Super quick, super cute, super satisfying

I really enjoyed this super short, super sweet little story. A lovely romance with REAL kisses and great chemistry from the attractive leads (Bai Hao Yan is such an gorgeous boy). Really enjoy his role in Ex-Wife Stop and now this one which I think I like more.
Both the Male and female leads are skilled actors and there's no cringey acting in this production. The story is logical, well developed and has no plot holes like a lot of the mini/micro dramas that leave you wondering what the heck is going on. Not this one. The storyline is complete and self-explanatory and each character is dimensional. All the antagonists and protagonists get the ending they deserve. The revenge is more a series off incidents where he helps her get the upper hand, rather than a complex revenge but it's just right for this short drama.
Sets and costuming etc are high class. Production is also high class. It's not a mini drama with a micro budget. There's a healthy
filming budget behind this one.
Highly recommend this one for a very cute, interesting and tension free watch.

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Not fantastic but not terrible either

I can't say that I loved this one, but I didn't hate it either. It's a lakorn with a good storyline but it does rely heavily on some classic lakorn cliches. We have the playboy male lead character (ML), the fiesty female lead (FL), controlling parents who plowed ahead with their plans for their children without ever considering their feelings or opinions. We have a dumb as brother who refuses to admit his love for someone which drives one plot element right to breaking point. We have a nastyno good father, an adorable little boy, a crazy slutty girlfriend, a sweet second female lead (SFL) who is just lovely and stays steadfast and true to her love but again, (as with all the adult children in this lakorn), obeys whatever ridiculous plan herparents order for her. There is deception, trust issues, manipulation, over bearing parents, dumbly obedient children and downright nastiness from a few of the characters. There are a lot of supporting characters in this-and I mean a lot- which of course means that the leads don't have as much screen time. What screen time they did have was done pretty well. Their chemistry was good but don't except much skinship between the leads at all, although there are a couple of real kisses which is nice for a change.
THE STORY
Flowed well, with a lot of subplots but it still manages to tell the story well. There's a strong emphasis on nature preservation and an idyllic island setting with some interesting cultural elements as well. There's some corporate intrigue, a strongly developed romance plot between the two lead couples and a strong secondary plotline about the fight for child custody. The story is strongly character driven. I did skip some scenes with the second lead couple because I didn't find their story very interesting. There were multiple tension points through out which kept me watching to the end, although I did find it a bit draggy in places.
THE CHARACTERS
I think at one point or other I ending up disliking all the main characters to some degree, but also liking them in other parts of the story. The ML starts off quite obnoxious and I spent the first three or fours eps wishing he'd learn to keep his pants on. He experiences a strong character growth and becomes quite likeable in the last half, whereas the FL is tough and feisty and likeable in the first half but for three eps turns into a nasty b***h until a misunderstanding is cleared up. I really disliked her for those eps. For some of the eps I felt quite anxious because it seemed as though all the problems kept multiplying and there could be no solution to ensure happiness at the end. But surprisingly everything did wrap up beautifully.
THE CAST
Did very well overall. When as a viewer you can suspend your disbelief and really get involved in the characters and their make believe world, you know that the actors have done their job very well. The two leads were very natural together and did great. The mother character was really unlikeable to me so that actress did very well. Blew did a very good job because in the beginning I really disliked his promiscuous, self absorbed character but I grew to like him a lot as he changed and grew. Noey as FakFah was okay but less convincing to me. The others were all good. The one I have trouble with is Kana who plays the slutty girlfriend and I think it's because she plays them so well. She's very good but unfortunately this is the second role I've seen her in and she plays the same type and I disliked them both immensely. She did play her character with comedy elements in this one. I wish I could see the poor girl playing a good, wholesome character and then perhaps I wouldn't automatically dislike her characters so much. The child actor who played Plawin is adorable.
THE MUSIC
Some nice islander type music and the song the kids did for their performance was really catchy. Other than that I didn't really pay that much attention but I'm not musically orientated so that may be why.
THE SETTING
A gorgeous island setting with some lovely cinematography of the islands, ocean and nature. Really added an extra layer of enjoyment.
OVERALL
Neither fantastic, nor horrible. It is a good storyline which a lot of people witll find enjoyable but some others will not get hooked into it. Worth a watch but I probably won't have it on my re-watch list.

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Love to hate

This is one of lakorns that I've re-watched several times, yet every time I watch it, I am so angry at the ML and annoyed by the FL. But I keep watching it! The ML is unreasonable, over the top jealous & possesive, sexually abusive, verbally, mentally & emotionally abusive...in short ,he belongs in prison. The excuse is his intense love for his dead wife. This informs all his actions and drives him to acuse, abuse & assault the FL, and he manages to do all that while not even bothering to check his facts first on who really caused the accident.

This intense love is also the reason he becomes besotted with an evil look-alike, before realising that she is not the same person and his unwilling love for the FL becomes more conflicting for him before he finally surrenders to it. This trope was no doubt included to forward the romance of the two leads, highlight the ML's confused emotional state and introduce the other story elements of murder, mental instability, obsession, manipulation etc.

Something I found really triggering was (as part of his emotional abuse) when the ML told the FL that it was a race to see whether he or his brother could F*** the sister first. Disgusting! And then there were the multiple rapes. In a way it proves that the character was well written because he was really hate-able and unsympathetic. At no time did I feel sympathy for him or understand his actions. Dome's ML character is realy eye-candy but unfortunately, although he was trying to look vengeful and scheming in the first episodes, he came across as just looking creepy.

The FL is a real door-mat. That is the most annoying part of this drama for me. She just puts up with everything for the flimsiest of reasons. And she cries a lot, giving off that 'poor, poor pitiful me' vibe which can wear thin pretty quickly. There were a couple of times when the character stood up for herself with the ML and that was satisfying.

In the end I did feel sympathetic towards this character because she did resolve to leave the situation and stand on her own two feet, so she at least showed some backbone then. I understood the way she wanted to keep the pregnancy from him because it would have been perfectly in character for him to take the baby from her and cast her aside.
The actress is a real beauty though and some of her outfits were stunning and highlighted her voluptuous body shape, while others were quite dowdy.

The side characters were endearing, except perhaps for the sister, who was quite flirty with the ML at first. This was supposed to be because she was innocently fun-loving but really it gave me the impression that the character was slutty. Again this was introduced to further the ML's revenge theme. The rest of the characters were sweet and it leaves you with a warm and fuzzy family feeling, even amidst all the negative stuff swirling around.

For the first time, I really wanted the ML to at least suffer a bit and experience some emotional growth. Instead of forgiving him so readily in the end episodes, I wanted the FL to flee and get away from him, at least for a time. So she could heal and he could grow and repent, but alas, it was all too quick and easy for him.

Rewatch: Yes, I'm ashamed to say I've rewatched this several times. The tension runs high throughout the show. There are bits that are hard to watch, satisfying endings for all characters, and some good acting.

I think a lot of people will enjoy watching this. You'll either love it or hate it or be like me and love to hate it!

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Not bad. But not good either

Not a bad little drama. Very cute and cheesy in parts and very infuriating in others.
The things I found most annoying were;
The FL character. Very unsympathetic and frankly, unlikable towards the end. She was stubborn to the point of stupidity.
Apparently once she proclaimed something like "I' m going to marry someone else" or "I'm going to divorce Non"-nothing would change her mind, so the writers used melodramatic plot devices to force a change. We were supposed to feel sympathy for her because the ML-Non- kept deceiving her, evoking her sympathy so she would fall for him and marry him, but I didn't feel any sympathy because for many episodes she remained, cold, cruel and unforgiving to him despite his obvious character growth, repentance and change for the better. He displayed deep love but she spurned every single attempt of his to reconcile and it wasn't until the very end that she agreed to 'forgive' him. Boo hoo. How gracious of her. When an incident happened
to her at the climax, I found myself wishing she'd get killed off so the ML could find someone nicer. Oh dear. So I guess I would
have to say that the character was well played by Aum, otherwise I wouldn't have become so irritated by her.

The ML did lots of stupid, immature things in the beginning but he was very likeable and sincere in his love and
devotion to her. Of course blind for a time to the evilness of his ex girlfriend but that's pretty standard for Lakorn ML's!

The other annoying thing in this drama was the evil ex-girlfriend, Nee or Phany in the cast listing. So cliched. Why can't they have a SFL who is dimensional and you can actually understand slightly why they are acting like they do?
This one was just cliched crazy. She stuck to him for the entire drama like a super glued sticky note, despite him telling her to
get lost, that he doesn't love her and never did, despite his family foiling her attempts to break the marriage many times (they were the comedic moments which were done quite well) and lots more. She was well played most of the time but at times
overplayed by Poy.
There are many bad girl character traits used in Lakorns and this one displayed them all. The most annoying is the way
they have the character always clinging on to the ML, hands groping his arm or chest in a possessive gesture. On behalf of the
ML I always have the urge to just fling her grasping little self away. But of course the ML doesn't. Just let's her do it. In the early eps this ML allowed her to lead him around by the nose (I could use another part of the male anatomy here, but you get my drift.) But at least this one came to his senses fairly early on and realised she was bad. He distanced himself from her then but she never gave up.

The FL's BFF was also slightly annoying in her tough girl, man-hating way, supposedly due to father abandonment as a kid. But
she grows on you and is certainly loyal and protective of her friend. Her and the SML have a sweet love story which is nice.

The other annoyance for me (I know it sounds like the whole show annoyed me, but it didn't. I enjoyed watching it) were the
fake kisses between the two leads. Their chemistry was quite nice but not the best I've seen. There is a rape scene for the SFL/ bad girl and she appears unclothed under the bed covers but the FL didn't which I find odd, unless they used that to illustrate
the less than pure moral character of the SFL (who basically prostituted herself a number of times).

I liked the ML character, played very well by Poh, who is also lovely to look at (an added bonus). His acting seems very
natural and his character displayed the most dimension and growth in this lakorn.
The family characters were all supportive, loving and likeable.

I also liked Glom's portrayal of the bad guy Chitchai. He has a strong and convincing presence.

There were some plot holes-like the SFL always being on hand to witness things or intervene to sabotage the relationship etc but for its age, this wasn't a bad one to watch. If you decide early on to treat it as a fun bit of entertainment and don't take any of it seriously, you'll enjoy watching it.

Rewatch - Probably. I'll put it on my list of ' there's something about it that keeps me coming back' dramas.

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A must watch

The Story:
This is one of the best written dramas I've seen to date (having seen many). The story is superbly told with no obvious plot holes or leaps in logic that you so often see in Thai Lakorns. The production is slick and rich. An intelligent, highly entertaining story. The two leads have an amazing, sizzling chemistry. This is a slap/kiss but quite a light one in that department. Women are treated respectfully by the story and the dignity and worth of women is upheld by some dialogue and the characters, including our lovely bad boy, the ML. There are no rape scenes, but one attempted sexual assault which is suitably dealt with. There are no evil love rivals (something I really dislike in dramas.) Stories like this prove that you can have a quality drama with good tension without the need of cliched evil love rivals doing their best to de-rail the love story.

The characters:
P.Kritt: Ken as we've come to expect, delivers a brilliantly believable character. One part of your brain is saying 'this is make believe', but the other part is so caught up in the story and the characters that you really think they're real. A hallmark of a well written story is to 'suspend disbelief', and that's exactly what this one does for me. I felt so sad for his character in a lot of the episodes, especially when he's reacting to the rocky relationship with Yada, whom he truly loved right from the beginning. But it took her a long time to came to that same degree of love for him. His character was flawed and to be pitied, but in the end, he experienced a huge character growth and turned his life around. The dangers he had to face to do this for his family proved that his character growth was sincere and complete. A wonderfully complex and brilliantly portrayed character. An added bonus is that he's just so darned good to look at, who wouldn't love him!

Yada: Another good acting job by the actress, Nune. This character generated conflicting emotions for me. I started out being grateful that she was feisty, independant, intelligent and confident. A direct opposite to a lot of the FL characters who are nit witted doormats who do everything but verbally beg to be abused by the ML. Not this one. However, around ep 10 or so, my feeling started to change to one of dislike for this character. She was stupidly stubborn in protecting the no-good father, despite overwhelming evidence. She aided and abbetted him in breaking the law, and importantly, she refused to listen to or trust P.Kritt when he tried to tell her differently. This causes a lot of hurt to P.Kritt which is why I'm so sympathetic to his character and not so sympathetic to hers. She condemns him for doing dispicable things, but she in turns exacts revenge on P.Kritt in one of the cruelest ways (Ep 11) which made me so angry at her. By the end, she came round but I never managed to regain the initial sympathy I had for her in the beginning. Yes his character had a lot of bad flaws and he did some terrible things. She expected him to change from that, but didn't appear to think that she needed to change herself. Once again, this is a testimony to a great acting job by Nune.

P.Khem (Yada's sister). Hated this character absolutely. She was weak and vengeful, jealous and manipulative. No wonder she was used as a tool in P.Kritt's revenge. She was just begging to be used . She then decides that she's not going to be pushed around anymore but instead of becoming strong and confident, she becomes spiteful, and manipulative. Stemming from I suspect, jealousy because she still loved P.Kritt but knew that he would never be hers. An altogether unsympathetic and easy to dislike character.

P.Kritt's friend, P.Na. A very nice character played very well by Aun. I've only seen him in two dramas and enjoyed both acting jobs. He's very believable. This was one of the most likeable characters. He was a good person who tried to do the right thing but recognised that his loyalty was empowering P.Kritt to continue on his dark path. He didn't put up with the self-centered trantrums of P.Khem but stood his ground. In the end, he got a partner who really didn't deserve him.

P.Nee & P.Tot. A cute couple with some sweet moments. P.Nee gave us some good, tense 'she's a wacko' moments in the earlier parts of the drama but then settled into a sweet character who tried to love as best she could. P.Tot was a young and weak character who was only just learning to stand on his own feet instead of being led around by the nose by whoever held 'authority' over him.

The comedic relief came from the Mother & daughter characters Chat and Mon. They were really funny without being annoying.

The music was beautiful. The settings were gorgeous and the production overall a real top quality.

Re-watch value. Definitely. But I'll come back to it later because some of the middle eps when the ML character was suffering emotionally were hard to watch. The ending was lovely and satisfactory with the whole story being woven together into a beautiful ending. My favourite scene is in ep 9 after they've spent their first night together and wake in each other's arms on the verandah with a gorgeous sunrise painting the sky. Swoon.

I give this a 10 out of 10, which is rare for me.

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