A Tale of Ylang Ylang (2022)

Repetitive, but a powerful lakorn … one of my favorites!

Why haven’t I written a review for this yet? It has been two years. 😅 A Tale of Ylang Ylang is one of my favorites, so this deserves a review. I am coming back on to write this review since hearing the news of Nine and Baifern’s breakup. 😔

To start off, A Tale of Ylang Ylang is such a great lakorn and I personally enjoyed it. I really like these family conflict type of lakorns. It was an interesting story seeing Ngam’s journey in taking back what was rightfully her family’s. The rags to riches / riches to rags troupe was interesting to follow as well. And let’s not forget the friends to lovers love story. Baifern and Nine were so powerful in this!

What I liked:
. There was so much chemistry between Nine and Baifern. I don’t know if I like this or Friend Zone more because they’re both so good!
. It’s an interesting storyline. It kept me on the edge of my seat. I looked forward to every episode.
. Baifern was amazing in this!!

What I disliked:
. I wished Nine’s role was less boring
. Of course, it got really repetitive. It was like Ngam was at the palace, left, and came back again, it was indeed annoying to watch.
. I would say DO NOT watch this if you think repetitiveness is annoying or you don’t like slow-ish lakorns.
. Story progression could’ve been better as well. Sometimes it felt like the story was going nowhere.
. I also did not appreciate Prince Chang’s character.

Overall, I rated this an 8.5. And in my book, an 8.5 means this is really good. This is really good and I would consider it one of my favorites. I mainly liked this because I enjoyed seeing Ngam take back what was rightfully her family’s and her journey towards doing that. + the love story blossom between Tian and Ngam. I loved that it was kind of like a friends to lovers type of love. It’s just one of those dramas that makes you feel good when watching and it gives a sympathetic feel to it. You sympathize with the characters so much and I love to feel that way when watching lakorns. After two years, I’ve also found myself rewatching this a bunch!!

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A tale of two halves

There aren't specific spoilers in this but it does talk about the entire lakorn in broad strokes. If you haven't started it or are in the early stages, keep watching and come back to this later if you want.

If you've gotten stuck half way through and are trying to make sense of your reactions, this should be safe enough to read. It was well worth finishing and a couple of days off before continuing helped. I ended up loving both halves for very different reasons.

The first eight episodes are my favourite of the Channel 3 lakorns I've seen. Full of tropes but underpinned by strong statements on sexism, prejudice (Chinese against Thai, Thai against Chinese), privilege and how these affect people's lives. Excellent pacing between the happy friends and tense families. The what is age anyway casting was a bit odd, but I'm used to that and Baifern especially has the playfulness to make it work. And Nine's Tian is so kind and caring you'd forgive everything, not that there's all that much to forgive.

One of the things I've learned from watching lakorns is that the most far-fetched plot will still work if there's internal consistency around key elements and if the core emotions ring true. Getting the "why they can't be together yet" right is crucial to this.

They didn't do this in the rather abrupt shift between the halves. There was some attempt to build in internal consistency leading up to it and a wee bit after, but the emotional truth was compromised. The earlier balance was also lost and the story became mired in stress and tension for a few episodes.

The second half though is more ambitious in scope and because of that at times more awkward. It is also deeper and richer. Looking back, I can see how the first half magnifies the emotions of the second and is necessary to the overall story. I have mixed feelings about the abruptness of the shift - if they had written in greater internal emotional consistency in the first half, the experience would have been different. Not necessarily less, but different. I'm not sure I want to give up those first eight episodes as they are. So I've come round to accepting the abrupt shift while still being critical of it.

In the end, through all its movements - young love, discrimination and prejudice, the damage wealth and privilege brought to a family, it's ultimately about the dignity and strength of women.

If you're not sure about continuing, in my opinion it's certainly worth the time.

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