showed his true love with Pikul but it ended because of misunderstanding I like the way that she suicide.She ended her life using Than Jan's flute afterthat Yot was stab by Saraphee but Pikul didn't see everything that happens from the past. Second Lifetime Pikul is full of revenge and Vengeance towards Niraj(Yot) and Nisa(Saraphee).Niraj loves Pikul very much and he wants to died for Pikul's Satisfaction but Pikul can't do it and then Poot Krong clarified everything that happens from the past at The End Niraj decided to ordain.Third Lifetime it makes me blush and smile all over but I don't see the other characters from the Past cause it's very fast.

-Pikul is a kind-hearted woman and care for everyones feeling eventhough she's full of anger at the second lifetime you will see that her heart and love is never change.
-Luang Yot/Niraj his character never changed in every lifetime.
-Saraphee/Nisa she's very inlove/infatuated with Yot in every lifetime. She's very evil at first lifetime but she becomes better in the Second Lifetime.

-I have watched few lakorn of Bella and Great the acting was really great even the supporting role.
-I taught Alex and Kao will reunited in this lakorn after Kom Faek and I hope to see them again as a couple but they not played as a couple in this lakorn.

The Music suits this lakorn but it should be more melodic.

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