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Cherry Magic thai drama review
Completed
Cherry Magic
21 people found this review helpful
by Zii3 Finger Heart Award1
Mar 4, 2024
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.0
Story 5.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 9.0
Rewatch Value 4.0
This review may contain spoilers

Started wonderfully clever then weak writing turned it simplistic and unsatisfying.

General spoilers only. Most people will like this, and I'd encourage giving it a try. I, however, was left quite disappointed, so I'm posting this review to give an alternative to popular opinion.

If you've never seen the Japanese live version (series, special episode, and movie), then you might enjoy this more. For me, the only thing the Thai version gave in the second half of the show that wasn't already far better portrayed by the Japanese version, was the physical intimacy.

This started so strongly then became yet another Thai BL let down by weak writing. At first, the screenplay was clever in how it honored the original material while adjusting things here and there to add some new depth to the characters and their interactions. I would give Ep 1-4 a 9.5/10. It was familiar in a comforting way yet fresh and interesting.

Then it slid into simplistic & shallow writing, it rushed plot and pivitol moments, became cheesy & corny, character arcs plateaued, the number of overheard thoughts dwindled away even when people were being touched, and an increasing number of plot points required suspension of disbelief (I'm not talking about anything magic related- that's just a natural part of this story). It started to feel more like a string of fan service moments than an emotionally moving story.

Because work and life challenges became so easy to get through, it felt like Achi and Karan didn't really get to grow as a couple. There wasn't a meaningful learning curve for them in navigating life as a team. (Especially when compared to the Japanese version.) Their words to each other are very sweet, but the further in the story goes, the more their love is told to the audience more than it's shown by examples (which wasn't the case in the beginning, which is why those episodes are stronger).

Tay and New kept me watching. Especially Tay; he's just a perfect match for the character of Karan. His energy and earnestness were endlessly endearing.

The theme song is great; it's so catchy I watched through the intro credits every week just to hum along.

I will rewatch Ep 1-4 at some point because I thoroughly enjoyed them, but I'll never sit through the rest of it again. I'd rather just watch the Japanese version.

GENERAL SPOILERS below.
My thoughts on episodes as I watched the weekly releases:

Ep 1-4: A great adaptation so far. It's clever in the way it added depth to the characters and in the differences from the Japanese live version. I'm excitedly looking forward to it every week. The casting is great, Tay in particular. I absolutely love Karan's zaney internal dialogue and Tay's vocal acting with it.

Ep 5-7: Good but not as great; it's feeling less clever but I'm still invested.

I wish I had skipped Ep 8 (or just watched the last 5 min)! It's is soooo awful. The plot of this episode is so contrived, idiotic, frusterating, ridiculous, and requires a stupidly high suspension of disbelief. The boss's reasoning and interference is shallow and cliche, and the fact that he let things get that far with the awful power-play client before intervening makes him a terrible boss and unlikable human being. And Achi stayed quiet too, which was frustrating.

Ep 9 was better than 8 but it felt like it rushed the really pivitol moments. There was a lot of sweetness but also a lot of cheesy-ness. This script is just not as good with slice-of-life writing as Japanese ones often are. It feels like the quality of the script has been unraveling for the past few episodes. I doubt I'll keep re-watching it like I do with the Japanese version. I felt the first few Eps were a 9.5/10 but I am now reducing my overall rating to a temporary 8/10, I'll see if that holds.

Ep 10 was better in pacing and content. The script did a better job building up to and proceeding from the pivitol moment of Achi reaching out to touch because he doesn't believe Karan's as okay as he says he is. I'm still feeling let down with the script; there are moments that are supposed to be hearfelt but miss the mark because they are a little too cheesy to me. Also, the plot stretches credulity to force certain things to happen and it makes things feel clunky and less believable, pulling me out of immersion and reducing my ability to stay emotionally invested. Tay and New are doing great with what they are given and are the reason why I'm still watching consistently (I'm also fond of the girl Pai). I'll probably be lowering my rating but I'll wait to see how the last two episodes pan out.

I do like how Karan and Achi talk things out every episode and never let misunderstandings simmer for long before resolving them. On the other hand, the fact that they do this consistantly (every episode after they start dating) and reletively easily, undermines the validity of how uneasy Achi feels about them being in different cities for 1-2 months. Half a year I would understand, but 1 month? When you have been able to communicate with each other well every time there's an uncertainty? They haven't even used the mind reading much. Achi's voice over thoughts have been much less systemically insecure and yet the script is having him act like that's still a big issue.

Ep 11: Only the last 2 scenes (42min in, aka the last 9min) with Karan and Achi exploring intimacy were really enjoyable. The rest of it was too cheesy, shallow, and rushed. The challenges and uncertainties of life (work and relationships) that were brought up were laughably easy and simple to navigate. The screenplay dumbs everything down to the point that it's not interesting and barely enjoyable. I had to speed watch most of this episode to get through the cringness.

Ep 12: So simplistic and cheesy it made me keep cringing and itching to skip forward. Again, potential life challenges were built up but then easy to get through once the time came (all of the family stuff felt so hollow). I was left feeling disappointed.
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