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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This review may contain spoilers
This is my first Lakorn review and the third Lakorn I've watched. I really enjoyed watching this, it was fast paced, with amazing dialogue and interactions between characters, it never got boring or draggy and that's a huge plus for me.Thanks to this Lakorn I've discovered Weir, what an emotive, charismatic and overall charming actor he is! I'm so impressed.
The story is nothing special, your run of the mill angsty "ahjussi" romance with a liberal sprinkling of noble idiocy (OMG the female lead was on another level!!) a serious lack of communication between our OTP and crazy, shrill, obsessive women who can't live without the male lead. Despite it's unoriginal premise, this story is immersive and all encompassing, there were no weak links; this is especially true if you watch it at face value and take the story as it's being portrayed without adding your own opinions and social norms to it, that's usually how I like to approach a drama, and I've realised that with Lakorns especially if I get hung up on issues such as women being treated poorly for example, I will never be able to watch them. So I take everything with a pinch of salt always keeping in mind that it's not real life.
The story had a solid progression and showed the main couple falling in love in a believable way, there was good character development especially for the male lead, and the female lead's family members. All the villains got what they deserved and that was very satisfying.
The most deplorable character in my opinion was Khun Burut, the female lead's father, his actions were cowardly and self serving, and I found it particularly galling that his family welcomed him back with open arms and total forgiveness, I mean??????
The acting and cast was good. The standout performance for me was of course Weir, the male lead. His portrayal of Sayomphu was wonderfully done, he came across as damaged, proud, arrogant, confident, sweet, caring and vulnerable all wrapped up in the most manly and aesthetically pleasing package, he was in a word "amazing"
The female lead for me was a problematic character, I found her "goodness" self-defeating to the extent that she was harmed so many times when she could have stood up for herself. I also didn't like the way she refused to fight for her man, she just let him do all the work and took too long to take his hand and walk with him, her prejudice ran very deep I suppose. In the end her love was very steadfast, I just wasn't crazy about her lack of passion in all things.
The supporting characters did their job admirably. Wantanee and Vi were especially tedious and pathetic, with their entitled one sided love, it was quite ridiculous to behold.
P'Saard was played exceptionally well, I just have a small criticism that it took her so long to become a mature and helpful mother and stepmother.
Special mention to King!!! the most loyal sidekick that ever was, I cried when he died.
Vi was kind of admirable for a villain, but technically she wasn't even a woman scorned, so I found it difficult to understand her motivation, except to conclude she was just plain delusional; Wantanee had more basis for her bad behaviour because she was actually Sayomphu's mistress.
Music is great, Weir and Preaw each recorded a song for the drama and they're both quite good. Of course there is the ever present urgent and insistent instrumental music which seems to be a hallmark of Lakorns and I don't particularly care for it.
Overall I give this drama a 9, I normally would have given it an 8 but I was so thoroughly entertained and completed it in very short order and this counts for a lot. There are some very highly rated dramas which I struggle to complete even though I know it's an excepitionally made piece of work, so ultimately it comes down to a purely subjective feel and connection that I have for a particular drama.
It's still early days in my Lakorn journey however this is well worth a watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
Done watching this lakorn again in two days. I really enjoyed it despite the too many crazy characters here but the chemistry between Kwan and Khun Mafia fully compensate for it. They made me squeal every romantic scenes they have together and made me shed a tear when they finally had their moment in the end at the beach when she kissed his tear stained face.Plus factor: I like how you see the character development of both the FL and ML in this drama as the story progresses. You don't see that often in Thai dramas where the characters remain stagnant in the way they deal with the hardships that come their way.
- There is also no secondary couple to drag the show so I did not fast-forwarded any scenes which is really a rare occurrence when I watch lakorns.
Anyhow, I am still waiting for another Weir and Preaw drama reunion after watching this in 2017 and still waiting 3 years after. They really have good chemistry together.
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Weirdly bad...
This is a really hard one to rate. It started really really good with the first few epsiode, actually upto episode 6. ML was the communication king! ML and FL had real good chemistry and their acting were top notch too. The plot, though simple, was quite interesting. The characters were also smart, especially ML. Every single one of his actions felt smart and realistic given the situation. FL showed steady character development. Despite the bad production I thought I found a hidden gem in lakorns and was going to rate it 9/10 just for plot, characterization and chemistry itself.BUT!!!
This show suddenly becomes a totally weird mess after that. A misunderstanding happens which continues till end and never gets cleared iirc. FL becomes the dumbest person with negative character development. ML turns into some weird different persona which doesn't at all match with his old personality. He also becomes dumb too. The 2 2FLs become unbearable to watch, with motivations totally unclear. The 2ML/Villain becomes the instant skip target, he was a pisshead before anyways. Plot turns into absolute madness, long lasting misunderstanding, timeskips, twotimings and whatnots. Chemistry between main leads remains good thankfully though.
So as you see, I'm really conflicted on how to rate this. This had real potential and it got wasted hard. Such a disappointment. To rate it I will have to summarize.
Positives
+ Likeable ML
+ Good Chemistry
+ Weirdly bad but engaging plot
+ Acting
+ Characterization in first half
Negatives
- Production
- OST
- Weirdly bad but engaging plot
- Characterization in second half
Sensible Overall Rating 7.5/10
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Good pairing with lots of chemistry.
I watched this lakhorn. It was emotionally draining with a lot of misunderstandings and distrust between the main leads. A lot of angst. There were some psychotic characters who were so obsessed in tearing them apart and they are not aware of it. . The ML was initially controlling and dominating over the naive FL. He was jealous and insecure and couldn't trust her. But in the end the tiger was tamed by the deer. There was strong chemistry between the two leads . Great pairing. Storyline was kind of twisted and some parts didn't make sense especially the ending. He was cheated by his partner and lost the entire business and money. He ran away to an island living like a peasant. Then when he returns back to Bangkok after reuniting with his wife, he still has his house and money like before. So how did he get it all back and what happened to the partner who cheated him? I don't get it.Was this review helpful to you?
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Ending too rushed
When I first read the summary, I thought it was just going to be your typical run-of-the-mill drama i.e. older guy meets younger girl + all the relationship problems + love-hate relationship etc. The first episode was quite boring during the first half but sped up during the second half. The middle to late middle was quite engaging, and made me want to keep watching every episode. Sadly, I felt the ending was quite rushed which kind of disappointed me. Leaves a lot of questions unanswered.The chemistry between ML and FL is really good, and probably that is what kept me watching episode after episode. ML's acting is really good, as you could see his eyes soften each time he's with the FL, or fiery when FL is in danger or talking to the love rival. Convinces me, as the watcher, that they truly love each other. The actress who played the love rival's mother was kind of good, because I really felt like slapping her for her cruel behaviour towards the FL. The best antagonist is honestly the ML's right hand woman, though I think I would have been impressed if she was introduced as the true villain during the latter part of the series.
This should be a love-hate relationship drama, but I won't classify it as such, because the love started from the very beginning. (A similar drama, Raeng Tawan, is more like the typical love-hate relationship kind of drama) Found it quite cute for the ML to care for the FL over and over again (those sweet pecks and kisses). Honestly it would have been a better drama if not for the way the ending was done.
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On my personal side, I'll say "if you want to give it a short please do, if you like sappy and cheese stuff. Even I like cheese stuff but not this one. I'm not objecting the storyline or director's vision it's my opinion but I thought it would be bearable (cheese stuff). That's all."
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What I disliked was the flashbacks. They were just too much in every episode almost every five minutes. I appreciate the writers trying to add background but the drama had overkill.
Weir did an excellent job, he was passionate, funny, caring, hurt loving all in one. There were sides to him his enemies did not know about that were genuinely touching to the viewer.
The lead actress she was pretty good in her execution, the writers could have done a bit more with her character, but nothing much to complain about.
Oh my Lord the P'Sa'ard. Where did she come from, cantankerous and brawling. She was very irresponsible towards her children too but she turned out okay. She was not wicked perse' she was just irresponsible and self-serving.
Pu needed to check Vi and Wan they wanted writing out of the picture early but I guess they served a purpose.
I would have liked to see the marriage and watch to the end. Maybe one of these days I will be able to.
In terms of rewatch value, I would say the flashbacks and the dragging of the episodes would deter me from rewatching. I would just like to complete for completing sake.
Overall it is a good lakorn.
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Weir did a very good job. I've never gotten into his shows, but now I'll have to go back and see what I'm missing :-) I was slightly disappointed in the female lead a bit too wooden. A little more emotion would have been nice. They had nice onscreen chemistry (could have been even better if N'ek actress could have loosened up a bit more in her role).
The December-May relationship was handled well. She's portrayed to be 18 or so in the beginning, which is the age of majority in my country. Then the series fast forwards 5 years.
The writers and actors did a great job on the evil characters.
Big's character was such a D*uche Bag. By the end of the show I didn't even want to see his face on the screen. And the true Nang Rai was so backstabbing it surprised me, this is what makes Lakorn great!
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Muito bom!
Bem, vamos começar. Eu não sei porquê essa série teve alguma avaliação ruim. Essa série é muito boa!! Só não foi tão boa pela atuação não tão boa da atriz principal.Mas de resto ela foi muito boa.
Estou completamente fascinada, abobalhada, apaixonada, encantada pelo Weir. Nossa!!!!!!!!! Todas as séries que esse homem faz vc pode ver pq com certeza você vai gostar.
Estou encantada com esse ator.
Bem…. Pra finalizar, eu achei que eu não fosse gostar dessa série. Mas dei uma chance e não me arrependi. Vale a pena.
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