This review may contain spoilers
Mekala’s Paradise
I N T R O D U C T I O NI would like to think that I’m a solid Bella fan. I enjoy watching her dramas and intend to watch almost all of them if not all.
This was how I began watching Wimarn Mekala late last year. Because it was Bella and Andrew, I went in having large expectations. But maybe because my expectations were too large, I felt underwhelmed and put it on hold. For a long time.
I picked the drama up earlier this week because I had a lot of ironing to do and thought I could probably watch it in the background while ironing the day away. It was a pretty good plan because I ended up completing it in a day.
P L O T
Wimarn Mekela is a story about a girl called Mekala who is an orphan and was brought up by her father’s sister to be self-centered and bratty. As Mekala grew up, she became a celebrity and had to pay for aunt and cousin sister’s loans and big spendings while they stayed and leeched off of her.
One day things turn for the worst when Melaka found herself in a scandal after hitting her costar and her cheating boyfriend. She lost her current drama, was “sent on a holiday”, was dumped by her boyfriend, and her aunt and cousin’s loans took away her car.
That day she met Paya, the ML, who brought bad news about Mekala’s uncle dying and also an offer to buy her uncle’s forest which the deceased man had left to Mekala. However, Mekala and Paya don’t start on the right foot and Mekala tells Paya that she would never sell the forest to him.
She soon finds a new buyer and makes a journey to the area to make the deal. On the way, however, she has an accident and loses her memory. Paya takes this opportunity to switch her identity for another girl who had also traveled to the area for work … Teacher Prim.
T H E B A D
- Too many episodes. Could be shorter.
- Writing needed improvement
- Bella and Andrew lacked chemistry
- Andrew’s character was lackluster for more than half of the show
- Amnesia arc was very stretched out
- Amnesia arc was also boring
- The ending was rushed
- Mekala’s retired in the end
- Some villains didn’t get retribution (Aunt + Cousin)
T H E G O O D
- Great scenery of the forest and farms
- Drama spreads awareness about deforestation
- Post-Amnesia arc is much more interesting
- Andrew’s character greatly improves in the last few episodes. He smiles and is a little mischievous, it made Andrew look handsome.
- The two major villains got what they deserve
- OST was good
- Happy ending
O V E R A L L
I enjoyed the last 1/3 of the drama much better than everything else. I enjoyed seeing the ML and FL bicker and smile and act cute. It was much more refreshing than all the awkward bland chemistry in the earlier 2 thirds. One thing I don’t understand, though, is why Mekala literally told her manager she wasn’t retiring or leaving her, but then one minute later she announces to the world that she’s retiring. I don’t know, to me, it felt very rushed and incomplete. I think this drama could have been made much better and with more love.
7/10
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I didn't really cheer for him to get her
From the beginning, this is a "clever" show. Of course, there is amnesia involved. A "famous" actress and small village teacher got switched and nobody knows, because Andy Gregson's character decided not to tell (guess the actress was not that "famous" after all). And he really lets her teach children when she has no memory (plus he knows she was not qualified for it even before) so I guess he cares about his workers' kids really a lot. Also nice, young, pretty girl dies in episode 1, and she was more likeable than the nang'ek. Wow, what a start.Tui Kiatkamol is in the side-role. I still remember him as a pra'ek (the adorable 'Keuy Ban Nok') and he's not older than Andy (actually, he's younger). But... Our Andy refuses to retire. Will this be better than his Mafia Mungkorn stunt?
Kirk Schiller is in the villain role. It's not supposed to be a comic relief... but, who knows?
Among this all, Bella Vanita (or Bella Ranee) acts very cute. I remember her performance from 'Pon Prom Onlaweng', she was always able to convey a different character in the wrong body:) This time, misplaced identity. No problem for Bella Vanita:) She is endearing and - in stark contrast to exasperated Andy - a fun to watch.
When Andy acts all moaning and shivering (his character is supposed to have some kind of trauma) it's even worse (I had to laugh in wrong places). 11 years older, still his acting skills are not tantamount to hers. Also character-wise he's not the fuel of the show.
Her character is funny at least. I actually enjoyed having that kind of a nang'ek:) For once, she refused to listen to anyone's cr*p. She refused to be everyone's punchbag. She usually showed no fear, her first reaction was actually to rescue others. She wasn't really bad when her personality got dissected by this experience where she "forgot" how spoiled she was. On the other hand, Andy's character kept lying to her, purposedly confusing her when she tried to recover her memory, putting her into position she was not fit for then criticizing her, and ocasionally just plain put her down or insulted her. He was having his revenge on how the "old" Mekala first treated him without properly knowing him. But by the time he was still doing that HE should have known her a bit better. It just didn't sit quite well with me he should be the one giving her constant lecture about good character. (All the while there is a character who drinks, steals, beats women & children and nobody is particularly lecturing HIM.) Also there is another girl only faking to be good and he can't see through it. Plus he meets the evil aunt & her daughter and never treats THEM that bad.
Mekala is actually not just lost in her amnesia but also alone in the world, as she's got no one who really cares. Her remaining family members are horrible and only care about money. Therefore I found it important she'd end up with a good guy, at least.
Despite being completely clueless, the "naughty nang'ek" spends only a short while living near Andy's character and her heartfelt wish is to run away. I kinda understood her. While even the evil characters don't take themselves so seriously (Kirk Schiller can't help himself) he's more of an annoyance. I must say the ecology activism of Andy's character had such unlikable form I would understand if nang'ek just sold the forest, LOL.
Things get to crumble with the whole amnesia plot when Mekala's relatives show up. Then the last straw of logic seems to dissappear, but then again there never was any logic to any amnesia plot to begin with. Why look for it here? At least here we have Bella Vanita who is both entertaining & easy on the eye. You might think it's not that much, but given everything, it was her alone who kept the show going. As without her I would have probably DROPPED the lakorn. I loved how she was developing better personality but never slipped into typical miss goody two shoes. No matter what, she didn't bore me.
During it all nang'ek & pra'ek grew closer, of course. Though I just didn't really understand her trying to win his good side after how he always treated her. And him, even if he believed she was not a good person, still many occasions I couldn't understand how could he treat that way a woman who was so beautiful (that too without wearing heavy makeup like a porn star, as the other, supposedly "nicer" girl... even pra'ek's mom make-up was too strong a coffee, btw.) Before she regained her memory though, they started having really cute interactions... They got together sooner than I thought possible. Bella Ranee's acting was adorable and so natural, again I must compliment her. The romance line progress is fast, he says he loves her in half the series already. Doing that, he's still calling her by a name of a different person, though (I wondered how he explained this to himself). So let's not forget he's still purposedly keeping her in the dark about her own identity. First he lets her believe she's humble country teacher and then when someone succeeds in making her believe she's a secret assassin, he supports her believing that, too. Just anything but the truth.
During this, the amnesiac heroine doesn't have any problem to marry Andy's character even while her memory didn't yet come back. She never seemed to have real problem with anything, actually. When she was told she is an assassin, she just started training to fight, without being told much as to how. She never seemed to have problem with being a teacher, either. She might train for her action scenes as an actress but she never educated children. Yet we never once see her asking what materials should she teach from, how should she grade tests... Without knowing anything, she just does the job. So when without knowing anything, she just gets married, it kinda isn't that surprising. After all, she's "in love". I just couldn't wait for her memory to (finally) come back and wipe the smile from Andy's face. And when she came back to her old self, I again appreciated the versatility of this actress (in huge contrast to Andy's "acting").
Of course among all the antics we see some human trafficking, just casually... It happens to be in every other thai series, we don't deal with it much, it looks like the thai tv would just like us to get used to the idea of this being common thing. Anyways after 10 episodes I was generally tired of this. The heroine found out the whole truth already and wished to have nothing more to do with the guy. And I could relate, I was also tired with Andy and his character. I just wanted things to end. Why so loong runtime?
In conclusion, this show's main failure was the choice of the guy Mekala got paired with. Not only her character rocked more, she was also too young and too pretty for him and I didn't really cheer for him to get her.
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