Khemjira

boring

This BL is far from being my favorite one this year…

Personally, I think they chose the wrong novel to introduce a new DMD couple. Why do I say that? Simply because this story seriously lacks Boys Love. For me, the main couple had absolutely no chemistry probably because the story itself didn’t help. It honestly felt like I was watching Ari Aster’s Midsommar.

The story drags on for 12 episodes, each almost two hours long, and in my opinion, much of the series had nothing to fill that amount of time, making the BL feel slow and boring most of the time.

What I didn’t like:

Acting:

Namping: He still needs a lot of training and acting lessons to become a convincing actor. In this BL, there are about three scenes where the supposed love of his life is nearly dying, and he just keeps that blank expression — it was driving me crazy. He’s also really dull in the romantic scenes.

Keng: Didn’t impress me either, but compared to Namping, at least he tries. Especially in the romantic scenes, he acts in a more passionate way.

Tle and FirstOne: I don’t think they’re acting geniuses, but they made the show more bearable for the viewers. The main couple was just too boring, bland, and chemistry-free. I had seen a previous BL with them and liked it much more.

Episode Length:

Way too long, and several of them had nothing interesting going on to justify nearly two hours. It became dragging and tiring.

Past Lives:

We find out the protagonists are connected through past lives, but honestly, I think that plot point only made their lack of chemistry worse. It felt like they were obligated to be together in the present.

Story:

I found it very dull and slow. Scary? Not at all especially for people used to horror movies.

Characters:

Characters often act in ways that make no sense none of them felt consistent.

What I liked:

Culture:

This BL shows a bit of Thai culture — chants, traditions — and I found that part really interesting.

Production Value:

You can clearly tell there was investment in this BL.

Special Effects:

Also very well done.

Music:

I liked it too.

Ramphueng:

The actress who played the ghost definitely delivered the best performance in the series.

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afraid that my standards will be so high after this

let’s be honest , one of the best BL series out there. very well done and such great quality, i’m so impressed:

-Interesting story, mystery, and a bit of horror (mostly ep 1 about jumpscares, later not much ), gorgeous mls.
-both the first and second couples got a good amount of screen time.
-a satisfying ending.
-i love how they focused on the characters as people, not just their romances. each character got their own time and space to be explored.
-CharnJet :i love their vibe together so much, so fun and adorable together.
-Ramphueng, I can never hate her. i really appreciate how they portrayed her as more than just a ‘villain.’ you can see her as a person, understand her pain and reasons, she almost made me cry two times.

i truly hope they make more bls with this level of quality , it feels so refreshing.

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Episode 8 Made Me Write This Review

I don’t usually write reviews, but Episode 9 of Khemjira (the double episode / 2-hour special) left me no choice — it was that good.

This episode contained everything a BL watcher hopes for and more. Even though Khemjira is technically a horror BL, it hasn’t relied on jump scares up to now. Instead, Episode 9 was a perfect mix of funny, emotional, lovable, exciting and genuinely scary moments. It gave us progress in both the main leads and the second couple, revealed important backstory, showcased amazing chemistry, and still managed to end on a heart-stopping cliffhanger.

This is the episode that truly made the show. It reminded me why we all tuned into Khemjira in the first place — and why we’re proud to call ourselves Khemjira fans. 10/10.

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It's not that good.

This is the most overrated series of the moment.

Khemjira is a Thai BL series that promised to combine a horror story with romance (boys’ love). The premise was very interesting a character, Khem, who suffers from a family curse.

The problem is that they decided to make the story too long, and at times it’s quite tedious to watch. The romance part was the weakest, in my opinion. At the beginning, the character Keng the shaman in the story treated the main character badly because he had promised not to get involved with curses and wanted to dissuade Khem from being around him. After that, there wasn’t much progress in their romantic relationship. In the middle of the story, we suddenly find out they’re going to end up together “just because,” due to some past-life connection a very lazy type of writing.

The character Khem is probably the least developed. He feels like one of those 1950s female characters who exist only to be saved by “the stronger man, the virile hero who will rescue him.” That kind of trope should have been left behind long ago. The character lacks personality and is simply pushed along by the plot.

The character Peem didn’t appeal to me either he’s that stoic, without much expression who’s only there to save the damsel in distress, even if at first he doesn’t want to.

The main couple has no chemistry, and worse, they fall into the same type of pairing we’ve seen in other BLs: one tries to give a passionate performance (Keng), while the other feels lifeless, cold, and dull like a puppet without emotion.

The secondary couple seems to exist only to make up for the lack of romance in the main one. The main couple could be considered a “slow burn,” but there’s a difference between a well-developed slow burn and complete stagnation.

The acting was very poor, as is common with this production company. Especially Namping there are about three more demanding scenes that required stronger acting, and he didn’t deliver in any of them.
I also found the dialogue uninspired and sleepy, and the episodes overly long and boring.

The good part of the series is the special effects, the music, and the performance of the actress who plays Ramphueng. You can see there was at least some effort and investment in this BL series.

As for the ending, I found it anticlimactic. I didn’t like it much, to be honest.

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Ambitious but lengthy and with disappointing male leads

They say that writing a good short story takes more skill than coming up with a sprawling epic. I don’t know how much I agree with that. What I know for sure is that this series’ runtime should have been cut by a third. As it is, some parts of the show are barely watchable even at 1.75x speed. It’s a shame that the plot drags so badly, because many conditions for success are met: We've got stunning sets, convincing horror elements and spiritual rituals, as well as a talented cast of side characters with captivating past lives. I mean, the lovable Khemmika? JinDa and their present-day reincarnations? Ramphueng as a sympathetic but reasonably frightening karmic enemy?

Would a tight story on top of that make me forgive Domundi for pairing a block of tofu with a slab of marble (both giving middling performances), though? I’m just glad Khem is a man and not a woman, otherwise this character would be a parody of meek femininity. And don’t get me started on Thong and Ake or Grandma Si. Yes, my dislike for child companions and sick elders might be more of a personal failing than a storytelling flaw, but it sure didn’t help whenever I almost dropped this show. Apropos nothing: Did I mention the series’ imperfect handling of domestic abuse and infidelity? I guess the pacing was just one of several issues after all. And yet, there’s no denying Khemjira its strengths, which drew me back in every time I was about to give up.

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Gorgeous but Drifting

This series kicked off with a lot of promise. Visually, it was stunning—right from the first few episodes, you could tell the production team put serious thought into the aesthetics. The cinematography was gorgeous, the color grading was rich, and the locations were just beautiful, not to mention the lovely face of actor Keng . It felt fresh, like they were really trying to offer something different this time around, and I was totally on board. But somewhere along the way, the pacing started to drag. Unfortunately, the storytelling didn’t quite keep up with the visuals. It stretched out longer than it needed to, and there were moments where I found myself checking how much time was left in the episode. That said, there was one clear standout: the character of Ramphueng. Her arc was hands down the most compelling part of the series. The way her journey of revenge and eventual forgiveness unfolded was powerful. It had the potential of becoming a memorable BL series, but it didn’t quite hit that mark. Still, it’s a good watch overall. The visuals alone make it worth checking out. I’d give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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It could be much better but..

It took me a while to collect my courage since horror is definitely not my forte, and if you can relate this, then let me tell you that ep 1, 2 & 9 is the only scary part. So, you don't have to worry too much about it.

Tbh, horror genre is quite new in BL entertainment, so I might put a lil bit of high hope in this one, and I have to say that I feel a lot of disappointment in this one..

1. There's too much side character storyline that I wish they could prolong. Cutting them short just to fit everything in 12 eps were kinda leaving the audience hanging and confuse. (You can clearly see this at the end when one of the character ask the questions to the other people)

2. The storyline itself.. is too slow. I know that this series is mainly focuses in Ramphueng and Khem but the romance is also a genre of the series and it started to get bloom around ep 7 which is more than half of the series. The ghost itself also rarely appeared in the early eps, and started to get heavy at the end, makes me thinking that you can easily skipped the whole series in half (started on ep 7) and still be able to understand the whole series.

3. The ending of Ramphueng.. killed my mood. I don't know if the others would love that kind of ending but not me. The fact that she have hurt a lot of people during her existence as a ghost, I feel like it should be more than that. This part really makes me wanna drop the series right away, making me rethinking my whole life decision in starting the series.

I know it can be much better as it's basically not about the cast skill or series production, but more towards the plot itself.. Due to their beautiful location and settings choice, the ost is quite pleasant to hear (ofc, casting the singer couple as the 2nd lead) and the acting of Namping is soo good, the way he switched between a few roles, and also Keng, the way he express his emotion, when he cried and feel too much of his emotion.. I must say, both of them just debut but it makes me wondering if it is just a lil white lies?

But still, for me, it's totally not worth to rewatch (unless you want to see the certain scenes), and I wish the company can give another series that's much better than this storyline to the couple. They have so much potential and it's definitely shouldn't be wasted.

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The mythology pulls you in — the couple keeps you at a distance

The mythology pulls you in — the couple keeps you at a distance
Review:
The premise genuinely hooked me. A family curse that kills every male heir before their twenty-first birthday, a young man raised under a girl's name to preserve the protection, and then at twenty the veil starts to lift and he begins seeing things he shouldn't. As far as I'm aware this is one of the first Thai BL series to put Thai mythology this centrally at its heart, and that alone makes it worth paying attention to. That part of the story stuck with me.
Where I personally struggled was with KengNamping as a couple. They're beautiful to look at, but the dynamic felt overly familiar to me — Namping feminine, androgynous, delicate, in need of protection; Keng sexy, mysterious, powerful. I've seen that pairing before and I wanted something more from it here. The added layer of Keng's priestly vows — his purity at risk if he gives in to attraction — could have created real tension, and occasionally it does. But with neither character willing or able to make a move, and both of them leaning heavily introverted, I found myself wondering at times whether these two would have anything to say to each other if the supernatural threat wasn't conveniently in the room.
Circling each other without really closing the distance gets exhausting after a while. The world the series builds is genuinely interesting — I just wished the people at the center of it felt a little more alive to each other.

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The chemistry was chemistrying, but the romance wasn’t romancing for the main couple

As someone who's been dipping my toes into the Thai BL dramas for a few years, I have been expecting a lot more from Khemjira. Let me tell you, this series had me feeling some pretty mixed emotions.

On one hand, I truly enjoyed watching the rich cultural and supernatural elements woven throughout the story. The show's deep dive into Thai mythology, shamanism, and the paranormal was a refreshing change of pace from the typical BL fare.

It was like a crash course in fascinating local folklore, and I ate it up. The production quality was also top-notch, with the longer episode runtime allowing the narrative to unfold at a more leisurely pace. As someone who appreciates a slow burn, I definitely liked that we had a lot of fleshed out scenes.

However, despite all these enticing aspects, I have to admit that Khemjira didn't quite live up to the hype for me. When I saw that rating here was 8.8, I was really expecting something extra extraordinary, especially in the romance department.

And the biggest issue I had with the drama is the lack of properly developed romance between the main leads, Khem and Peem. While their connection was rooted in a past-life narrative, the present-day development of their relationship felt incomplete and almost one-sided. Khem, in particular, came across as a passive and rather uninteresting character, failing to garner my sympathy and investment in his journey.

Khem's character development, or lack thereof was very disappointing. Of course, I did not expect from him to be doing some unnatural acrobatics, but he was reduced to cooking and washing dishes. He didn't seem to have any other interests. I think if the storyline about him being into art was developed a little bit more that would probably make him at least a bit more interesting.

Compared to Knockout," where the physically weaker protagonist actively participates in problem-solving and team efforts, Khem's passivity and reliance on others felt frustrating. As a viewer, I found it challenging to root for a character who seemed to be merely a "damsel in distress" rather than an active participant in his own story. I basically agree with everyone that I have seen said the same thing about the character.

Acting:

Keng’s performance of the shaman was a particular highlight. His Master was way too believable. I also am not going to put down Namping’s acting because I think he had to work with whatever was in the script. And as I have mentioned above, his character was not written very well. So I am not going to compare their acting because I haven't seen them in any other drama before.


In contrast, the secondary couple's storyline felt much more well-rounded and engaging, with a stronger sense of chemistry and emotional investment. This disparity between the main and supporting narratives was a bit jarring. I mean, the writers missed an opportunity to truly capitalize on the potential of the central romance.

NC scenes: they were well done, especially Charn and Jet’s scene. I thought it was the best one of the series. The NC in the final episode for lead couple wasn’t as good as the first scene they had in the earlier episode. But that’s just me.

Let’s put it this way: the chemistry was chemistrying, but the romance wasn’t romancing for the lead couple.


That being said, I did like the series for its bold departure from the traditional BL formula. Its cultural depth and production value is great, but ultimately the drama falls short in the crucial area of the well-developed romance between the main characters. While it may not have lived up to the hype for me, the series still offers a unique and thought-provoking experience. With more attention to the main character development and a stronger central romance it could have been a 15 out of ten for me. It's still worth a watch if you like slow burn.

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Boring

I just found it very boring. Each week before the episode I'd check to see how long the episode was and I'd have to hype myself up to watch it. But I found myself being distracted whilst watching, going on my phone and watching reels or just responding to messages. I can see why a lot of production companies are switching to Reels format because nobody has the attention span for episodes this long. I think if the episode allowance stretched to 14 episodes and could have been watchable. Or if they couldn't do that, they could have cut A LOT of it down with editing to make the episode duration bearable.

I just felt like scenes were dragged out and the director should have shouted "cut". I don't know how anyone can stare at one another for that long and keep eye contact. It also took so long for the characters to get out a sentence. One of my pet peeves is breaking up a sentence. Throughout the series it was very one note. Peem (Master) was very cold through out. He didn't let up or show much expression. Khem was always this fragile/delicate boy. I didn't feel the romance between the too very much. That emotional connection that Peem really had feelings for Khem and would do anything to protect him. And for Khem it just seemed like he had a crush on the Master but had no real reason to fall for him.

The final ep didn't need to be as long as it was. The resolve/plot was completed in the 40/50 mins. The rest of is should have been a separate special episode. The climax of the plot was very mellow dramatic. When Peem was being surrounded by Ramphueng servants Khem wasn't screaming out in worry for Peem. When Khem was getting whipped by Ramphueng he was screaming out in pain as you would expect when getting whipped. And that's also going back to the episode when Ramphueng was getting whipped. I know she was casting a curse but every time she was being whipped she could have screamed out in pain and in-between she could have carrie do with saying her curse. And Peem wasn't really fighting or objecting when Khem was getting strangled by Ramphueng. It was just all very melodramatic for a climax of the plot.

However, despite my complaints, I think it was a well written story just poorly executed. The special effects were immaculate, the best ones I've seen in a BL. The make up of Ramphueng and her servants were astonishing. And for this is the reason why I'm giving this series a 6. If it wasn't for these it would have been a much lower score and I probably would have dropped it much earlier.

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