Notification (2018)

I honestly don't know why this drama isn't that much famous. This is a comedy gem for all your manga loving people out there. Hell it isn't just for them but for all. The comedy is on spot without it being cliche or stupid. This is one of the only Thai dramas I've watched where the comedy is just perfect. Everything in the story was gold. The ending (I won't spoil) was a twist. I almost cried at the end of the 3rd part of the last epsidoe thinking that's how it all will end.

The story line is one that has been used in few mangas but the way that it is portrayed here is just amazing. Like I mentioned the comedy XD sorry if I'm going on about it too much. They've creatively added the manga trope into it without making it cliche.

I'll confess the real reason I started watching this was for P'FirstClass ( For those who get my reference XD) and I'll say he won't disappoint you here. He's the same old sweetheart. Maybe even a bigger sweetheart. The ending was satisfactory. Almost turned into a tragedy but satisfactory. August I want you to act with Apple again!!!! Lol XD

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The premise is interesting: Using an old phone, Min receives social media notifications from the future. The notifications reveal what would happen to Min in the future, so Min and her friend Sonia are excited about it.

What sets the story back is that the future based on the notifications seem unimaginably ideal to Min, so she shouldn't do doing anything except to let things happen, notifications or not. However, Min and Sonia embark on a mission to make the future come true, which is pretty odd. Needless to say, by trying to make the future come true, they are changing the past (their present) and therefore threatening to make the wonderful future fail to come true.

Logically speaking, Min should have ignored the notifications (though, understandably, it is hard to do so). There is also this idea that the notifications are meant as a sort of message from the future. But Min does not find out till the very end of the story, so she spends most of her time trying to make the future come true (which is rather bizarre if you ask me).

Having said that, the story does turn out to be rather interesting. Min meets the handsome junior, Napat, and they fall in love. There is a love triangle though, because Min's friend, Tong, is also in love with her. Sometimes Min seems to really be happy with Tong, but she also seems averse to the idea of being romantically involved with Tong. Often enough, she accidentally changes the future and the notifications from the future show her ending up with Tong instead of Napat, and she tries hard not to let that happen.

Spoiler:
There is a twist in the story later on that doesn't please many viewers: Min breaks up with Napat and ends up with Tong in the future. Tong is actually a really lovable character and his ending up with Min shouldn't be a problem. Except that the series spends too much time focusing on what a nice couple Min and Napat are. Even by the end, I wonder if Min thinks she doesn't love Napat or if she merely finds it too difficult to change herself to be with him. (Also, Napat loves Min as herself before she changes for him, so it doesn't seem that the two are not really in love).

As for Min and Tong, the chemistry between them as good friends is wonderful, and it is a bit harder to imagine them as lovers, though this is perhaps more a matter of casting and direction rather than a flaw with the story.

The story is quite enjoyable, but I don't find myself entirely satisfied with the ending. Admittedly, it's hard to end the story well. If Min and Napat have a happily-ever-after ending, then he notifications would seem to have no meaning at all, and would seem to be a fantastical element added in for no reason. On the other hand, the Min and Tong pairing (done via a changing of the past that undoes the Min-Napat pairing and involves some strange paradoxes that are best left unconsidered) is not very satisfactory. The Min that we know over seven episodes or so isn't someone who would suddenly realize that Tong is the one for her just because she finds out that he is in love with her. After all, it is not as though she doesn't already know. In fact, she is resistant towards the idea until suddenly* ... Still, it is a very watchable and lighthearted series.

*We are left wondering how many pasts and futures there are. I think there are 3:
1. The past and future without the notifications (Min breaks up with Napat, and Tong dies)
2. Modified past and future 1 (Min who has received the notifications ends up breaking up with Napat, and Tong dies)
3. Modified past and future 2 (Min who has received the notifications realizes how much Tong loves her and that she loves Tong too, and she doesn't start a relationship with Napat).
The last one is the happy ending of the story. But with this sort of stories, there is a paradox. The story has it that, if Tong doesn't die, the notifications to the past will not be sent. And if they aren't sent, then Min can't possibly end up with Tong because of the notifications.

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Isn't Eye Kamolned kinda old for this?

I found it maybe a bit awkward pairing Eye with August Vachiravit, even though she kept wearing her girlie hairstyle and backpack.

Then there's this complicated sci-fi time-travel plot involving simple dating. That is never good sign. This can hardly be a romance, because it all gets turned into some kind of "project" in the hands of main girls's best friend Sonia (31-year old actress portraying a student), who basically handles her love life for her. Also, as one other review here pointed out: If the messages from the future shows things are perfect, why should be there a need to try and do something about it? Just sit back and let it happen, eh? And that's just one of hundred reasons why I don't like anything supernatural.

I love watching relationship naturally developing (well, as naturally as it is possible in scripted drama... the better the script, the more natural the relationship development seems to viewers, of course). Which is precisely the thing we are denied here. It's one of those attempts to be original by making a weak script actually an asset. Yeah, good scriptwriters were always scarse. Drama producers WOULD try any kind of experiment. In the end, it's actually rare to find simple good romance...

First episodes, the notifications showing things being ideal and ROMANTIC alternate with actual events being clumsy, mishap and far from developing a relationship. The heroine tries hard each time to make the "prediction" come true and it either doesn't or does in non-romantic way. Then her friend even goes as far as telling the heroine that she has to make sure the thing in notification happens on the given day, else "the future will change". Huh? All I can say is the "magic phone" gets broken at one point and I just thought: Great, let's leave it that way.

Also, there is "Best" Nathasit in his "best friend" role. Suddenly, there are also notifications about the main girl ending up with HIM. While I honestly think Eye more compatible with Best than with August Vachiravit, his character shows ZERO signs of feelings beyond friendship at first. Then the script suddenly changes. Then, the script plays with a possible death of his character, which is too dark a theme for a girlie romance thing, making it actually a worse script once again. The author of this really doesn't seem skilled in writing romance. Someone on the production team could draw cute drawings, that's one thing for sure, else...

At 1/2 of the series, there is a scene in which the best friend Sonia pushes the main girl so hard towards the boy portrayed by August Vachiravit, that she bumps into him violently and his nose starts bleeding. I thought this little scene very symbolical. It depicts the kind of annoying meddling characters, the level of humour, and the "romance" best.

The relationship development is forced and laborious, the two main actresses Eye Kamolned & Meen Chayanee clumsily stylized into someone 10+ years younger look like bad cartoons, and it is all underlined with sequences of actual cartoons. Jomjam Suphitcha brings something bit more into this, and so does Best Nathasit. The ending of each episode belongs to Best and it's... best, LOLz. Cuter than any drawings!:)

Episode 5/8 is another revealing moment to note. When the notification keeps changing from one boy to the other each 2 minutes, it only underlines how credible such "romance" was from the start. Whom does the girl actually want to date, obviously that doesn't really matter to makers of this series, who set the whole episode in manga con, un/conspicuously pushing gay culture. The scene with both boys in gay-looking get-ups, who hug each other or hopefully even kiss gets the most screams.

I say the last episode is the worst. We jump from the fluffy silly romance comedy to something like 'The Lake House' with Sandra Bullock. But, here I didn't believe the main girl WOULD choose her FRIEND (no matter the hidden deep feelings) over the ROMANTIC looking boy BEFORE living through the experience of having a relationship with him and LOSING forever the one who'd really make her happy. She would have to travel back in time with her OLDER mind. Therefore, the only scene that can be counted is AGAIN the post-credits ending one. "Did you break my model?" "How do you know?" "I am watching your live video.":DD

So, the only thing I must praise the authors for is SEEING that the character portrayed by Best Nathasit was so adorable there's no way girl would not actually love him more than August the pretty boy. On the other hand, I didn't see the need for him to have to die so the girl would regret. Or us, the viewers to suffer the "mobile notification" plot for the whole story. We learned in the end that if was for a good cause, but the form it took was just silly. Logically, you cannot win with time-travel stories no matter what. As entertainment, I think I already described it above. ALL the five rating stars I give this are for the video-makings scenes.

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I liked August from U-Prince, so I looked for another main role of his.
I landed on this series, and the review here was pretty good so I decided to watch it.
I was left disappointed. I forced myself to watch up to ep. 5, thinking it was developing or something but nevermind.
The idea is cute, she receives notifications about the future. But I don't get the whole things of giving her that odd hairstyle and a meh fashion sense, making her appear as the "loser" girl that's liked by the popular boy.
Very cliché, cannot find a reason why he would like her, they met a few times and he is already in love, what.
Apart from that, the story is just flat, boring and very much what she and her friend imagine rather than actually something happening.
Everytime she sees the picture/guy in the future notification change between one guy and another she starts having doubts, again, what.
I didn't like it, and won't finish it.
If you like those cliché stories you might like it.

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