Phetra Naruemit (2023)

TL;DR - A solid and very well produced time travel lakorn. The plot, characters, production and music are great. Romance is top notch. The kind of drama where I wish I could forget what happened so I can watch it again. There are hiccups here and there but overall I'm happy, and it's worth it to see the magic of Mike/Mook again.

Obligatory disclaimer that I love this couple although even if I didn't, I would still give this lakorn a high score. Not only is the romance superb, the story, secondary characters, music, production are also amazing, and in my eyes, done very very well. I didn't have much expectation going into this, and I had doubts that Mike could pull off a classic boran character, but I'm happy to say that I was wrong on all counts. I'll start with the story first.

The story is about a modern girl (Mae Orn) who travels back 200 years in the past due to a spell the male lead (Khun Luang) chants to find his soulmate. Time travel plots can be tricky, because you have to make sure it all makes sense, and that there's no loopholes the audience can see. This aspect was done well because every character was held accountable for their part in making sure Mae Orn was sent to and stayed in the past. There was purpose and logic to the things characters did in the past that made the events in the future timeline make sense. It really comes full circle in the end. The pacing of the drama was good and although the rest of the story was simple, there was a good mix of comedy and fluff to make me happy, but enough tragedy so that it didn't feel stale and out of touch. 

Of course, I have to gush over our leads, Khun Luang and Mae Orn. I wasn't sure Mike could pull off a gentlemanly character since I'd only seen him in ML and KKSR but boy was I wrong. He was sweet and sensitive, but not a doormat. A total gentleman who could think for himself, has strong morals, is an advocate for women, has a super nice body (:P), and much more. I loved that he could see through Bua's scheming (mostly) and his devotion towards Mae Orn. Mookda was great as Mae Orn; someone who was spunky and not afraid to be herself, but knew when to draw the line and be conscious of her surroundings. Her teaching her modern ideals and mannerisms to the servants and Khun Luang was super endearing and I replay those moments a lot. She could be a bit too self-righteous at times (esp concerning Mae Bua) but it wasn't too in my face, so I could ignore it. 

Since I love our leads as individuals, I'm obviously gonna support them being together and my goodness, I swooned and fangirled hard every time these two interacted. Khun Luang's gazes of love to Mae Orn gave me the same feelings of when Por Date would gaze at Mae Karakade (Love Destiny). The magical Mike/Mookda chemistry struck again, and it was a beautiful slow burn romance that gave me all the feels. I liked how the drama didn't make them fall for each other just because of the soulmate spell, but made them spend time together and go through events that tested their relationship. Whenever one got mad, the other would come over and talk to them to figure out why and try to resolve it. They both openly communicated with each other, and both wanted to protect the other at their own expense. I honestly could go on and on about their love story but for now I'm just gonna say I'm very happy with it and it's a well deserved HEA.

The secondary cast were all great and added to the plot. I especially love the servant gang, who added colour to the story and this drama wouldn't have been such a great watch without them. MVP is of course Por Yong, who was the reason Khun Luang could meet Mae Orn. Kaew surprised me; Chorkaew (Kaew's future self) was pretty flat but Kaew herself was sassy, bubbly and her facial expressions were always on point. I love how the servants (wanna shout out Chun and Mun too!) shipped Khun Luang and Mae Orn together and all had great comedic timing. My most replayable moments besides the romance is the servants being silly and interacting with the leads. Khun Luang's mom was awesome as well because despite her initial prejudice, she was able to see Mae Orn as a good person and the one who her son loves. Mom Tos was also an awesome 2nd ML. I actually also liked the villains Maggie was killed it as Mae Bua), although I have an issue with them that I'll discuss next.

I had some issues with this lakorn that came up repeatedly that I couldn't ignore. The biggest one are the villains; to start, I liked how terrible and cruel Mae Bua and Mom Thep were because although they made my blood boil, you can't deny they added excitement and propelled the story forward. What I disliked was how one dimensional they were and how they would repeat the same mistakes over and over with very little consequence until the very end. It got tiring to see the same cycle of either Mae Bua scheming to kill Mae Orn, or Mom Thep scheming to get with Mae Orn. After their failures, they would get told off but that did absolutely nothing and they would repeat the same shenanigans. Honestly, I wanted to see some growth from them or them having other goals other than to harm Mae Orn. Some of the editing also felt a little choppy and abrupt; we'd be in one scene feeling sad then cut to another scene that's happy, but before you could feel happy, you get cut back to the sad scene. I also wish Mae Orn had a bit more backbone when dealing with Mae Bua. I'm also salty about P'Jun; the actress who plays her tends to play the villain roles, so I was happy to see her in a good role. But then her character got stupid (I know it's following the novel but ugh) and I was very disappointed that she got with and stayed with Mom Thep despite all the shit he put her through. It was somewhat cathartic for her to end him, but I felt like her character was tragic when it didn't have to be.

The music was absolutely stunning and I love both OSTs a lot. It was played appropriately and guided the mood of the drama very well. I also loved the boran sound effects and background music. Overall, if you couldn't already tell, I love this drama a lot and had a great time watching. I was pretty much obsessed from the beginning and it got to the point where I knew I had to spare at least 2-3 hours for each episode, because of how much I would pause to take it in or to replay certain moments. I highly recommend this if you love time travel love stories and will certainly re-watch this on my own time.

As a side note; I've been a Mike/Mook fan since 2020, ever since I saw them in Maturot Lohgan. That drama has a special place in my heart as well as this pairing. Somehow, the chemistry of these two hits me differently than other pairings, and I always go back to them when I need a serotonin boost. I'm quite thankful that I was able to watch three different types of quality lakorns with these two as the leads, and if this is the last, then I'm beyond satisfied that this was the one to end it off. Of course I wouldn't complain if they were paired up again...but maybe after some time passes haha

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If you’re into time travel drama. This is for u. This is my 3rd drama with this pair.

Phetra Naruemit is in Sankrit language which mean a spell to find a soulmate. It’s sth I didn’t expect to see these 2 are paired up again in another drama. This is the third drama. I want to introduce the characters to the audiences.

Khemiorn or Mae Orn (female lead): a reasonable and curious woman but also goofy, she’s very nice. She traveled back in time to 200 years ago by the spell that ML used. She could’ve lost her life in her present time luckily that ML used the spell.

Khun Luang (a title) or Rachamontri (male lead): he’s very chilled, helpful and fell in love with our Mae Orn at first sight. But unfortunately, he has a fiancée name Bua due to the promise of his father. Bua’s father and his father made a promise that they will be in laws but he doesn’t like her at all. If he really likes her, they wouldn’t been married already, he keeps delaying because he wants to marry a woman that he loves.

Mae Bua: she is the villain, very jealousy, very evil and insecure. She loves the ML too much. She blamed everything on Mae Orn for coming to stay at Champa House. The plot of this drama isn’t heavy, u could’ve guessed already that Grandma Bua (present) is Mae Bua who seeks revenge on Mae Orn in every life.

If you’re really curious for the ending, u should watch it. I will put the link down here for English subtitles.
https://ohsweethaven.com/petranaruemit/

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