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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Funny, loveable, repetitive...

My first time reviewing here on MyDramaList. Can't believe I'm actually joining this community lol but oh well I am heated at this drama due to some of the characters, so I had to let it out somehow. Upon seeing the poster of this drama, I was interested in watching a drama with actors and actresses that I have never seen before.
Just a disclaimer, this is the first time I've seen any of these actors' projects so all of these faces are new to me :) I'll be giving full in-depth descriptions, so this is going to be LONG.

I'll start with the cast and their acting.

Mook as Mae Orn: Her acting was pretty solid, not awkward or anything. I loved how adorable she was with her meme-worthy facial expressions sometimes lol. My only complaint about her acting is that around a few episodes in, she just keeps the same confused or blank facial expressions whenever other people around her are talking about something. I don't know but maybe it's just the director's fault on that. About her character, I wished she fought back to the evil female villain a bit more because she was too passive sometimes that I hated it. I wanted to see her evolve and teach the evil villain some things or two, but that didn't happen.

Michael as Rachamontri (Khun Luang): Okay, I have so many complaints about his acting. All of his scenes were SO HARD and awkward to watch because of how boring and blank his face was. LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TIME he appears on screen, same face expression. No changes: no excitement shown, no anger shown, nothing. The only time he impressed me with his acting was when he smiled or even barely smiled with Mae Orn. His character is SOOOO freaking boring it makes me wonder how Mae Orn and Mae Bua even fell in love with him??? T T I literally cringed so hard at his scenes with Mae Orn because I could not sense their chemistry anywhere and felt like Mook literally carried their chemistry. Besides his chemistry with Mae Orn, he's supposed to be this mighty and superior official or something who works with the government but I don't see any assertiveness in him. He literally just shows up for his scenes, speaks a few words, and then everyone else is supposed to act scared of him?? Like even the actors who played his servants could pull off his role so much better. I wonder why he was casted in this drama and as the male lead because I was deeply disappointed with his acting and everyone else did so much better acting than him. And I heard that Michael and Mook have been paired together like 2 times before in different lakorns? Oh boy, how come their chemistry isn't that good in this drama then? Why do they keep getting paired together T T

Maggi as Mae Bua: Maggi's acting was spot on; she acted every single scene spectacularly. Every death stare, every tantrum, every crying scene, she delivered with absolute perfection. And she's so beautiful too, I became a fan of her lol. She's one of the best actors in this drama with the most difficult character to portray, like imagine acting like her on set. It would be kinda hard, but her role as Mae Bua was perfect for her. About her character, the beginning scene of her cursing Mae Orn made me think that I was gonna hate her so much in the following episodes, but I didn't really feel that way. In my opinion, she isn't really the villain because she doesn't drive the plot like the other male villain. All she wants is to marry the main guy but obviously the main guy doesn't love her because of her attitude and temper. Her character is really pitiful if you think about it because of what happens at the end, she didn't deserve it :( So, contrary to popular opinion, I actually enjoyed her character.

Bom as P'Thot: Much like the male lead, his acting definitely needs a lot of improvement because in a lot of the scenes where he shows up, he's awkward with his body language and doesn't really know how to act in some scenes. But he's decent and much better to watch than Michael, in my opinion.

Mameaw as Kaew: I was impressed by her acting, up to par with the other female actresses in this list and quite shocked she had her own dramas as the female lead. You go girl

The rest of the cast's acting was pretty good as well. Shout outs to the servants and the guards who were so entertaining and hilarious they kept me going through this show honestly XD

Spoilers and tantrums about some scenes:

I hated how some of the controversial events get brushed off like it's nothing. For example, in the earlier episodes of Mae Bua doing witchcraft on Mae Orn, like why didn't everyone try harder to punish Mae Bua?? Like she's clearly the perpetrator but she was easily let off like that and especially Mae Orn was able to drop it so easily. And also in like ep 16 where the villain literally beats the shit out of main guy's pregnant sister (Mae Jun), I hated watching that, but when the main guy comes to save his sister, all he did was say "let go of my sister" and that's it. He didn't even try and go ask if she's okay ??? or ask simple questions to address the abuse. Nobody else at the scene asked if she's okay like ??? And then Mae Jun is literally dumb enough to stay with the bad guy still after being abused like that... literally she should leave... I don't understand why the writers decided to make her character become so dumb and naive at the end, like she had the worst character development up until the end i guess. Also, I feel like the villain should have been behind bars a super long time ago, but why is he still out and about causing troubles to literally every member of society.

And then, Mae Orn gets kidnapped and becomes a victim of the evil villains' every plans so much that I wasn't even surprised anymore because the main guy is always gonna come rescue her over and over. So predictable that nothing was heart-racing for me anymore. But if you like a good damsel in distress, this drama may be for you although it's not executed perfectly.

Last but not least, something that doesn't make sense is when Orn comes back to the future and then P'Thot just sends her back when the grandma is about to shoot her. I mean can't they just run away before the grandma does anything??? Lmaoo funnies shit I've ever seen and how the rest of the family is just watching and tolerating the grandma's nonsense is such clownery to me. Literally, they didn't need to send Orn back at all if they just ran away ... and wait for the grandma to be thrown in jail so Orn wouldn't be stuck in the past for a whole year.

Overall, yes I would suggest and recommend this drama to everyone out there who loves time travel. I am able to overlook the flaws of this drama and really just focus on the storyline and growth of each character and their relationships with one another. This drama is definitely worth it because I've laughed and cried along with the moments. Although I had a lot to complain about this drama, it's pretty solid and at least doesn't cause me a headache because none of the characters are really that annoying to that extent. Don't let my complaints and critiques stop you from watching because I definitely enjoyed it very much despite my nitpicks. Anyways, sorry that this is such a long review lolll

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I'm stopping here

ok, I tried to be patient and keep watching... I really like the actress that plays the FMC, I've watched some other lakorns and I've liked the characters she played .I liked the actors overall, the story started out with an interesting premise... and I liked the servants of both main leads the most... BUT, the story, it just felt so forced... how many times do you have to forgive people that have tried to k*ll or r*pe you before you realize that they WON'T stop until they succeed!!!! it's driving me insane, so I'll just stop here, and move on to something else... this is clearly not for me

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=>a lakorn with big flaws (storyline) but catchy thanks to the CL

TT where a FL is sent by a spell to join her soulmate 200 years earlier, in the Ayutthaya era. But the ML is engaged to an evil FL2, who cursed the FL out of jealousy. This curse pursues the LF in all lives.

PROS
+++ a great CL with great chemistry
+++ excellent actors, including supporting actors
+++ Interesting background in Thai history
+++ a happy ending which completes all the events

CONS
### plot already seen (love destiny?)
### CGI and green background a little too obvious
### completely rigged storyline: TT, OK. But reincarnation, possession, black vs white magic???
### I wonder once again what is the use of the police (even corrupt) in Thailand??? Faced with such a violent grandmother Bua, "normal" heirs place her under guardianship and have her interned... :)

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TT où une FL est envoyée par un sort, rejoindre son soulmate 200 ans + tôt, à l'époque Ayutthaya. Mais le ML est fiancé à une evil FL2, qui a maudit la FL par jalousie. Cette malédiction poursuit la FL dans toutes ses vies.

PROS
+++ un super CL avec une belle alchimie
+++ d'excellents acteurs, y compris les acteurs de soutien
+++ Contexte intéressant dans l'histoire de la Thaïlande
+++ une ending happy et qui boucle tous les évènements

CONS
### plot déjà vu (love destiny ?)
### des CGI et fond vert un peu trop évidents
### storyline complètement pipée : TT, OK. Mais réincarnation, possession, magie noire, ???
### On se demande une fois de plus à quoi sert la police (même corrompue) en Thaïlande ??? Face à une grand-mère Bua aussi violente, des héritiers "normaux" la placent sous tutelle et la font interner ... :)

=>un lakorn avec de gros défauts (storyline) mais accrocheuse grâce au CL

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