This review may contain spoilers
I wanted to chime in with my review as I am seeing some really odd reviews of this show that paint a very different picture of this show. I had previously watched this show when it first came out in 2015 and completely forgot the plot. While browsing Weir's page, I wanted to rewatch this show as all the reviews made it seem like such a good lakorn, and having previously watched it, I was baffled that I couldn't remember anything about the show, and I questioned myself as to why I could forget this show if it was so good? So I started watching the show in 2.2x speed as I always speed watch when I am rewatching anything, and after 7 or so hours of watching this show to the end, I can now say with certainty as to why this show was so forgettable for me.
This show is a crazy assortment of plot holes, overacting and littered with nutty characters that belong in an asylum for the mentally deficient/crazed.
The FL is TSTL from the first episode. She has the mental capacity of a turtle. Her goody-two-shoes attitude is so over the top that I wanted her to become a nun by the end of the show as that seems to be the best occupation for people of such high morals and innocence. She is so one-dimensional to the point that everyone in the show calls her stupid for being so kind at least once to her face, and I am not exaggerating.
Now, I know many of you might be wondering why being kind is so bad, and why I'm harping about this, so please let me explain: The FL runs away from ML in the first 1/4 of the show because of misunderstanding that he is an awful thug who is conspiring to bring her family down (understandable as he kind of is conspiring against her family, but I will touch on this later when I talk about the ML). She also happens to have the evil mother talk with the second lead's mother who asks her to pretend to be a money-grabbing witch so that he can leave the country without taking her with him as he loves her. She agrees (obviously since she is the missing daughter of Mother Teresa). Thus, she isolated herself from both the ML's and 5 years pass by, in which she lives in literal poverty and gets reduced to selling vegetables on the side of the road. All this time, while she was scrapping for money, she somehow still does not learn anything about the real world, and her mentality is still stuck in the pubescent stage. I cannot for the life of me understand how someone survived such tragic circumstances without learning anything? She still falls for every evil person who tries to trick her into doing stupid acts and time and time again she fails to have any sort of comprehension that people in this world are not all truth-tellers and some people are not to be trusted.
Anywho, let's move on to the ML (read Mr. Pervert from here on out). We first meet him and he seems like such a likeable character who is flamboyant and interesting as a gangster turned businessman who is smart and savvy. However, even Weir's charisma as smexy as he is can't pull off a cradle robber character that was the ML in this lakorn. The FL is around 17-18 years old when she first meets the ML and somehow, the decade older ML falls for this underage girl, and tell her he wants to marry her in a year?! He tries to make her father fall into his hands by pushing him into possible bankruptcy (although to be fair to the ML, the FLs father is stupid enough on his own to end up in this stage, the ML only helped bring about this outcome faster). Mr. Pervert, as it so happens also has a live-in mistress who is obsessed with the ML and is some thirsty piece of work to boot. She left her career as a model/actress to be the ML's secret mistress. She finds out her man is interested in some two-bit high-school girl and is realistically shocked that she has a competitor who is not even legal LOL. It's even funnier as many random characters in the show refer to Mr. Pervert as the FLs father or guardian on many occasions poking fun of the age gap, even the ML calls himself her guardian at times (the drama made it seem like funny haha moments, but lets be honest, no-one can laugh at a grown man trying to smex a child, he even kisses her when she's sleeping and that's child molestation, not cute as the drama was trying to portray). I found this aspect of the show beyond cringy. I can understand age-gaps, however, in this show, it was kind of borderline gross since the mental capacity of the FL was that of a child who has never learned that the world has evil and she probably believes in Santa Clause. For the ML to pursue her as a love interest felt wrong on so many levels, that even after the 5 year time skip, I could not see them as equals who are mentally on the same page. To me, it almost seemed like he was trying to get with her when she was undeveloped mentally so he can shape her to be the way he wants. Many times he calls the women he sleeps with dolls, and how he loses interest once the 'dolls' want more from the relationship than just sex and money. So, based on these things, him trying to get with an under-age girl seemed like the action of a paedophile, especially in light of the fact that we all know our FL is mentally deficient and has the mental capability of a child.
Moreover, there are a plethora of crazy characters who are obsessed with the ML or FL. The ML has a female business partner/friend who is probably the most interesting character in the show. She loves the ML in an obsessive way (at this point, you know every other character is either obsessed with the ML or FL in either a romantic or revenge way in this show).
The FLs father is another character that I was completely baffled by. By the end of the show, the man has eight children, from four wives. Who will ever know if there are more wives and children running around that he's fathered but abandoned as that seems to be his modus operandi seeing as he abandoned his first and third wives (his second wife and Ton's mother is some sort of mystery cause we never find out about who she is, why she left/died) children to run from debt, and somehow found a fourth wife on the island he took refuge on and went on to father 2 children there in the five years he was missing. Talk about the prolific sperm this guy packs eh? The show ends with his two remaining wives and all his children sitting and eating like a happy family. This made me gag, just a bit.
I won't go into the details of the plot as that's too long to dissect, just know that every possible misunderstanding, stupid cliche plot twist and multiple rape attempts made the story so over the top and disastrous, it's a wonder that I forgot about all of it after watching it the first time around. The only excuse I can think of is that I wanted to forget that I might have lost some IQ points after watching this show and was too embarrassed to want to remember what lead to that happening so I erased the show from my mind. The lost IQ points eventually came back to haunt me as I watched the show a second time around. Now, I will like to say one thing in defence of the show and for myself, as I have completed the show twice now, and after bashing it so bad, you might be wondering why I didn't just stop watching the show. So here it is, the show is also highly addictive because it's so crazy. You get glued to each episode because it's so over the top that it boggles the mind how any of the stupidity that went on in this show can be resolved. So you keep watching, hoping against odds that the FL might get smarter, the ML stops behaving like an idiot who believes everyone's slander against the FL and actually listens to her. This hope gets you going and somehow, it's the last episode and you watch as the ML also runs away to the same island that the serial sperm dad of the FL ran to. The FL has to hunt him down in order to be reunited with the ML and gets surprised by a bonus. Her father + new step-mother + 2 new step-siblings are also at the same island as her runaway ML, WOHOO!
I hope this long essay will deter anyone who plans on watching this show, hoping to see an amazing story, good writing and character development. However, if you like crazy plots with no direction, over-bearing MLs, TSTL FLs, and a truck-load of crazy characters, then this show might be right up your alley. I also write this review to remind myself to never rewatch this show ever again if I happen to forget what the show was about.
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Reasons why you should skip this show {SPOLIER'S AHEAD]:
The male lead is a whore who wants to get with the female lead, make her love him only to dump her when she falls in love with him
-The female lead is supposedly very smart, but gets outsmarted by the whore of a male lead at every step
-The male lead juggles around everyone and interferes with the lives of everyone around him to the point where everything revolves around him wanting to get girls and somehow having to fix up the messes he creates because he can't help himself from being a lecher
-Apparently the only thing that the male leads balks at is rape, so sweet of him when he thinks hooking up with any willing female, cheating on multiple women at the same time, being a chronic compulsive liar and destroying the lives of those around him just to feed his 'God' ego make up for him not being a rapist on top of all this, THANK YOU SO MUCH WRITERS FOR LETTING HIM HAVE ONE REDEEMING QUALITY, I MEAN, IT MEANS SO MUCH TO US VIEWERS TO SEE SUCH A POSITIVE ROLE MODEL
-Male lead almost ruins the female leads parents marriage by hooking up her father (to get him on his side so he can keep tabs on the female lead when she's with her parents) with a prostitute who ends up extorting money, a house and even a car from the father (aside from the fact that he ALSO cheats on his wife of 20+ years)
-Male lead at multiple occasions tries to break up and destroy the love life of his "best friend" (I put that in quotation marks since who needs enemies when you have friends like the male lead?) by framing him time and time again. Male lead sets up the situations thus that his best friends girlfriend always finds her boyfriend with other girls, even though the poor dude wants nothing to do with the disgusting behaviour of the male lead, who is his best friend.
-If there was an olympics for a male whore who can juggle between numerous females and still not get trapped, the male lead in this show would win, hands down
-The worst part about this show is that at the end, the male lead still doesn't reform, he stays a flirt, and the ending scene is literally his wife having to drag him out of some sort of strip show/bar
-Female lead apparently can't stand guys like him but somehow can't help herself but fall for this slimy manwhore
-Female leads acting is stiff throughout the show, hard to enjoy when you just want to cringe anytime she tries to be cute or sexy
To the writers: I hope you stop trying to make shows where such despicable behaviour is rewarded and constantly wins over those who have better morals and behaviours. It is not funny that the female leads mom tries to almost kill her husband after she finds out he was cheating on her. I can see an argument can be made that by making this a comedy that the writers are trying to present a serious issue in a lighthearted way, however, thats not how this came across as. If that was the intention, they completely missed the mark. The whole show seems to be about how male chauvinism is rewarded and you can get away with anything if you love someone, but just not enough that you are willing to stop cheating on that person every now and then.
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This review may contain spoilers
Well what a waste of almost 20 hours
Just finished watching this show. Take home message is that Thai producers have too much money to spend on ridiculous storylines that make little to no sense.For starters, there is only one character in the whole show that's somewhat sane, thinks a bit logically, which is Prang. The ML and FL are so unreal, I almost ragequit the show many times. FLs actions are very inconsistent and her acting skills are poor. Although I find her extremely pretty, it doesn't make up for the fact that she cannot act a dynamic role. She has a stoic face, a smile or a sneer pasted through most of the show. Her actions make no sense. For example, one minute she will be angry at the ML and suddenly she is no longer angry and smiling and talking to him as though nothing happened. On top of all that, the random dream sequences in the earlier episodes where she's going gaga over the ML are bizarre. I had no idea when/why she secretly fell in love with the ML? They met like three times and then, boom, she's secretly in love with him, even though they had little to no conversation happen those three times they meet. She's supposedly a world girl who knows her way around the block, but apparently falls in love with a random dude despite the fact that every male character in the show is in love/lust with her?
The ML on the other hand also has those random dream sequences. I really don't know what the director/writer was thinking when working on the script. It was all over the place, especially in the earlier episodes, the editing was totally off. Scenes that already took place had random cut parts pasted in other scenes. One minute the protagonists are in one scene, and then the scenes shifts to a totally new place with no rhyme or reason.
Overall, the show was very unpolished and 'logic' was a word that everyone in the show was allergic to. It seemed like the editing team rushed through the edits and cut and pasted scenes. The writing and directing of the show were also really pathetic, not to mention the poor acting.
P.S: Anyone else thinks that the random forest dude who works for the ML at the end of the show was super cute? I would have really enjoyed the show more if he was ML, at least I could look at a nice face when lambasting through this show.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is a very dark drama with some major mature themes, but a rollercoaster that is well worth the watch. I started this drama thinking I was watching a romance show and thankfully it was much, much more. The story is about two sisters, two pair of sisters to be exact: the parent generation and later the kids. The kids generation were all quite a young casting and I was blown away by the acting prowess of Benz, the girl who played Saiparn. Saiparn and Nida are two sisters from the same father but different mothers. The problem lies in the fact that their mothers were both blood sisters, yes, both sisters had the same husband (high ew factor). The father essentially rapes the younger sister (Nida's mother) and this results in the birth of Nida and the death of Saiparns mother on the same day.
This sets the story up for the rest of the show as Saiparn hates the living daylights out of her aunt and half-sister as she believes, and partly rightly so, that they are the cause of her mothers death. Only partly because the full blame actually lies with their father (a disgusting piece of trash) who abused Saiparn and lavished Nida with everything her whole life as he thinks that Saiparn is the product of an adulterous affair her mother had, and is not his child.
Characters:
SAIPARN- Very human female lead who is flawed, but is so perfect because of all her baggage and flaws. Saiparn was abused by her father who hated her, and eventually became an abuser to her own sister as well. She gets raped by Poodit, who is Rida's fiance (due to a scheme she set-up which made Poodit question Rida's love for him and Saiparn humiliates him which leads him to rape her in retaliation---I kid you not, he was apparently the male lead, but more on him later). The rape was the cliff that eventually pushed her over the edge and the trauma from that opened up her self-protective shell which she insulated herself with to push everyone away with previously. She was able to finally see her aunt (whom she blamed for her mothers death) as a good person and put the hatred she always had to rest. She survived hardships and overcame them and I really admire her for it. This is the complete opposite of Nida, who had no hardships until her fiance was taken away from her and the first struggle in her entire life basically unraveled her bubble she had lived in and led to her insanity.
NIDA- Nida had all the love in the world, her father basically gave her her every whim and lavished love and affection on her, to the point where he would deliberately take things that Saiparn dearly loved, even mementoes of her mother, and gave them to Nida. She was the most selfish person in this whole show, who was basically the product of coddling and protection from everyone in this drama. When her mother tried to curb her psychotic tendencies in an early episode, the father intervenes and slaps the mother, yet again feeding the selfish monster and setting her up for doom later on. I felt so satisfied when the father gets knocked out in the later part of the show by the very monster he created, it was sweet poetic justice. Acting wise I think she was weakest of the whole cast. She had this wide-eyed look throughout the show which I hated and later on in the show, her crazy act was so overbearing I generally skipped her scenes unless they involved Saiparn.
POODIT: Read PooSHIT. I hated him throughout the show. He is the type of wishy-washy hero you never want to see as the main lead. He apparently loved Nida, but raped her sister instead. Is forgiven by everyone, meanwhile Saiparn, the victim is made out to be the seducer and has to bear all the repercussions of his horrendous actions. He has a lot of inner battles as he still wants to marry Nida, but also wants to take care of Saiparn- because he is a gentleman (I choked everytime someone on the show mentioned how he was such a perfect model of a human being, YUCK). Only person who wasn't PooSHIT's fan was Saiparn and Nida's older brother, the one sane person in the whole show.
NAPAT: The angel. I seriously shipped him with Saiparn, but this idiot loved Rida too fishin' much (at this point you start to wonder if the main girl is Rida, since every male lead in this show LOVES her to bits, which is reminiscent of any kdrama love triangle). He was a doctor who basically took care of Saiparn after the rape, and later Rida when she goes into batshit crazy mode. I was hoping he falls for Saiparn while he is taking care of her, but alas it was not to be as Rida with her lead halo was too strong a contender.
Overall this was a really intriguing show and I stayed glued to the unfolding crazy drama, mainly for Saiparn as she was one of the most believable heroines I have come across recently in lakorns. She wasn't a goody-two-shoes, she acted mean, got even, and was a very tortured person. Yet, despite all this she learned her lessons and took the high road by the end of the drama.
I highly recommend this drama for anyone who is fed up of watching door-mat heroines, and someone who can stomach issues such as rape and abuse.
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This review may contain spoilers
I went into this lakorn expecting a full-throttle revenge lakorn. I got exactly that. However, some aspects fell short completely. Right from the first episode, the gigolo, ahem, I mean the male lead was like some sort of ladies magnet. We had over 3 women literally fighting for him throughout the show, not counting the FL into this. These women were so thirsty that I was left flabbergasted by how they can be that shameless. The ML is successful, okay, he looks decent, okay, but seriously, the women falling over themselves for him was a bit over the top and a bit disgusting to see them cat fighting every other scene.
Suffice it to say, the over-dramatization and characterization left a bad taste in my mouth, so I was really praying the FL could make up for the stupidity that was surrounding the midas ML, but nope, that wasn't exactly what happened. The FL was slightly immature, she tried hard to one-up the ML but fell short every time since our ML is supposed to be this over the top perfect person that nothing can scratch. The FL does make up a bit later on when she hires an investigator to get to the bottom of the ML's secrets. But by that point, I could care less about anyone finding out anything since the ML has this cheat where nothing can ever go wrong for him, and lo and behold, even when the FL finds out his secrets, it somehow makes the ML seem even more like a tragic hero, hence the FL forgives everything he's done and they go and have some lovey-dovey time. One other thing that bothered me a lot was these random shots of the ML standing doing nothing but smirking awkwardly at the camera at the end of certain scenes. I know these were shots that were supposed to show him being intrigued by the FL, but the smirk was super awkward to watch and cutting those shots out would have been a lot better.
In addition, the FL's aunt who is head over heels for the ML cried every single scene which was super annoying, to say the least. However, despite the pathetic over crying her acting was a lot better than the rest of the cast. I was also a bit sad for her character as it seemed like she was just a flawed human being, who didn't intend to cause harm but somehow found herself falling into a spiral of bad decisions. She was the only sympathetic character in the whole show. Also, the Aunt's husband takes home the worst actor award for this show. every single scene with him was all yelling and screaming uncontrollably. He was such an inconsistent character. I still can't understand the 'why' of his character. Like he was supposed to be this jerk, who slept around and mistreated the aunt, but then after he becomes disabled, he is no longer a whore (hard to swallow since human nature is hard to change) and wants to be with his wife, but at the same time he slaps her, shouts at her and continues to physically abuse her? What did he expect would happen? Did he have some sort of mental illness that should have been addressed? There were so many avenues that were just there but never explained in this show.
The climax scene in the last episode was also very rushed. I feel like the director spent more time on the females fighting over the ML than the climax of the show since everything is over in less than 10 minutes and the villain dies her tragic death. Even the very end of the show was extremely rushed. The FL leaves the ML and just randomly pops back years later? Like what? Why? Oh, and these 'years' that the two are separated is like one second of the last episode. We have one scene where the FL leaves the ML, and in the very next scene, we have the ML meeting her again after supposed years have passed and he just goes and hugs his son LOL.
All in all, this isn't a show that I would ever rewatch. It was a completely let down from the beginning till the end. The acting was subpar, the music unmemorable and the storyline was crazy and inconsistent.
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This review may contain spoilers
Once in a while, you watch a show that leaves you with a silly smile on your face. This is that type of show. Yes, it had its super bad villains (ahem, Khun Patchara), but the was offset by three super adorable couples.I usually never care about the side characters in a story and skip those parts and go right into the main story, however, in this drama I was glued to the screen for each of the three couples. The way the story progressed with the development of how the couples actually ended with who they did was done really nicely. My favourite couple surprisingly wasn't even the main leads, but the super sweet couple that almost gave me diabetes: Rita and Touch. I was making googly eyes and smiled my silly smile whenever this couple came on. They are just sooo adorable and cute together that I almost wish they were together irl.
I also really enjoyed seeing the friendship between the female leads. So refreshing to see such strong bonds between females in lakorns. None of that backstabbing, 'who needs enemies when you have friends' types of characters in this show (minus the female leads sister, but she was never a friend so I don't count her). The positive energy of all three friends was very uplifting.
Onto the villains, Khun Patchara was definitely despicable, however, by the end of the show I forgave her for her evil deeds. [SPOILER] Yeah, she kinda plotted murder of Khun Prim which eventually got her own daughter shot, (kind-of ) man-slaughtered the main leads uncle, did multiple attempts of blackmail/coercion and burned a building down, but whateves, all in the days work for a Thai villain, right? {SPOILER END] As I said before, I did forgive her for being such a badass because I really think she changed and became a better person by the last episode.
The acting was surprisingly well done, I usually hate watching anything with the main female lead as she tends to overact and her annoying almost aggressive acting is off-putting to me. In this show however, her character was such that that type of delivery works and doesn't jar the audience too much. I really enjoyed watching the male lead. I have never watched anything he's been in as none of his previous lakorns have interested me. He was very grounded and had a very calming quiet presence throughout the show. All the other cast, the male lead friends: Touch and Wat, as well as the female leads friends: Boot and Rita did a good job at presenting their characters as well.
The show is definitely rewatchable if I ever want to watch a fluffy comedy thats surprisingly interesting enough that when it finishes you wish there were more episodes.
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This review may contain spoilers
This show is great if you are looking for a light romantic comedy. However, if you want some depth of character or some amazing acting, then this isn't the show for you.The story isn't anything new and has very little originality to it, yet due to its simplicity, its a fun watch. We have a bunch of misunderstandings that cause the main couple to have to be together and this forced proximity allows for both of them to eventually fall for each other.
After reading a lot of comments regarding the stalking and forced seductions in the comments, I would like to add my two bits. I find that the MLs behaviour is a bit pushy and he does seem manipulative. Throughout the whole series, the ML tires to unnerve the FL and through his push and pull tactics, he tries to get her to like him. Despite all this, I still did not think he was a stalker or went overboard. That's because I find the FLs acting was very subpar. She acted like a child, who was shy, awkward and overly skittish. Those types of behaviours are okay, but doing them all the time, in almost every scene is a bit over the top and unrealistic for the field of work the FL is in. She is supposed to be top tier actress, who is popular and worldly. For the FL to act the way she does around the ML is odd based on everything we know about the entertainment industry. The type of character that was required by the FL was not delivered in this lacklustre performance we were given. I think a bit more nuance and between the lines was necessary for the audience to not feel as though the ML was always the aggressor if the audience was to believe that the two leads were really in love and not a one way forced seduction.
Also, I want to add that the actress playing Ploy did a really good job and I found her much more believable than the FL in her role. It's also funny that everyone thought Kluay was prettier than Ploy in the show only because Kluay was 'whiter' than Ploy. As a western audience, I think Ploy is a lot more stunning than Kluay, but that's a cultural bias so I don't mind the dramas narrative that Kluay is supposedly more beautiful than Ploy.
Overall I enjoyed the show and I would recommend it for anyone looking to watch a laid-back romantic comedy with simple misunderstandings that get resolved quickly between the couple.
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Skip this show if possible. Save yourself 14+ hours.
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This review may contain spoilers
Went in with no expectations, thank goodness!
So, I've been watching so many crappy shows with little plot, bad acting and lacklustre endings so having stumbled upon this show was a blessing.The story starts off really well with an intriguing mystery. The way the mystery was handled was well-done. It wasn't that hard to guess the murderer, but the flow of the story was really good. I liked a lot of characters in the show, especially the FL. She carried this show for me. She was strong, had principles and wasn't afraid of anything! The ML was also well written. I liked that he was more of a supporting presence (minus episode 14/15 where he did a 180 that seemed really out of character for him). It's so unique to see a ML who isn't dominating the story progression as is the case with so many lakorns, and the females just enduring through the story. The FL/ML also had amazing chemistry. I was rooting for them the whole show and I would have liked to see way more of their interactions.
My only gripes with this show is the ending kind of was very mellow. We have everyone forgiving everyone and a little bit of a reconciliation between leads in the last few moments of the show. i would've liked to see more of the main couple. Also, episodes 14/15 were horrible. I really didn't like the u-turn the ML did and how the FL was fighting an uphill battle even when evidence was presented to the police. I get that the caption had a bias, but it was really annoying to see him talk down to the FL like he had some sort of moral high ground to judge her as a murderer when she's been cooperating with the police (with a lot of attitude, which was well deserved due to the police bias), isn't a fly risk, and the only thing pointing to her as a murderer is her own admission which was done under extenuating circumstances where she was kidnapped and was about to be killed. How could that be admissible as evidence?!
Lastly, I think the overarching theme of women being devalued and their misery being overlooked by society in general and not being believed by people was a really hard-hitting point. The fact that everyone ignored all the warning signs of abuse, which led to the death of the sister shows that our society has a long way to go. More shows need to shed light on this topic, especially in lakorns where we see so much abuse to women that it's become trivialized. I've been guilty of watching slap/kisses, but I've realized that I enjoy shows with intimacy. The reason slap/kisses are so appealing to me is because they get really intimate scenes between leads and it creates more dynamic stories as apposed to vanilla shows. it's sad that so many of these slap/kisses can be turned into willing and still get the point across instead of having to reset to physical assault to show intimacy between main leads.
All in all, this was a delightful drama, one which I'll probably be visiting again in a few years time for a rewatch since Ioved the chemistry and the mystery unfolding in the show. I would be really intrigued if the main couple has another show. I've never watched either of them as main leads and I've grown to really like both their acting.
Bonus points: the SFL wasn't a complete b*tch and was actually supportive of the FL once the truth came to light! I hate shows that have females fighting over men like they're b*tches in heat and their only value is through the men in their life. Both Fl/SFL cared about their careers and valued their work and friendship. Kudos to the writers for letting women have discussions that aren't only about men!
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This review may contain spoilers
I would disregard the high praise review that this got by spicycurry21. This show starts off really well, I loved the positive relationship between the main leads, however, what killed this show for me was the constant disregard for logic. The bad guys could come and go as they please to literally beat up a CEO of a successful company and no cops, or law enforcement was called in. There are cameras everywhere these days and could be used as evidence for the crime, but no one ever files any report of abuse/battery. Even should you not want to file a report, hire security or something, but nope, logic is not a word the director of this show is familiar with. Also, the crazy laughs that the evil people in this show always perform was really over the top and unnecessary. I mean, I knew what I was getting into when I started the show but the laughs really were jarring, even for someone like me who watches so many lakorns. I sometimes felt like the poor actor was going to have lung issues cause of the awkward cough (ahem poor Korn).
In addition, the ML's acting is seriously stiff. I felt like all his smiles and actions were forced and robotic. He is very good eye candy, but his acting is lacking and he should not be the ML of a show when he's underperforming in almost every scene. As for the FL, not sure why the previous review thought her character was supposed to be childlike? She's a mature working woman and Kwan did a really good job at performing a very rational (read: the only rational person in this whole show) person who doesn't respond hastily and actually tries to discuss issues and arguments with her partner in a mature way. I was highly impressed by that aspect of the show.
I don't think I'm being overly harsh on this show. It's 2019, writers can come up with way better reasons for why a character behaves in a certain way, and I even found glimpses of good writing at the beginning of the show (other than the reason for why the evil dude wants revenge, I can't wrap my head around that still--he hates the ML cause his father praised the ML when he was younger, thus he has harboured hatred for the ML and wants to destroy his life and kill him...like WTH is with this psycho reason?) Despite a good start, everything post episode 7 was a disaster due to lack of logic. The biggest example of this is when ML's sister, Nam takes her mother to go live with Kim (the evil guy), even though she knows he's dangerous. She's mad at her brother but doesn't think twice about going into the home of an evil man she herself doesn't trust. Yet Nam has the audacity to be mad at Tiya for somehow betraying her brother (who I would like to point out is married to another woman) while she's living in the home of the biggest rival of her brother. I really had to stretch my patience with Nam at that point.
I admit I skipped through the show towards the last few episodes, but from what I did catch, the ML was going to get married to evil guys younger sister, unless I'm mistaken, he was still married to his first wife at that point....so...how was he getting married again without getting a divorce from his wife? It exactly points like this that I think people should avoid this show. The chemistry between the leads can't hold a candle to the stupid that was performed in this show for anyone to waste their time watching it.
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Overall the movie was really interesting. I loved the different stories and all the characters. I did not expect the film to play out as it did but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
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Now that thats out of the way, let me just gush about how awesome this series was. It's got such charm and I've watched this version at least 3 times so far. I understand some people's frustration that there could have been more interaction between the main leads, however, I don't think it detracts from how amazing this series is.
The show presents a very good family drama with heartfelt emotions and love without the usual screaming and over the top slapping in many thai lakorns now a days. Most of all, I find people in this series acted very well and performance wise, Andrew won my heart with his portrayal of the military man.
For anyone debating about which version to watch, I highly recommend this version over the newer version as acting, story as well as charm are above and beyond in this version compared to the newer version which falls into the trap of many recent thai lakorns (high pitched nasally females who fight and bicker and dramatic acting etc...).
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This review may contain spoilers
So I was really looking forward to this show. I usually really enjoy fantasy style dramas and seeing as the ML is the devil, I was super excited about this show. However, the story was really lacking in the romance department.The acting was really good. I especially liked the two lackeys of the ML, who were supposed to be his helpers. Their banter and humour was fun to listen to. The ML and FL had decent chemistry, but every other character in the show took up too much screen time. I felt like this show could have been condensed to around 16-18 episodes. The side characters got an inordinate amount of time to the point that each episode, the ML and FL interacted for about ~10 or less, sometimes ML and FL barely met each other in an episode. I think this was the biggest downside of the show. It could have been more interesting if we had more emphasis on the main storyline, instead of trying to add a million side characters who took up most of the screen time.
Also, I was also bitterly disappointed in the ending because I felt like the biggest issue (how a devil can love a human) wasn't resolved in a logical way. I still don't understand how the ML came back to the human world at the end. His competitor was promoted and in the next scene, we see the ML just come back to the human world? Are we to assume that he is now human? If he isn't human, then how is he going to get together with the FL? The last shot of them meeting each other again and hitting it off was so anticlimactic, and with the "The End" credit rolling in, I was flabbergasted. This show had 32 episodes, yet they spent 10 minutes at the end to give the couple a useless 'happy ending' that doesn't even make any sense.
Overall, this show had a lot of potential, I really liked the devil costumes, obviously the show doesn't have the biggest budget with the low res CGI in underworld, but I felt like they did a good job of giving the feel of hell, with the slick black suits and I especially liked the horns on the devils. Also, I mentioned previously, I think all the actors/actresses did a good job in the acting department, but this show suffered from excessive side stories which ultimately made this show super boring. I fast forwarded through almost all the side storylines after episode 20.
I would recommend this show to anyone who isn't that interested in romance but enjoys supernatural shows. However, if you like the main couple to have a satisfying romance arc, then I suggest skipping this show.
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Could've been better...
I'm surprised by how well this drama was received. I think it's a solid 7/10. However, I think it's mostly because of the beautiful people in this show that everyone is gushing over this. The story is decent, the acting mediocre to subpar in some instances (except for some of the older cast, honestly loved the Tang three stooges and the Emperor). This also speaks about the lack of good content being released for the past few years. The drama is decent, but is being heralded as a gem and I'm not surprised since there aren't that many good dramas these days with complex plots AND good acting.This show is mainly being judged with rosy eyes and an overload of hormones. The cartoons in random segments of the show were annoying, especially as they were used to show large scale battle scenes (I'm sure to reduce the cost of production) or very crucial plot development and took me out of immersive experience.
I did like that the FL/ML had a healthy relationship and the character growth of the FL throughout the show was commendable. But I think the director made many bad calls, such as how FL NOT ONCE looked like a male, but we, as an audience, is supposed to believe that she can pull this off? There was even obvious makeup and lipstick on her in her 'male' scenes! This is an insult to the audience as well as the cast members.
Lastly, I just want to say that this is just my opinion, I wanted to like this show more, but every time I came across an idiosyncrasy I felt let down. I think this show could've been much better if it was directed with more sincerity to realism and relied less on the beauty of the actors to gloss over major inconsistencies.
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This review may contain spoilers
I have been waiting for years for someone to sub the old version with Kob, but as that might never come to fruition, I gave this remake a go. Unfortunately, other then a pretty decent story, it had nothing to offer. Acting
I could not stomach the FL, she delivered such a deadpan expression throughout the show and it was so bland watching her perform. Due to this, the FL seemed really weak and naive. I can see where one might argue that the character was written this way as this is a period lakorn and historically females were deemed to be gentle and nurturing, she had to act that way. But even that type of character can have their own strength, you only need to see how the grandma acted to get what I mean by a strong gentle female. In contrast, the FL never achieved that strength of character one would expect of this type of story arc where we see a character grow from youth to adult. I really hoped that the FL did some sort of accomplishment that made her stand out as lead and not just a love interest for the male lead. The younger version of the FL, however, did a phenomenal job and brought the character to life so much more.
The ML was a bit more involved in the story, whereas the FL was just enduring everything that was happening. He moved the story forward with his actions or reacted to events in a much more interesting way for me as an audience.
Supporting characters did a really good job, especially the grandma. cd
Chemistry:
The ML and FL had little to no chemistry. The show had a lot of intimate scenes, but none of them garnered any cute/otp/excited emotion from me. I was hoping to see some koojin magic (as I know would have been the case with the Kob and Num version, they literally ooze chemistry every time they are on screen together).
Story:
The history aspect of the show was not too interesting for me. I have watched other Thai shows like Nueng Dao Fah Diew, which actually take place in the same time period, so I knew the gist of what was happening and even what the final result of all the battles will be. As such, it made me lose interest in the war and the subsequent events related to it.
At EP 15 I thought the resolution was short, but after watching EP 16, I realized what short really meant. The show kept hinting that there was more story to come, especially with all the talk of the swords needing to be brought together. Also, the way the FL just walked around in the last episode listing things she needed to do just added to my dislike of her character. She was supposed to be the pillar for the family now, yet even at this late in the show we never get to see her actually /doing/ anything. She's still thinking about ways to make a living, I really hoped the director/screenwriter actually showed us, the audience, how she was able to do the things she wanted.
All in all, I don't think I will ever rewatch this show. Comparing this to Bhupphe Saniwaat, this falls wayyy short of my expectations. Even though the story is more 'epic' in the sense of war etc, this show couldn't pull me in.
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