Lhong Fai (2017)

Powerful acting

I was blown away by Baifern's acting here. She really does carry the lead role with a lot of charisma. The surrounding characters were mostly shades of gray themselves except for the protagonist's friends. Most of them were fairly selfish and vindictive themselves and in a way it portrays that one's birth does determine one's outcomes a fair bit. However, it shows that human dignity is possible no matter what one's social class is. I think this is a show you watch and then think about for a long time. I didn't expect Thai TV shows to be so intense. Kudos for the writer to showcase the issue of traficking which affects 4 million people every year in the world. This isn't just drama, it's reality. The story was a bit moralizing and in a way I was slightly disappointed by the way it ended. There was redemption where the protagonist finds courage and remorse though. Still, one expects TV shows that portray dichotomies of choices to have clear outcomes. It's rated G in Thailand, maybe because of the moralizing but it's still pretty violent at times. This would have been an 13\18+ show in India or else for sure. Overall, definitely worth a watch.

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Karnkaew (the protagonist) could’ve focused on her studies and taken advantage of her amazing skills such as public speaking, language ability and people skills, wait until she finish school and land a nice job to steadily lift herself out of poverty, instead she decided to make quick money by abusing her beauty in being a high class escort providing sexual services while pretending to be a social elite with expensive tastes, all in the hopes of tricking a wealthy man marrying into wealth. But the truth will out, her lifestyle isn’t sustainable, once her facade was stripped away, everything gone into shambles.

Baifern’s performance blew me away, although the story is depressing and the protagonist is nothing but a manipulative woman with huge insecurities about being poor, one can’t help but sympathize with her in her desperation despite her problematic approach to life by cheating her way to the top, even though it would never work out for her, because she’s trying so hard and had given her all. All in all it’s quite a moral tale that really made a hard impact considering Karnkaew’s tragic ending.

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A chilling, cautionary tale

Karnkaew (the main protagonist) has it all: fluent English skills, charming looks, the gift of gab, and excellent people skills. Men, throw themselves at her and want to be with her, women are envious of her and want to be with her, and it seems as though many people are deeply invested in her well-being.

But the undeniable fact is that Karnkaew is absolutely dissatisfied with her life. She feels that her family's poverty is holding her back from achieving the one thing she desires more than anything else in life: an upper-class lifestyle. So what does she do? Rather than work her way up the ladder like everyone else, she becomes a courtesan, thinking that it'll bring her quickly to her goal.

Throughout the show she seduces and has sex with various men, and even manages to get into a relationship with someone from a rich family. In her obsessive, blind, and dangerous pursuit of becoming a member of the upper-class, she burns bridges with the people around her, uses people to get what she wants, people away willingly, and makes friends with the wrong people. In the end, her blind desire became her tragic undoing and guided her to her untimely death. As depressing as it is to say this, the man who sold her to the German brothel was spot on—if all that Karnkaew wanted was a good life, why did she choose to become a courtesan?

Chala, Karnkaew's best friend, on the other hand is not like her; she does not share Karnkaew's obsession and only wishes to lead an honest, hard-working life. In the end, her commitment to honest living and being true to herself pays off; she ends up escaping a life of poverty.

Many Thai people, especially those in living in urban areas and the younger generation, equate wealth with superior social status. Anything that makes a Thai person look good is taken positively; anything that makes a Thai person look bad is not. Many run into problems trying to become wealthy, and Karnkaew is the perfect representation of that—she went from a top-tier courtesan who was admired by all in Thailand to a low-level sex worker who was beaten and mistreated by all in Germany. She completely understood the gravity of what she truly lost by becoming blindly obsessed with wealth and power.

Let this show serve as a brutal, cautionary reminder that a blind obsession with wealth and status does more harm than good. It poisons relationships, makes you a bad person, and makes you completely blind to the people who simply want to help you.

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