Cute parallel story plus continuation to Once in Memory: Love at First Sight

There seems to be some controversy regarding Film telling Kong that he does not like guys. It's a much-ridiculed line (though I still love SOTUS where I first encountered such a line). But it pays to remember that we don't really know whether to take Film seriously or if he is just saying it to see if Kong would look disappointed. He keeps making these turns in the conversation, so to me, it as though we are really meant to take his word for it.

Overall, I still find the first installment a tad better. A lot of the story is repeated from Film's perspective (the previous part is from Kong's point of view), but we still don't really get that much insight into Film. The slight differences in the story may even point unnecessarily towards the idea of an unreliable narrator.

To me what brings the story down isn't Film telling Kong that he doesn't like guys (but Kong is an exception). The story now seems a little jumbled up. It's not a straightforward continuation and has flashbacks covering the same parts of the story as Part 1. Yet, the flashbacks don't seem all that purposeful and in the end, we may not really get Film's hesitation before becoming Kong's boyfriend when he clearly likes Kong all this while. Instead of having parallel flashbacks, perhaps more of Film's thought processes would have worked better.

This sequel is still rather cute and worth watching. But you really do not lose much if you just watch Part 1.

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Not the worst ever, but really quite mediocre

This is not amongst the worst or the most incoherent series I have watched. I watched it because of the BL, and relative to the BLs being produced in 2021, it is rather mediocre.

There is something of a story--you know, there's conflict (a forgetful old lady agrees to sell her house to two different buyers at the same time), some development (the female buyer's brother and the male buyer's friend fall in love with each other at first sight, the two buyers fight each other, the old lady asks them to live with her for a week so that she can decide whom to sell the house to, the buyers fall in love) a bit of a twist (one of the buyers is offered a good deal to sell the house to another person), a rather exaggerated climax (the female buyer's brother leaves her because she tells his boyfriend to leave him) and a happy ending.

The series would have been better if it had just gone all-out nonsensical but it tries to be more serious than it should. The editing makes the story confusing. Some scenes are shown before they should (without any indication of whether it is a preview of the next episode or whether there is a flashback). To make matters worse, the BL couple is shown making one plan to get the sister to accept their relationship but somehow carries out an entirely different plan. Major issues with flow and coherence could have been avoided with a series that is so short.

In the end, the only character who is really worth watching is ............ the old lady selling the house. The lack of character development is fine because her character is the type that doesn't require it. And she's quite endearing in the way she loves her house so much she interviews the potential buyers so that she can sell it to someone who will care for the house well.

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Nicely filmed even if nothing spectacular

With only eight episodes that run barely more than ten minutes each, the story is told quite competently. There are some BLs with more and longer episodes that end up meandering around nowhere.

There is a happy ending--it is probably what most viewers want even if it is unrealistic. What happened to the parents, especially Ho Seon's father? I doubt they will let a political wedding be annulled so easily. Even if it is, another one will be arranged. In fact, in the first place, did anyone really expect Ki Wan to be able to replace his sister temporarily (how are they going to explain the totally different faces when the sister returns?) But let's not think so much about such things and enjoy the sweetness.

Since we do not expect realism anyway, I feel that the series could have gone further with the attraction between Ho Seon and Ki Wan. There are some nice moments, but I feel that the intensity of emotions and the accompanying struggles are not really portrayed for most of the episodes. I'm not one of those who complain about the lack of kissing scenes or skinship in BLs, but I find that the creators of the series seem a little too cautious about portraying the characters' love for each other. At one point, I even thought that it would be a fake BL, with Ki Wan's sister returning and becoming the real wife.

Despite the hesitation in showcasing actual BL moments, the scenes are nicely shot even with an apparently limited budget. The make-up for Ki Wan is also nicely done--it doesn't make the cross-dressing comical. Interestingly, it seems that his masculine features are accentuated more when he is dressed as a woman though it looks believable that he might be mistaken for a woman.

Ultimately, we have a simple story with some nice BL moments. It's ok enough to spend an hour and a half watching though it is unlikely to be remembered as a classic BL.

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Innocent and sweet even if it's nothing special

This series is a good example of how a BL can be average in most ways and yet still manage to be a satisfying watch. There is nothing special about the story, but at least there is coherent and properly structured story. There are three BL couples, and they get roughly equal attention. This makes Second Chance way better than some BLs with meandering plots that don't go anything and multiple couples thrown in perhaps just for the sake of attracting viewers with quantity rather than quality. Second Chance manages to do everything quite decently within just 6 episodes while some series (like Brothers, which I recently reviewed) hardly go anywhere after 10 episodes. The storytelling can be surprisingly economical without being confusing (for instance, the brief flashback to the scene when Tong Fah's father passes away).

It's very easy to like the generally innocent characters. They are young and perhaps not that mature, but they are also not silly and childish. Their insecurities and impulsivity are sensitively portrayed. The main characters may do wrong or do things they regret, but they aren't toxic characters whose toxicity somehow gets forgiven (like in Tonhon and Chonlatee)--in fact, this is why the series is about second chances. It is a story with happy endings for all the couples, but we also get the hint that second chances are not always available. I'm not too sure about the advice about love that the series dishes out (perhaps a tad too didactically) but at least it has a point.

There are series with more interesting starting points that end up failing in so many ways. This series is different. The story is standard fare that just happens to be executed quite well. It's like a simple pot of porridge that is satisfying because it is cooked well, which makes it better than some dishes that tantalize but end up disappointing because they have been marred by a bad cook.

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Quite different from Season1, for better or for worse

For anyone who is watching this after watching the first season, this may disappoint. I don't mean that Season 2 is not as good. In fact, it is a mix bag that is in some ways at least as good. Yet, many viewers may be attracted to this series because ofSeason 1, so they come to it expecting the stuff that appeal to them in the first season and become disappointed when they don't get it.

Take for instance the casting and characterization of the main characters. The actors have changed entirely and while the two main male characters remain, the female character has changed. It is perhaps less difficult to replace the role of Dr Qin because he will always be a man of few words. The actors in Season 1 and 2 give slight different vibes, but it is quite easy to see the same character in them. The character of Lin Tao, however, seems harder to replace. The second season has given the character a significant reboot. To be fair, if you watch only either Season 1 or Season 2, you may have no complaints. But if you watch both, you may find yourself preferring one over the other.

The characters' relationships also seem a little different now, and this could be a deal-breaker for fans of Season 1. In Season 1, despite the seriousness of the cases, the characters are generally more affable. In fact, Season 1 is generally a bit more light-hearted. Season 2 is darker, not really because of the crimes. Visually, the scenes really look darker in terms of hues and lighting, and the atmosphere tends to be too thick with tension, with the characters' relationship hardly having the endearing quality that is present Season 1.

If you just pretend that this isn't Season 2 but a different series with different characters, you may find that the stories of the cases are actually more compelling here. There are some flaws too. For example, the series tries to hard to lead the viewer into thinking that a particular character is the killer, Scavenger. This is so overdone that there are only two rather boring possibilities: 1. the character is indeed Scavenger (waaaay too unsurprising, given how many episodes the identity of Scavenger is not revealed), or 2. the character isn't Scavenger but inexplicably does things that give the impression that s/he is (so at least the story has a twist). If you are writing a mystery and you want to throw in a red herring, you can't make it too obvious that you are doing so.

Season 2 actually manages to be better than Season 1 in some ways, but Season 1 has the privilege of being watched by many viewers first. While those who don't like Season 1 may not even be tempted to watch Season 2 and comment, fans of Season 1 may be disappointed because of the difference rather than because of any deterioration.

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Quite a nice story

Although this series has horror elements, it doesn't go all out to be scary. I believe it will suit those who prefer milder horror. There's actually nothing very unique about the horror elements -- it's largely the same old tactics like scary make-up and sudden appearances. Some elements are not really explained as far as I can remember, such as the eye symbol and the numerous eyes on the villain's back. The demon's appearance in the last episode actually looks a little comical, and I'm not sure why it doesn't just keep on using the face of the man it has possessed given that it is still in the body. I find the humorous moments in the series more entertaining, than the horror. This may be a good thing as the series has many elements of a crowd pleaser, from horror to humor and romance and touching drama. Too much horror may put off some people.

Some narrative threads could have been better developed. The male protagonist's mother is supposed to have created two bracelets, one to protect him and another one to kill the demon. However, it seems to need additional explanation. If the mother is such a powerful exorcist, she could have killed the demon herself. (Instead, she is killed by the demon when the protagonist is still a kid.) The bracelet is kept by her husband, it seems, who then seems to be on the run from the demon because he doesn't want the demon to land his hands on the bracelet that can kill him. Dude, maybe you should put the bracelet to good use for once? It appears that the demon has possessed a human being and this prevents the bracelet from having an effect on him, so the characters can only try to avoid the demon while he is in the man's body. Yet, we also see that in the final episode, it isn't altogether impossible to force the demon out of the man and kill him with the bracelet. So perhaps all the evildoings of the demon could have been prevented.

Despite its flaw, the series does manage to be rather good entertainment. Numwan, the villain's girlfriend, can be an intriguing character even though it seems that the writers do not really know what to do with her in the second half of the series.Junior (one of the guys who is aspiring to find fame by catching a ghost on camera) can be rather annoying but he is annoying in the sense that one would not want to meet someone like him in real life, but it can be fun watching the nonsense he is up to in a series.

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Typical BL that is quite nicely produced

I actually like the series but I find it hard to pinpoint what I like about it.

WBL No. 1 for You and WBL Fighting Mr 2nd seem to work better as a single series than divided into 2 parts. Breaking the story up into two (or more?) parts has resulted in some unevenness.

In No. 1 for You, the ending is a little rushed and some things feel unaccounted for. The basic trajectory of the story is also not altogether original, though it probably belongs to the sort of storyline that will always have a place in love stories: someone with one-sided love pinning for another person. How good the story is, then, depends on the characters and how movingly the story is told.

In this case, Gao Shi De's one-sided love is quite moving as we look at the little things he does for Zhou Shu Yi and the back story of how he falls in love with Shu Yi.

WBL: No. 1 for You falls very much in the safe terrain of BLs: the characters are young university students, the love is innocent, there is a lot of cuteness even as we feel bad for Shi De because of his one-sided longing for someone who regards him as a competitor. Perhaps it is sufficiently light-hearted because we are likely familiar with the genre: the one-sided love will be reciprocated at some point. Yet, it is also after the couple become boyfriends that the story becomes a little weaker. It seems to be leading somewhere but it doesn't get anywhere by Episode 6, the last episode. It does get somewhere in Fighting Mr 2nd, but that's also why it's hard to take No. 1 for You as a standalone series.

While the of No. 1 for You isn't very adventurous and doesn't stretch the limits of the BL genre, the telling of the story and the acting are quite good, making it quite a good BL to watch. At first, I found the way the actor for Zhou Shu Yi speaks a little odd. However, his acting is quite on point and I realize that he's half Japanese, so Mandarin may not be his best language. (The character has a similar background, so I guess it all works in the end.)

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Schizophrenic series that tries to be so many different things, sometimes succeeding

What a mix of genres we have in this series. Perhaps we can call it a sports (e-sports) drama since it is focused on competitive gamers, but I'm not sure how accurately it depicts the sport. The series is also a youth drama that seems to be encouraging young people to follow their dreams and persevere despite the odds. Yet, it also has an important sci-fi-ish inter-era communication element (not time travel, the main character clarifies, presumably for the benefit of censors): a main character from 2019 manages to communicate with someone in 2008. The even has a crime element to it.

The motivational moments are not really badly done, but they can get a little too heavy at times, even reeking of unabashed patriotism and propaganda. I am not into gaming, and, for me, the game scenes are a little too prolonged at times. They work best when they are meant to reflect the relationships and feelings of the characters outside the game. Don't worry that the scenes would look like recordings of games though. Drama series conventions have it that world of the games in the story feature the actors of the characters in their respective gaming roles,

The part of the series that keeps me watching is the inter-era communication element. It may not be the most fascinating concept ever, but the series manages to use it well, starting with the 2019 character trying to save his brother by getting his 2008 friend to prevent an accident. It takes quite a few episode before this inter-era communication thing gets really interesting, however, because the series tries to be so many things at once.

The youth/gaming drama parts are, to me, less interesting, but this is somewhat compensated for by some nice characterisation and the development of the characters' relationships. The 2019 Xiaobei and his relationships with his brother and parents are movingly depicted without being sappy. The unity and tensions of the gaming teams are also nicely portrayed. There is even a bizarre comic scene involving a character who is sent to a fake rehabilitation center by his family--his teammates try to rescue him and chaos ensue in the center. The rescue mission is filmed by the game scenes, with the characters having different weapons and fighting one another.

Coming of age woes, the struggle for recognition, parental disapproval, romance, bromance, time "travel" .... This series seems to have everything. But I think the narrative would be tighter with a focus on the inter-era communication storyline. The gaming parts can be toned down. To be fair, the story is relatively coherent despite a few inconsistencies and plot holes, but the quality is not that consistent. Or at least it cannot be everyone's cup of tea for everything it tries to be. (I don't usually care about the numbers when I review, but I would give the parts I like at least an 8/10 overall, but the other parts perhaps a 7 - 7.5/10.)

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Rather underwhelming whether as BL or as horror

I first started watching this because it was marketed as BL with an element of horror. I don't particularly enjoy horror as a genre, but BL with horror sounded like something unusual. The setting is in an isolated compound where something bad has happened a couple of years ago. A batch of student athletes are going there for a camp, and they encounter some hauntings (what else).

Unfortunately, the series is rather bland both as BL and as horror.

The BL elements are rather thin. There are actually two BL couples except that their love is revealed rather late in the series and not really focused on. For one of them, the one-sided love is rather suddenly reciprocated as one character kind of suddenly realizes that he is gay and in love with the guy who has confessed his love for him.

As horror, there is hardly anything but a few typical horror scenes. It's rather obvious that the haunting is not done by the ghost everyone thinks is responsible for it, but it is made to seem as though there is a big twist when this is revealed.

Some of the characters, like the director and his daughter, are rather inconsistent and merely seem to serve the situations the writer has come up with.

After trying to make the back stories of what happened a couple of years ago in the camp compound a big mystery for most of the episodes, the revelations (not that many) are rather underwhelming. The ghost problem also become resolved too easily, as though the writer suddenly realized that s/he has got to the last episode already.

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Interesting, Convoluted, Incomplete

The feeling I get after watching the whole series is the feeling of waking up suddenly in the middle of the dream. I may well wish to continue with the dream but can't. This is another series that is tough to review. There is plenty I like about it, but it's too obviously incomplete to unreservedly give it a good rating.

This series reminds me of Dream Detective, a series with an uncannily similar premise about entering people's subconscious, which isn't as interesting to me overall but has a much more nicely done ambiguous ending.

The revelations in the last episode complicate things a little, so I will just review Episodes 1-35 first.

Set in the Chinese Repulican era, the story starts with Jiang Shuo being found in a ditch. He has lost his memory but hasn't forgotten his special skill of entering people's subconscious. Some incidents result in his forging a friendship with a psychiatrist, Qin Yi Heng, and a romantic relationship with a warlord's daughter, Yuan Mu Qing.

Like a detective series, this series can be divided into a series of cases (which are ultimately tied to a mysterious masked person, Liu Zhi (meaning Six Fingers). The story occupies an interesting position between a conventional detective series and a series about supernatural occurrences: it is actually neither but has elements of both.

Some events in the stories are a tad too illogical. For example, one of Mu Qing's schoolmates is supposed to have lost her mind after a traumatic incident, but she still turns up in school properly uniformed and no one really seems bothered though everyone knows she has kind of gone nuts. There are also occasions when Jiang Shuo could look exactly like another person by simply wearing a mask of the person's face over his head (and the masks get made in an instant, it seems). This is the stuff of some wuxia dramas that are meant to be far-fetched anyway, but isn't what you would expect in a series like this one. Still, if we are not too exacting, the cases can be fairly nice. One involving a trip to an isolated island goes a little too far with its extended dream sequences with layer upon layer of dreams, but still, the story remains quite fascinating.

The main characters help in making the series more watchable. Mu Qing likes Yi Heng at first but shifts her affections towards Jiang Shuo. The romance part isn't excessive in my opinion, but shows the increasing attachment between the characters.

The bromance between Qin Yi Heng and Jiang Shuo is also nicely done, though I suspect it is more like one-sided and repressed romantic affection on Yi Heng's part--it can't be shown anyway, thanks to China's censorship rules. From Yi Heng's expressions as he observes JS while tailing him (to investigate an early case) to how he stops wearing glasses after Jiang Shuo comments that he looks better without glasses, his affection for Jiang Shuo seems to go beyond bromance. There are many more examples though I would urge you to skip the next paragraph if this isn't your cup of tea:

When Jiang Shuo almost drowns trying to save Mu Qing, Yi Heng frantically calls out Jiang Shuo's name though Mu Qing is also his friend. After near-drowning incident, Jiang Shuo is hospitalised and the only person next to him after he wakes up is Yi Heng and not Mu Qing who is starting to fall in love with Jiang Shuo. After Yi Heng is sacked from the hospital (affiliated to his family), he wants to rent a place where Jiang Shuo stays. Jiang Shuo asks him what he's doing there, and Yi Heng just says emotionlessly that it's because he misses Jiang Shuo. (This later leads to some joke about Jiang Shuo being Yi Heng's sugar daddy.) Sometimes Yi Heng is shown brooding in a corner when Jiang Shuo and Mu Qing are being loving, though he could simply be thinking about the mysteries (yeah, right). Yi Heng is always protective of Jiang Shuo: in one scene, he assures Jiang Shup that he doesn't have to fear because he (Yi Heng) is around. Though Jiang Shuo is clearly in love with Mu Qing, the way addresses Yi Heng is also suggestive; he insists on calling him Qin Er4 (short for the second son of the Qin family), but it sounds suspiciously similar to Qin Er0 (which would actually be affectionate). The good thing is the series doesn't bait BL fans in an irritating way; it just doesn't say exactly how Yi Heng feels towards Jiang Shuo.

The revelations in the last episode, however, complicate things too much and the series doesn't end properly as a result. Spoilers are inevitable here:

In Episode 36, it is revealed that everything that happens in the story (so far set in the Chinese Republican era, remember?) is merely occurring in Jiang Shuo's subconscious as he is seeking treatment from a psychiatrist (Dr. Qin, whose alter-ego is Yi Heng). Jiang Shuo is actually someone existing hundreds of years after the Chinese Republican era. Liu Zhi is his evil split personality trying to take over the body fully. To take over the body completely, Liu Zhi has to lock the good Jiang Shuo in the subconscious (as deeply in it as possible) and make him accept being locked. So, because of Jiang's attachment to all this people like Mu Qing in his imagination (these people are very real to him even though he now knows that they are imagined), he will have to destroy the anchor that allows him to get back to the real world. In other words, he has to save these imagined people he loves (hmm...). Well, he also wants to save Dr. Qin. So Jiang Shuo destroys the anchor and lets himself be locked in his subconscious in exchange for the safety of both the imagined people and Dr. Qin, which allows Liu Zhi to take over the body entirely.

But wait a minute. As if the above isn't complicated and convoluted enough, it is very possible that this thing about Jiang Shuo being Dr Qin's patient in the real world could simply be yet another illusion created by Liu Zhi. Perhaps the dilemma between saving Dr. Qin of the real world and saving the imagined people who feel entirely real to Jiang Shuo is itself an illusion. In Episode 35, the environment of the ship the characters are on suddenly takes on a reddish hue. There is some attention-grabbing visual effect in case you don't notice the sudden change in the environment, which makes it seem as though the ship has entered a different realm. So everything that happens after this point, including the "revelations" in Episode 36 could be illusions created by Liu Zhi in Jiang Shuo's subconscious. The purpose could be similar: to trap Jiang Shuo in the world of the subconscious. The ultimate reason for doing so could be different. (After all, the real world hundreds of years later doesn't make much sense. Jiang Shuo tells Dr. Qin that someone called Liu Zhi has been harassing him, and he shows Dr. Qin the mobile phone texts sent by Liu Zhi. All Dr. Qin sees is a blank screen. If Liu Zhi is another personality in the same body, he could well send actual messages using another phone. How does he make Jiang Shuo see something non-existent?)

Nevertheless, if the "real" world of centuries after the Republican era isn't truly the real world, why would Liu Zhi be able to create an illusion of a future in which the Republican era is over and which has things like computers? What sort of power would he need to have to predict things like computers and mobile phones? On the other hand, if everything in the Republican era is is not real but meant to fool Jiang Shuo, why would the stories involve the other characters' personal affairs and interior worlds that Jiang Shuo does not have access to? We end up with a situation where there are many possibilities but none really makes complete sense. Even if there is a sequel, we would likely have to settle for story with significant plot holes. It would actually be less problematic if the writers had not opted for such an unnecessarily far-fetched twist in the last episode.

At its worst, the series is like a bad story that ends with "I woke up and it's all a dream." However, there are also interesting things before the equivalent of the "I woke up" bit that are the story's redeeming qualities.

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Anarchic comedy with some mystery

As a comedy, this movie has several hilarious, if not altogether original, scenes, including one in which the Tang Ren wreaks havoc in a police station to distract the police officers so that his partner can access some information.

There is no gripping mystery but the revelations towards the end of the movie are clever. The main character, an inept or even fake detective, is made the scapegoat of a murder and gold theft. Cops and thugs are both after him. Thankfully, a relative visiting him turns out to be very good at sleuthing.

The movie is most enjoyable as a comedy that makes use of some elements of the detective genre. If you are expecting a solid whodunit, this isn't going to satisfy you. But if you like anarchic comedy that borders on or is downright ridiculous, this is a pretty good one.

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Nothing special but sweet

There is nothing about this movie that makes it stand out amongst other BL series or movies. It is sweet, but not so sweet that you really want more.

Two young neighbors fall in love. There isn't really much tension except for a minor misunderstanding between them and one of them having issues with his parents planning his life for him. Both problems are quickly solved. It's at least ok to watch if you are in the mood for something light, but it also doesn't really have an interesting fictional world to draw you into if you are in an escapist mood.

Still, the movie is decently produced. There's nothing fanciful about the cinematography or editing, these aspects of the movie are fine enough to enable one to enjoy the simple story. Perhaps the dialogue could have been scripted to make things more interesting or moving though.

This is a movie that doesn't try too hard to be anything, and that's both its strength and weakness because we don't end up with something pretentious but we also don't end up with anything that makes you wish there were more shows like it. A few years ago when the market wasn't so full of BLs, a movie like that would have attracted more attention.

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More like Episode 11 than "another story"

This is more like an ending for the original series.

The original ten-episode series ends with Himura seeming to have perished with the cult leader, but at the very end, someone turns up at the landlady's house (possibly Himura).

"Another Story" reveals that the person who turns up at the landlady's house is indeed Himura. He has not died, and neither has the cult leader.

However, "Another Story" doesn't continue the story about the cult leader. Instead, it contains a flashback to Himura and Alice's university days. The case Himura solves is one related to the death of a singer. It gives the impression that another case is added in because it isn't enough to show that Himura has not died. "Another Story" isn't any more interesting than the rest of the cases in the original series. Neither does it offer proper closure apart from revealing that Himura has not died--the cult leader is still alive too and it is suggested that she will continue to be an antagonist.

This is OK as an unofficial Episode 11, but don't expect it to bring the series to a new height.

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A few nice cases with some bromance

This detective series doesn't start off with very interesting cases, but the cases do get more intriguing after one gets past the first few episodes.

As a detective series, it is at least passable. It doesn't try too hard to do something original or have really unexpected twists. However, most of the cases are at least interesting enough to follow. A couple of cases (the teenage killer and the cult leader cases) start from early in the series, perhaps in unsophisticated attempt at creating a sense of connection. However, the cuts to the teenage killer and the cult leader can be somewhat disorienting without really being suspenseful. (On the other hand, especially for the case of the cult leader, it may be difficult to finish the cases quickly if they crop up only in the later episodes.)

The series has a rather nice old-school feel in terms of the setting. The Sherlock Holmes and Watson references add on to this feel. The series is a sort of homage to Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, complete with an equivalent of Moriarty. The equivalent of the Moriarty in the cult leader, however, may just be a little too much of a challenge for one's suspension of disbelief. The effect that she has on people seems a tad exaggerated, and we also don't really know what the cult is all about besides some references to a belief in some utopia.

The bromance between Detective Himura and the novelist, Alice / Arisu, is endearing despite not being the focus most of the time. At some points, it even has hints of romance rather than bromance (though the lines are often blur in other series anyway)--in one scene, the landlady even hints to everyone that they should leave Himura and Alice alone and not play gooseberry, and no one seems surprised. The real surprise is that the series actually does bromance better than some series that bait BL fans only to turn the characters' relationships into rather bland instances of bromance.

This series isn't groundbreaking contribution to the detective/whodunit genre, but it isn't disappointing either.

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From what I see from the comments, the story in this remake of the original Korean series is the same. This means that twists and revelations will not come as a surprise to those who have watched the Korean series. I have watched several Thai remakes of Korean series, and they are all competently made. However, I also wonder if it would be more interesting if they remake the series with a twist or with some surprising differences.

Having said that, I think the Thai version of Oh My Ghost is interesting enough. We can sympathize with the characters of Jiew and Khaopun, but their plights are not portrayed in a way that is too exaggerated. Artit (Chef), on the other hand, could have been developed further as a character. He can be rather childish and wants to get even with some ex-classmates for bullying him, yet he is also kindhearted to the one who has bullied him most badly. However, the nuances of the character are not fully explored.

Prin, the policeman who turns out to be someone possessed by an evil spirit, is another interesting character who is not fully explored. At what point in his life does he start getting possessed? Is he fully unaware and innocent? I'm baffled because the evil spirit appears after Prin is beaten up by his adoptive father as a boy--for trying to kill the adoptive father's biological son. If he is not possessed by the spirit when he almost kills someone, is he really the nice and innocent person he is supposed to be?

The presence of ghosts in the story make it interesting, but it is not clear why some ghosts (like Khaopun) look no different from human beings while others look monstrous and grey. It also doesn't really make sense that Jiew would become unafraid of ghosts (including the scary ones) after making friends with Khaopun, a ghost that really looks no different from human beings.

Of course, the story isn't really big on the typology of ghosts, and minor lapses in logic do not really affect the viewing experience. The disadvantage of producing remakes is also that there is pressure not to just match up to the original but also to be better or more interesting in some ways. I doubt this series has exceeded the original in any way although I have not watched the original.

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