I just had a question about lakorns in general. I just finished Nung Nai Sueng and I can't decide how I feel about it. I thought the male lead to be abusive in many ways. It was bringing back a lot of things from my past that I don't want to remember and made me uncomfortable to watch it. Are the leads usually like this? I don't want to add spoilers so to anyone who's watched this, is the way this drama is done typical of lakorns?
I have only seen one lakorn "Jam Loey Rak" and the guy was abusive in that & I have never wanted to watch any more lakorns for that and other reasons.

There is a thread about Thai dramas where someone discussed this very issue.....


http://mydramalist.com/forum/showthread.php?776-THAI-DRAMAS-do-they-exist
Thanks for the reply and link! I may try another one and hope for the best.
Nope not all are like that! but yes if u r looking for slap-kiss genre, most of them have a rape scene and stuff u kinda mentioned.. Well, I watched quite a number and am not a fan of such genre either. So I watch other genres which of course includes romance and comedy but not the aforementioned. Asian fuse and Jasmine lakorn blog are good sources as they have arranged them in genres!
All you have to do is stop watching Slap kiss lakorns and turn to the dramatic or romantic comedy ones.
Seriously, there is a rape genre :O. I watched Full House, and liked it so much I thought about viewing more Thai drama, but I'm certainly going to pay attention to which Lakorn I would watch next...
3lue wrote: I just had a question about lakorns in general. I just finished Nung Nai Sueng and I can't decide how I feel about it. I thought the male lead to be abusive in many ways. It was bringing back a lot of things from my past that I don't want to remember and made me uncomfortable to watch it. Are the leads usually like this? I don't want to add spoilers so to anyone who's watched this, is the way this drama is done typical of lakorns?


A lot of the older thai lakorns are like this. It's called slap/kiss lakorn. They usually contains some kind of revenge and a misunderstanding, more or less violence and so on. Some of them even contains rape. All the older lakorns are not like this, but if you don't like watching this genre, it might be good to look the drama up before. People usually mention if it's a slap/kiss lakorn on their blogs and so on.

Also if you don't like this genre don't watch the "popular older" lakorns: Jam Loey Rak and Sawan Biang.

If you want to watch lighter thai lakorns, I can recommend you to watch some of the newer ones.
If you like gender-benders I can recommend Taddao Bussaya and Dok Ruk Rim Tang, they're totally sweet. :') If you like time-travel dramas, then I recomment Tawipob. I recommend Wanida if you like historical dramas (I haven't completed it yet though).
For some reason I don't really understand, I find male characters to often be abusive in Thai lakorns, even when it's not labelled as slap and kiss. But the later genre is definitely the more violent. I personally do not like it. 
Full house Thai version is to me an exception, I rarely find lakorns with the same feel. There's a new series that is rather sweet but more teenage oriented : The ugly duckling series. I agree that new lakorns tend to be less violent than old ones, but still I don't like the whole abuse getting a pass under the pretense that the male lead is unable to express his feelings properly and is passionate. I find it sooo wrong. smh
I'm not crazy about that aspect of the slap/kiss genre but what really gets my goat is the familial abuse. I know a lot of its rooted in status and society (probably more old fashioned story lines, especially) but I really, really hate family members taking advantage of other relatives (stealing their property, husbands, "selling" someone into marriage for money or debt) - that's what makes me turn a lakorn off. 
it's the music aswell and i get a lot of feedback soundwise when watching don't know if thats just me also some of the acting can be seen as ott and clownish idk
Feud between 2 families and the next generation are stuck hating each other. Son/daughter falls for each other in the opposite family. Even with Younger brother of so-so family falls for younger brother of the other family. When in the gay couple...someone has to die or something happens to them :/ 
It's funny how Thai lakorn can be violent and have rape scenes but barely any of them actually kiss.
Most lakorns are remakes, and the originals may go back to the 1980's or earlier .... Thai society has greatly changed since globalization hit in 1990's...
Many of the tropes in lakorns, including the "Hateful Male Lead" (credit to @Cheer, lol), the slap/kiss, the selling of females by family members, the idea of female "purity", etc... are all remnants of that time.
Agree w/ it or not, much of these are deeply rooted in Thai culture, and there is a clash among the old & young generation, the rural & urban society.

Many of the "original" (not remakes) lakorns, made from 2000 - now, don't have the abusive male, and they portray male-female relationships a  bit more realistically, reflecting the changing society and changing values.... Unfortunately, these originals are very few.

Besides, like anywhere else, if the old formulas work, producers are hesitant to change the cliches....and slap/kiss genre is popular!

I can go on about how selling women and rape is viewed in Thai society, and whether watching lakorns is perpetuating the stereotypes and hindering the progression of women's rights in contemporary society, but that's another discussion.

--->>> So YES!!!... the Hateful Male Lead is prevalent in lakorns.... But just as prevalent, is the very, Strong, Smart, and Feisty females who never break ...  it is the male that breaks down, reforms, and works at redemption.
Usually they are in slap/kiss genre, but most genres have a lead w/ a little bit of this trait in him!

--->>> lakorns of last few years have seen a dramatic drop in these types of male leads.