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 lakhorn is very enchanting to watch.Watching Lak travel to the countryside to meet his cousin Massaya by his grandmothers order and to bring her back to the Rattanamahasarn House,was a delight. On his way he meets the very spirited Massaya where she chases him away with a monkey.That scene was much fun!Despite bickering early on they become fast friends and Lak becomes the person Massaya trusts the most.Massaya will need to adapt herself to her new family,new social class and a new home in Bangkok.It makes it even harder having her snobbish aunt and cousins bullying her and looking down on her all the time.Lak gets pressured by his grandmother to marry and he also has a secret undercover mission to succeed when in mids of all this chaos he has a commander abusing him in every way.
Massaya and Lak are two wonderful characters.I adored Massaya for her intelligence,spirit and honesty.She wore her heart on her sleeve and devotedly loves Lak all along.She also becomes great friends with one nice cousin she has,her neighbour who is a singer,a prince who falls for her and a crazy photographer taking pictures of her all the time.But she is a loyal soul and only loves her beloved Lak all along.Lak has this youthful energy to him that Massaya was drawn to.He understood Massaya and supported her in everything.He is a very brave soldier and refused to back down from any challenge.Such a charming and handsome man,Andrew`s portrayal of him totally won my heart!This is one of the most slow-burn romances i have ever seen,but it was so bittersweet!
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This review may contain spoilers
TL;DR - I personally didn't enjoy watching this and FF-ed through 90% of the lakorn. OTP, story and supporting cast were lackluster. I'd recommend the 2017 ver over this.I just want to preface this by saying that I'm going to be blunt in this review and just write out what I honestly felt while watching this. While this lakorn may fit the taste of others (and that's completely okay), it didn't fit mine and I will explain why below.
The biggest indicator of how much I didn't enjoy watching this lakorn was how I pretty much FF-ed through the entire series except the last episode; that was the only one I watched in normal speed. The beginning was okay, but I quickly grew bored of how the lakorn played out. There wasn't much story for me to follow or be engaged in, as I felt that I was just watching the lives of 2 people and what they dealt with on a daily basis. You had Massaya who was being trained to be "civilized" and being crapped on by her aunt's family, and Lak, who was in the military, living the military lifestyle and dealing with an aggressive commander and overbearing grandmother. I did feel Lak's character/story was more interesting, as he was the only sensible one who was calling out grandma's bs and trying his best to resist her demands. When he could not do so, he could only escape through means of alcohol and staying at the battalion. I admired him for trying to control his fate. But this was not enough to keep me invested in watching, and this good part of him was cancelled by his treatment of Chom, which I will discuss later on.
Another reason why I FF-ed was the lack of interaction between our leads, which is a common remark made on this lakorn and something I was aware of before watching. It's not like they didn't interact at all, but it wasn't enough for me to believe in their love for each other. At most, I did feel that Lak was a good big brother to Mass and supported her when she was in trouble with his family and to be herself. While I can see why Mass would like Lak, I can't say the same for him to her. The progression of their relationship did not feel well developed. As someone who primarily watches because of romance, this was a big no-no for me and contributed to my disinterest to watch. Usually if this happens, I can fall back on the story to keep me going but as I've mentioned, there was not much of a story to follow.
I also want to remark on Lak's treatment of Chom; he was such an ass to her. He was pretty much playing around with her and used her as a bet against his cousin. When she demanded an answer of whether he'd commit to her or not (perfectly reasonable thing to do), he'd just avoid her and push her away in the name of duty. He would then get mad at her when he found out she was hanging with his cousin and expect her to stay loyal to him. Like wtf dude, then why won't you give her an answer? She affirmed her loyalty, gave plenty of chances to him, but he still wouldn't commit and in the end she married his cousin. That whole relationship was such bs on his end and I actually felt bad for Chom. I could not help comparing this to Massaya 2017 where this was dealt with much better.
Now with a lackluster story and OTP, what's left to hang on to are the supporting cast. Unfortunately I was just not very attached to this cast and the only characters I liked were Nid, Lak's mom and Mass' grandpa. Prince Sadayu also gets a pass. The rest just felt very 1-D or were unlikeable for the majority of the lakorn. Most of them had their character development in the last episode. I was especially disappointed in Nop's character; at first I thought it was very cool to see him as a musician and singer, as he wasn't in the 2017 version. But his infatuation with Mass seemed to come out of nowhere, and he continued this one-sided love for her even to the point of arranging marriage without ever asking or considering how she felt. Like ugh, then he goes back to liking the sister after that all falls apart? Again a big no from me.
I tried to assess this lakorn and the 2017 version as separate entities, but it's inevitable that comparisons will be made. All of the problems I had with this version was more or less resolved and done way better in the 2017 version imo. The only thing I thought was done better in this lakorn was Lak's overall character; he's not wishy-washy like in the 2017 ver, although that made for a better reason for why Mass (2017) would run away then she did in this ver.
The music was average and not something I remember. Overall this lakorn was very traditional and boring, and as a whole, I just personally did not enjoy watching. I wouldn't re-watch. I think if you wanted to watch both ver, you're better off watching this first then the other, but if you wanted to watch one then I'd 100% recommend the 2017 version.
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But I tried the newer version to which I paid my attention fully and it was not much better. So much for the story, then.
Here, I didn't even notice how beautiful Bua Chompoo Ford is (if you like her, and Andy, I highly recommend watching 'Sadut Ruk', instead) or anything about the music... For me, it was just plain boredom. Sorry.
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