This review may contain spoilers
A pleasant surprise
I was not expecting much from this, honestly. It initially seemed like a silly, over-the-top comedy show with immature, high-school characters. But The Shipper is so much better!- First of all, great production value! The budget seemed to be quite high, the product placement wasn't too aggressive. The series had good cinematography, a varied setting and a really wonderful soundtrack. The work of the film editors was particularly noteworthy, creating many surprising moments with a clever use of flashbacks and jump cuts.
- The series provided us with a wide range of characters: the inconspicuous nice guy, the mean girl gang, the involuntary bad boy, the perfect student with secrets and the two naive shipper-best friends. The actors portrayed them well. I obviously have a soft spot for Ohm Pawat, and he did not disappoint; even his age didn't seem too far-off for a high schooler, which is mindblowing, actually. Little details in the various relationships shown really made this series above-average. The mean girls writing about each other in various chat groups were hilarious, for example. Adults were not very present, but especially Pan's uncle had some very touching moments. Oh, and the Angel of Death was pure comedy gold, thanks to Jennie!
- After the first few episodes, the character development got (in most cases) surprisingly deep, sometimes in sharp contrast with the overall comedy. We learned about a difficult siblings relationship, about strong bonds of friendship, about unexpected first loves, and about parental pressure. The whole yaoi phenomenon wasn't as present as the title would have suggested, but it was used well to portray the girls' naivete when it came to love. And I loved the audacious gender-bender concept, making all kinds of relationships between the characters possible, disregarding gender stereotypes. I am a little mad however that they went with a male love-interest for Soda in the end.
- I will end with some critique. Generally speaking, the series didn't always get the tone right. By that I mean that over-the-top comedy and very serious issues (sexual misconduct, violence, death) were sometimes clashing too harshly. Leaving the boys' locker room porn crime at the beginning largely uncommented was a very bad move. The Angel of Death's role sometimes ridiculed the concept of death in itself, which is questionable, since this touches upon the very dignity of human life. And storywise it was certainly surprising that Kim was actually dead the whole time, but it ultimately made a lot of the story appear pointless. I appreciate that they tried to fix that problem with the post-credit scene though, maybe we will get a second season (I certainly wouldn't mind)!
If you are looking for a hilarious comedy with great characters, a surprising story and enough emotional depth, this is a total recommendation! Once again a female director saves the day.
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this is actually amazing !!!
STORY- okay when I first watched the trailer and read the synopsis I wasn't planning on watching it, but I wanted to see if it was actually bad and wow its good. Like the idea is so weird but it works for some reason.ACTING- I mean the acting is really good (side note I love the teacher for some reason), but nobody had been wowing me besides Fluke who portrayed both characters well, and I feel like whatever character Ohm portrays he does a great job.
MUSIC- I mean no comment I did not notice it at all.
REWATCH VALUES- YESYESYES! I am definitely gonna rewatch this, I like how different it is.
OVERALL- If you like thai dramas/ BLs you should give this a try because it is better than you think it is.
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This review may contain spoilers
Do Not Go Into This Expecting A BL. It Isn't One.
The title of the show is "The Shipper." Using what you know about titles, it can be assumed that the main focus will be the shipper, Pan. Thus, Way and Kim (the shipped) are still important, but Pan is more important for the story.Acting: The acting is really good and it comes to no surprise since it has Ohm, First, Prigkhing, Jennie, etc. I would really love to applaud First for being able to act as Kim AND act as Pan exactly how Prigkhing would. The transition between Pan being played by Prigkhing and Pan being played by First is seamless. I had never seen Fluke act before and WOW he's really amazing, especially at crying.
Story: I'm gonna make a separate section about the ending so we'll just ignore it for now. But this show made an otherwise boring concept interesting. I hate body-swapping, but in this show, it just felt so nice and natural. The synopsis makes this show seem to be some weird fetishizer's wet dream, but it isn't at all. This show does really well at showing how shipping real people can be taken too far and the consequences that could happen when it does. The weird incest-feeling moments are eh~~~, but thankfully they don't last long.
Ending: Did I expect Kim to die? No. Did I want him to die? No. Am I angry he died? No. I'm okay that he died. I loved the ending surprisingly. Maybe that's because I had felt that the show was not as happy as it tried to seem. Some people in the comments of this page felt that Pan should've "been the ultimate shipper and sacrificed herself for Kim," but this would've gone against the main lesson of the show: "Everyone deserves to search for happiness." Kim himself even says in the show that Pan deserves to be happy just as much as they do. It also would cancel out the wonderful message of shipping gone too far. Yes, the straight couple gets a happy ending while the gay couple "doesn't" but that doesn't erase WayKim's feelings for each other at all. Just like Kim told Way, even though they are far from each other, they still love each other and that shows how strong their love is. Do some aspects of Kim dying make sense? No, but I'm not too bothered by it.
I would like to end this by saying, if you're unsure of if you want to watch, try to make it to episode five. If you don't like it by then, drop it. If you're coming because you wanna see boys kiss, go somewhere else. I find this show to be worth it, I hope you do too.
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This review may contain spoilers
How I Would Rewrite This Story:
So I will be spoiling the basic plot of the story and then make suggestions for how to better this drama. First though, I do want to say that I overall didn't dislike this drama. I laughed a lot. I think though that this drama was heavily marketed as a BL drama when in reality it's about the BL Shipper Pan and her coming to terms with how her shipping Way and Kim stops her from realizing that there was true love right next to her all along. So, this story is pretty much a straight story with some BL themes.There was also that really awkward incestuous kiss where Pan, as Kim, kisses Khett, who is Kim's brother. We know that it's Pan kissing Khett, but still in the context of the bodies, it was a bit awkward to watch.
Plot Summary: Two girls, Pan and Soda, love shipping two boys, Kim and Way who attend their school. They write fanfictions about the boys and romanticize the relationship that the two may have. Then, Pan and Kim get into a vehicle accident. They both are in limbo. The angel of death says that she made a mistake and vows to send them both back. Pan gets sent back, but she wakes up in Kim's body. While living as Kim, she decides to help develop Kim and Way's relationship. Eventually, we find out Kim actually died, and Pan needs to decide whether to live the rest of her life as Kim or herself. She chooses to live as herself, and finds love with Khett in the process.
What I would change: I like body switching stories. I think they up until the part where they go to limbo was executed just fine. I think they should have both been brought back, bodies switched. It would have given the plot more to work with. While Pan is busy acting like Kim, she learns that Kim and Khett are brothers (this is already part of the story), but her purpose for learning it now is to help them repair their relationship, because Khett never discovers that Pan is in Kim's body. Instead, they play their parts well.
Pan in Kim's body spends more time with Way. At first, she's determined to make it happen even though there was implication that Way actually has unspoken feelings for Kim. By wanting the relationship to work, and by reading journals that Kim wrote, she helps them grow their relationship.
Kim in Pan's body realizes by speaking with Khett, how Khett truly feels about him. He regrets always ignoring Khett and by bonding with Khett. When he returns to his body at the end, he learns how to demonstrate to Khett that he does care about him a lot. He also picks up that Khett likes Pan a lot, so he helps nudge their relationship along at the end.
Of course throughout the drama, there would be a lot of tomfoolery because Kim being in a woman's body, and Pan being in a man's body of course would lead to funny interactions and awkwardness between the two. But those would be funny themes explored in the drama.
The overarching theme in this story though would be that after switching bodies, they learn things about each other, and help both grow as characters and come to their true self. Kim opening up about his sexuality and reuniting with his brother, and Pan discovering that she loves Khett.
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Had it Funny moments
It did have some funny moments to it, but nothing to brag about.I am 50/50 on this drama, as I only picked up because of Ohm.
The story was your normal basic, school girl with no self confidence in herself, protective boy and bullies. an angle of death mistake and switching of bodies. there was a whole lot going on in this drama, but the funny moments made up for the mess i think it was. The cinematography. The acting. The writing. The music. From a thoroughly dispassionate standpoint, Kim's death was really unnecessary in my eyes. I think it could have been handled differently.
Although seeing OffGun made me happy and seeing Ohm dance in the credits made me smile I don't think these two things are enough to save the rest of the episode.
Overall: This drama had way too many mixed signals and not enough of a good message in it.
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This review may contain spoilers
Overused, annoying trope in the story
Alert - spoilers ahead:The reason I scored this otherwise fun and well-produced series quite low is the annoying "Bury Your Gays" trope - while the general tone of story is light (so, you wouldn't suspect there's a tragedy looming ahead) and the straight couple goes on to live happily ever after, somehow the gay couple does not. It was already an outdated tactic back when Western media often employed this trope, 10-20 years ago, so it definitely shouldn't be adopted into Asian media now.
While sometimes a bit corny, the acting is overall good and the actors chosen portray their characters well. The transitions between the two actors which play Pan are very smooth.
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Loved it but low key grossed out
StoryThe base plot is good. Like the whole body switching thing was great. However the ending wasn't my favorite. The whole thing that the brothers had was weird. I don't like it.
Acting/Cast
Now while the story was not it First's acting was amazing!!!!! His crying scenes and how he portrayed a girl was great. It was amazing. I hope to see him getting another lead role soon. Everyone else was good but his stood out to me.
Music
I listen to the OST on replay it is such a fun little song.
Overall
Great!! A little confusing at first but otherwise I loved it!!! Go watch it.
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An emotional story disguised as a comedy
Based on the description and the clips I've seen from this show, I expected it to be very silly. And while it starts off that way, the plot quickly deviates from the description and turns into something else that is much more emotional and serious - all while trying to keep a light tone. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it either took itself more seriously and explored these more emotional aspects more, or kept it light and fun throughout. I honestly only watched this because I'm a big fan of First, and it was definitely an experience.Pan and Soda like to write fanfiction about Way and Kim, which causes some bullies to attack Way, calling him gay. This fight gets Way threatened with expulsion, and Pan, feeling bad about this, apologizes to Kim. Luckily, Kim seems very nice and offers her a ride home, only to crash on the drive. Then, the two end up swapping bodies, but Pan's body is left in a coma. Pan, in Kim's body, searches for a way to get back to her own body, all while learning things about Kim that she couldn't imagine. Her idealized version of him from her fanfiction quickly crumbles, and even as she tries to right his wrongs, she fears what will happen when his soul returns.
Body swapping plotlines aren't typically plots I go for, and while this one had interesting dynamics with it, it still didn't quite get me invested. Of course, a major plotline is Pan trying to get her body back, but there were some dumb decisions made on her part that left me frustrated. However, I really enjoyed the ending and thought that the twists in the story were actually very interesting. As I said, I think that keeping with either the emotional or light tone throughout the series would've made this feel much more cohesive. I do wish I didn't have to ask the question, "is it technically incest if you kiss your brother, but it's someone else's soul?" but here we are.
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as sweet as sugar
surprisingly wonderful.. . ...to be honest I didn't expect this to be so much awesome cuse the rating was so low and the story was so repetitive ,but I loved the story line in spit of it....
also loved the cast's acting so so much (especially Kim's actor).....despite the fact that the story was too fancying, they turned it into something really believable and i just felt like everything made sense......
i was so longing to know what next episode is going to bring to me .....
i understand that it may be so dramatic and makes you cry a lot but it's worth it....
i am so glad that i skipped the negative reviews and decided to start watching this ....i loved it and i hope you'll all find it lovely and enjoyable....
thanks for reading this review...bye
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Don't rely much on reviews to determine which show is good or not
Yes, so like every other person I was skeptical about this show, but I had nothing to do and said okay let me try it.Believe me, if I say I was wasn't hooked I am a LIAR. This show was bomb!
The acting...oh my, I must say that First, that guys is a freaking acting genius. The role he acted was..what should I say? It looked like it was simple but it wasn't? Anyway He gave the role another meaning. He was the person who hooked me from the beginning to the end followed by Ohm and the girl who played pan's best friend. I loved them.
The visuals were good too. I think the production did a good job in this one.
The story....ehn not so original but it was looking fresh with the way it was handled...the ending was not what we wanted but the show gave me a bitter sweet feeling I guess I could manage.
The show overall is interesting, the acting really was worth seeing and I highly recommend watching it, also I can see my self re watching this in no time. Hahaha.
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This review may contain spoilers
There's a lot to say
First I'll say that from a technical aspect, The Shipper is impressively well put together. Combined with good pacing, the show has a generally attractive and easy-to-watch style. Sometimes you watch a (GMMTV) show and are hit by a feeling of awkwardness or emptiness from a given composition, dialogue, or blocking. To its advantage, The Shipper is especially polished.For approximately 11 episodes, I honestly thought The Shipper was somewhat of a mini-masterpiece. I had my gripes about it from time to time but as an overall show it's funny, crazy, and engaging. I've seen people say that the humor was over-the-top but because I watched it with a friend we had a ball. Sometimes for a show like this, over-the-top and absurd is a good thing. You can't have a show about fujoshis and not get crazy with the comedy. It keeps a good ironic air about the show's themes.
The Shipper somehow also managed to get so sad in episode 11 that I was crying like I watched someone die in real life. I love devastating media maybe because I'm a water sign or something but a successful tearjerker is the best in my opinion. Even though I could already tell Kim was dead by the time The Angel of Death said it, hearing the confirmation was a mega DAMN moment. The following scenes with Khett and Way are something you don't get often in comedy. Kim's death not being a fake-out also isn't something you get often with comedy. Unlike everyone else I actually really appreciated that they had the guts to kill him and keep him dead. Adding that kind of realism to an otherwise over-the-top and absurd show is especially impactful.
I see a lot of complaints about the romance aspect of the show. First of all, needing to neatly categorize things as BL or not and judging a show entirely on whether or not it fits your idea of BL is kind of insane. Like you're just blatantly a fujoshi if you're at that point. I have seen a more rationally-based critique of Kim and Way's story and its tragic end, a well-known and much-hated trope within LGBT media. While I honestly understand this critique, I feel like The Shipper was just unfortunate that Kim and Way were the only same-sex pairing and the tragedy had to hit them. The relationship between the two was (miraculously) well-navigated for a show like this one. We dodged the bullet of Way being in love with Pan unknowingly, we found out that Kim also loved Way before he died, and the relationship between the two had proper dimension and meaning. I don't agree with the sentiment that The Shipper is another case of "fake BL" or "technical het", nor did it feel like a case of "bury your gays".
For me, The Shipper would maintain a solid 10 stars with all this considered. But there are some glaring issues that cause major deductions. It's fairly early on in the show that we find out Kim is in a relationship with his teacher for access to exam answer keys. This is handled ABYSMALLY by the show writers. Pan, albeit a teenager who is yet to have fully developed a moral compass and sense of nuance, irkingly brands Kim a terrible person because he's been cheating in school. Maybe, in some universe, the worst thing in the eyes of one kid is seeing another kid cheat, but in my universe where I went to grade school for 12 years and lived as a teenager, I can't say my mindset ever aligned with Pan's. This is so reminiscent of the scene in The Gifted where Namtarn finds out Wave was being groomed by a teacher who stole his intellectual work, and her first reaction was "You got her fired?!?!?!?" like wow what a takeaway. It's not a cultural thing either. Grooming in media, specifically the student-teacher thing, is too often portrayed as a non-issue or a minor issue. For the way Pan handled that situation, I was already ready to deduct maybe 2 stars from the overall rating.
Then there's what I thought was the most glaring issue in the show, but I never see it get talked about seriously. They legitimately had Khett kiss his brother's body. I can't ever describe the reaction my friend and I had to watching that kiss happen in real time. We really didn't think they'd do it. At worst, we thought they'd switch the actors out so it was Prigkhing standing in for First. But they didn't switch. Absolutely insane. For that alone I honestly contemplate giving the show a 1 star rating.
Honestly the biggest insult to injury was seeing that fucking teacher show up again at the end. She got a happy ending by finding love with someone her age, which the narration describes as "not making the same mistakes". She should have been dragged off screen in handcuffs. I cannot believe she showed up to that boy's funeral. The only acceptable ending for her was in jail or dead. I can't wrap my head around the way The Shipper portrayed what is, completely and absolutely, a predator. And the show was doing well in all other aspects for 11 whole episodes. I was even able to look past (albeit barely) the Angel of Death's creepy love for teenage boys, since a young audience has young taste and that's reflected in the ageless inhuman angel character. But episode 12 had the craziest double whammy that honestly ruined the show for me.
I did love most of the show. I honestly thought it was excellent. There are just some things that I can't forgive morally. For that reason I can't even recommend the show either. It was the most disappointing case of ruining-a-perfectly-good-thing I've ever seen. That being said I don't regret watching, so all things considered I give The Shipper 5 stars.
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Waste of time
Horrible ending, questionable writing, so many plot holes, annoying lead character and hints of queerbaiting. The only redeeming quality is the acting.The first fiew episodes were very promising, but the quality of story telling dropped severely midway through the series. Thank god the director/screenwriter didn't attempt to ruin another bl after this.
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