Sai Tarn Hua Jai (2017)

Welcome to the Jongsawat Residence – a place for people with a lot of emotional and mental issues. “Sai Tarn Hua Jai” gave viewers the opportunity to watch 11 episodes where you can basically sit in front of the screen and ask repeatedly: “Why would you do/say that??” But funny enough even though I was raging, eye-rolling and cursing, there were also really good times. In order to keep this review shorter than a novel I try to pick the important stuff for this review.

Story:
“Sai Tarn Hua Jai” is barely something new. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, actually I enjoyed myself a lot watching this.
I liked the main couple. Not always but they had good moments. Ganya was especially charming because she is a female lead that is pretty direct. She asks questions if she is curious about something (e. g. Are you still not over your crazy ex?). This makes it even more amazing to me that Natt managed to answer those direct questions in a manner that was rather confusing. I wasn’t even surprised that Ganya misunderstood him because I would have probably too. Natt on the other hand is an honest and really nice guy but because of his filial duty he is always torn between what he wants and what the people who raised him expect from him. While trying to earn the approval of the people in his house he often seems to be at the losing end. Which is why I really wanted him to have at least one person that is unconditionally on his side. I wanted him to have a family member that is not in love with him or trying to force him to do things he doesn’t want to do. I wanted someone who stands up for him when everyone was dragging him in their direction. After all it was pretty frustrating to see how people forced him around to match their needs and greed.

I never really understood what Khun Chais deal was. He was preaching how important the honour of Jongsawat is and no one should destroy it – but he was actually the one drinking, gambling and ordering prostitutes in his hotel room. In my opinion he was the biggest embarrassment of the family. So it was not really surprising to me that Khun Ying was a broken kid with a lot of issues. In the beginning I cursed her out for being so bratty, violent and horrible. I was really annoyed. But the further I got the more I saw that she was actually a girl that lacked love. Do I think she loved Natt? Yes. Do I think she loved him as a man? Well, I’m not sure. But I think she saw Natt as a rescue boat in the middle of the ocean. She felt like she’ll drown without him, so she went crazy and did stupid and horrible things. That does not justify what she did, but I think more than a lover Khun Ying needed a family or at least a friend who is sincere to her. She never received proper love, so she never knew how to give other people sincere feelings. The one who could understand her the best was Kiattsuk – probably because he was in the same situation. He never received proper love, so he doesn’t know how to love. If those two had at least one person beside them that would have showed them what is right and what is wrong, maybe they would have been able to tend their emotional scars. But those two ended up hurting each other more and more which is why I never really rooted for a happy ending for those two. At least as long as their relationship was in the state it has always been. I’m not going to spoil so you probably understand better when you watch it.

Lastly, we have Lamoon and her mom Prakong. Prakong confused me a lot to a point where I was not sure who the real Prakong was: the loving mom that took care of Natt like he was her own son or the manipulative mistress that does bad things behind the scenes. Nevertheless, similar to Khun Yings case Prakong was emotionally not stable. She was looked down and trampled on and at one point she just snapped. It doesn’t make her sins less horrible, but her feelings are a little bit more relatable. Lamoon on the other hand turned from a loving little sister character to my personal most disliked character in this lakorn. The reason is rather simple: while she is naïve and innocent she tends to hurt the people around her without realising it. Instead of re-thinking her behaviour she usually throws a tantrum or blames other people. I know that Lamoon is not a bad girl. I know she doesn’t mean to hurt the people around her but most of the time I felt like she was choosing to believe in a fantasy while totally ignoring facts and reality. She chose to believe things that were totally irrational given the facts she was aware of. In fact, she was putting herself in the role of a victim most of the time and it was really late when she realised that she was not the only one hurting. I really admired art teacher Sawat that he was so patient with her.

Honourable mentions are the bad-ass grandma of Ganya, Natts best friend Ong and his mom. I really liked their characters!

Acting/Cast:
All in all I was okay with the cast. In the beginning I was a little bit annoyed with Khun Ying but after a while I got used to her and especially in the last few episodes she did really good. There was barely a character that was badly portrayed, at least I didn’t mind too much or can’t remember!

Music:
Nothing to complain :)

Rewatch value:
I’m going to pass on this craziness for a while. It’s enjoyable to watch once but I’m not sure if it’s worth a rewatch.

Overall:
I liked it. I mean the story is not really special in terms of uniqueness. Everything happens pretty much as you expect it. Like every lakorn the last episode is basically giving you a moral lesson which wraps up everything that went wrong in the previous episodes. Obviously, the story is a little over the top and I had a lot of “What???” moments but I enjoyed it because I was able to get emotionally involved. You can get angry and frustrated, but you also smile and laugh a lot. It kept me want to watch more even though I passionately hated what was happening. The thing is if you’re looking for a romance lakorn with a lot of physical interaction between the main leads (like kisses etc.) this is not really applying for this lakorn. In fact, the couple took a long time to admit that they like each other. But this lakorn gives you a lot of other stuff – like jealousy, pity, angst, lessons about love. So if you don’t mind the lack of kisses and hugs and you enjoy raging about what is happening then give this a try ;)

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I've been wanting to watch this drama because of my love for Ronapee and Kwan. But it turn out this lakorn was a typical lakorn full of jealousy and complicated relationship between the characters. I'm tearing in the end while watching this lakorn, unexpectedly. Not just because of my wish wasn't fulfilled, not the love story between the leads, but it's the relationship between Narang and his uncle, the last 2 episodes made me tearing for the first time while watching this lakorn.
I'm actually tearing at what happen to Narang's uncle in the end, I mean he was evil and probably the source of all the problems that happening on that house. But somehow I feel deep down, Thun Chai always have love for his nephew and his daughters. It's just his anger always seems to step in before his heart.
After episode 10 aired, I'm curious to how they will wrap this one. Kinda get the feeling what Khun Ying will do in the end, somehow in my heart I wish her husband could convince her enough that he truly love her but she still choose the other way.
No doubt the acting of all the actors are great, they're top-listed actors after all. They all great in building their characters and showing it. And their chemistry is good, credits to the lead characters.
Music, well it's somehow match the feeling and flowing of this lakorn. It's sad and dramatic.
But I don't think I want to rewatch this drama. If I want to see James and Min again, I probably just going to rewatch Ronapee instead of waiting and expecting their other works together, again.
Overall this drama is well executed. If you're into jeaolusy and rage then you might wanna try, but if you're here for the romance or the longing of Pee-Kwan like me, then you might be disappointed.

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