Blkittykat

Jumanji meets the complexities of human nature

Jumanji is absolutely one of my favourite movies so imagine my delight when we got another dice/board game themed production, very along the lines of the original plot yet promising more danger and deep fangled insight into the human psyche - of complicated emotions like the guilt of actions, the delight of praise, the need to feel wanted, the threat of jealousy and much more.
We got barely a drop of this.

The Dark Dice, on paper, had a great formula. Eight strangers, some of them familiar, some of them friends, all get stuck in a game after an accidental roll of a dice. They discover that they're playing a game called Djuhety, a game of wits that will grant the winner a wish. They obviously have no choice but to play the first game since they're stuck in a parallel dimension similar to their own and realise that finishing the game is the only way to leave. There's no trust between most of them but they somehow get through it - and you get the sense that this is how the story will move - teamwork, discovering the secrets of the game, complicated emotions causing rifts and betrayals, your usual tropes.

Unfortunately, much like a lot of titles I've watched of a similar genre, it's strikingly clear that there are only two or three leads in this. The eight players is a red herring - the story focuses on its chosen players, and they're not even for the sake of continuity in most cases.
Samut, Aom, Mamay, they're clearly the main characters. Kaen, Mark, Pie, Don and Benz.. they're there to expedite the healing process of these characters.

And for the same reason, the games also work in a way to highlight the stories of the three of them. Which would usually not be a problem.. but I had the hardest time liking any of the characters. Literally any of them. Sure we want growth, but they began the series like they ended it, no real growth.

Besides the fact that no character had any impact on me, the story itself was such a rollercoaster. Exciting sure, but when it dropped, it was a steep drop and it only picked up slowly before engaging in another another steep drop. They chose to focus on three characters, but none of their arcs got a satisfying ending either!! Not a single one. The explanations, the reconciliations, the conclusions, something in each of them left me feeling a little.. bleh. The explanation regarding Samut's backstory involving Atom was used a means to get the audience to sympathize with Mamay. Mamay's reconciliation with Kaen, who she used and manipulated throughout their relationship was brushed aside because she helped him during one of the games. And the conclusion to Aom's story - the story which played a huge role in the latter half of the series - was the worst of the lot. I can't even consider that as something that occurred within the series.

The games themselves were good, I really enjoyed the different types of games and the gameplay involving strategy, trust and (unavoidable) manipulation - but the purpose behind the games was really convoluted.

Overall, depth is not what you want to be looking forward to starting this - it's has it's exciting moments, some decent acting and just kind of okay everything else. I wish all of the characters had equal focus, or atleast the chance to explore their backstories a bit more. But as it stands - this was a good thriller, but just an okay story.

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The plot that cried wolf

We know the story about the boy who cried wolf? This is the plot that did. The wolf in question here, much like the actual story, arrived only at the very ending.

Before everything else - I'd just like to clarify that I have neither read the source material nor am I the domain expert of Thai history of the purported time period. I have attempted to familiarise myself with it, but nowhere near enough.

I'm the Most Beautiful Count is a story about politics, social life, identity and love, all set at the crux of a period of change. The story begins with Prince, a popular artist, announcing that she is part of the LGBTQ+ community - to the joy of some and the chagrin of others. After a night out, she discovers that she is now in the body of Worradej, a nobleman from the kingdom of Thongburi, who was presumed to be dead. Now Worradej himself tells her in a dream/vision that Prince needs to identify and fulfill his desire - citing that both their desires are one and the same. With no other way to return to the present, Prince decides to discover what this is and fulfill it, and the very first clue she gets is that Worradej was involved in a secret tryst with someone he knew.

Prince discovers from Worradej's attendent Jade that it may have been one of two men - Kosol, the exiled prince of the kingdom or Banjong, a nobleman and scholar. With these clues in hand, "Worradej" soon discovers that the relationship between the three of them is much more complicated than thought previously - it now involves a conspiracy to dethrone the current king and Kosol's younger brother, Chaiyached, so that a new rule may be established along the lines of democracy.

I'm going to pause here for a second. Because just in this small portion of the plot, which spans around five episodes, we got a lot of information. We're introduced to all the main characters and we learn what drives them. Worradej, Kosol and Banjong were all part of a movement to establish a new form of governance, even before Prince arrived, and it is one of the biggest plotlines, that spans every episode.

Keep this in mind as we move along. Now, Chaiyached is the ruler once his brother was exiled, but he wants nothing more than to play around, relax and live his life, because he's a child.. an actual child. He does not seek the throne, he just wants to be himself and live with his brother because unlike everything that was said about him, he is kind, considerate, and again, just a kid. It is again heavily implied that the narrative of Chaiyached being the one who exiled his brother, of being a ruthless ruler, actually comes from Lord Somdet, a member of the court. Meanwhile, Prince discovers what actually led to Worradej's death was indeed related to a matter of the heart, as he had been in love with Banjong, but not as straightforward as Worradej being heartbroken over Banjong rejecting his feelings. The particular incident that led to Worradej's death had more to do with the movement they were all part of - and Worradej's father, who strongly opposed his son's involvement in it.

Prince believes that this is it, Worradej wants Banjong, and that is his heart's desire. But things are complicated once again because Prince is starting to develop feelings for Kosol, who was already in love with Worradej before Prince had arrived. Now obviously, being with Banjong is not Worradej's desire, evidenced by the fact that Prince doesn't return to the present, and the fact that she has now fallen in love with Kosol. Their desire is something else entirely. There's a huge portion of time spent on trying to confuse the audience about who Worradej will choose because with Prince's arrival, Banjong has developed feelings and Kosol has fallen even harder - and Prince believes that finding true love is what Worradej actually wanted, not Banjong.

Pause again. If you're wondering why I'm spending so much time on the romance and the love triangles, it's because they did. First however, it's easy to think that both Prince and Worradej's desire is equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community - because that is a huge plot point. It is one of the first things mentioned in episode one. It is very clearly a desire near and dear to Prince's heart, so it's easy to question why wasn't that her first instinct? The explanation is never really clear, but I believe it could be one of two reasons - mainly because Prince slowly but surely discovers that the reason Worradej joined the movement was to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and his own identity, as his own father has expressed his disdain and hatred towards Worradej, but also could be because Prince herself craves true love, believing that Worradej did the same. Again, it is not expressed clearly, more so in passing during many scenes, but never clearly during one.
Then, it is very clear that Kosol is the one Prince loves, making it so that Kosol is the one Worradej loves as well, in turn making the entire push and pull of "who is my true love" irrelevant to the plot.

Back to the plot. We'll pick back up with Worradej and Kosol entering into a relationship just as Banjong realises he loves Worradej, and Chaiyached deciding to stay with his brother and help him overthrow Lord Somdet, who has assumed de facto rule of the kingdom at this point. A lot of other things have happened between episode one and this point, events that directly contributed to the movement of the plot from hereon - including the clearance of all suspicions on Kosol, leading to a royal pardon. Now that Kosol is once again part of the royal fold, Chaiyached wants him back, but the situation is complicated by Lord Somdet and his ploy to take over the kingdom. So they decide to face him head on, gathering troops and marching to the capital to overthrow him. When this doesn't work, they decide on a more tactful method - they decide to trick him. Now again, much more has happened along the lines of political ploys, resulting in a culmination at the palace, leading to the events in the finale - which both delighted and disappointed me.

Because true to form, they addressed the two major plotlines in the story, almost wholly, but again true to form, I believe a little more would've gone a long way. In trying to actively establish all that hadn't been said in the last twelve episodes, the plot lost track of itself and eventually resembled something that was done to enhance the romance while also alluding to the plot.

Before I make my actual observation, based on the series and series alone, I do want to talk a bit about the adaptation from the novel itself. Once again, I haven't read the original content, nor am I the domain expert on the history of the period. A lot of my knowledge is based on the research of others, and I am not here to comment on the changes made or the details excluded in the adaptation. There's just one thing I would like to highlight relevant to the series itself as someone who's watched it, that the intensity and direct approach to the story would be tempered down in the adaptation.

Now it's not the actual plot points or storylines from the novel that I'm referencing here, it's simply the notion that any and every reference to political or social issues has been tempered down - which is true. The series is my only material source of the story, and even then, it's very obvious that they never actually made it a point to make any points.

Take the fight for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community for example: it is the crux of the whole story - it is Worradej's desire in the past, Prince's in the present, and a key part of the new governance that all the characters are fighting for, including being very personal to Kosol, who was exiled for being a part of the community, and Banjong, who is discovering his identity.
And I will never say that they did not address it, they did and it was incredible, but I only wish they'd done it completely.
Because every plot point in this series came to a stand still before it was ever concluded, only for a slightly rushed tie - up in the finale, and so did the thoughts and sentiments they were trying to express along with it.
Changing the setting to be a fictional kingdom meant they could once again refer to history at their discretion - history is written by the victor after all, but fiction somehow allows history to be redetermined?
So many details like this allowed them to make a point without really making it - making me appreciate the conversations they did create, but leaving me lost in limbo between trying to determine if it was enough and struggling with the prospect that they could have done nothing at all.

It's confusing.

The plot itself was incredibly confusing because of this intermittent point making, it takes some connecting of the dots to make complete sense of everything brought to the screen, and then some fill in the gaps to get it to be coherent.

They tried to fill in the gaps by including a ton of romance and relationships between all the characters, including friendships, kinships, and brotherly bonds. Which worked to an extent, but only because of the actors.
Nut played Prince and Worradej with incredible depth and flair, balancing what little we know about both Prince and Worradej themselves to create a great character.
Ping as the stoic and resilient Kosol, Pop as the shy yet sly Banjong, Lee as the kind and faithful Jade and Aton as the playful and smart Chaiyached were all equally well played by their actors.
They carried the series where the plot couldn't and I really appreciate that.

At the end of the day, I'm just incredibly disappointed that this was a chance to make something of note - and that's not a claim out of left field, and also not a claim that they didn't try - but the final outcome read more as a romance than much else, and makes you wonder what could have been.

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The loop to find happiness

We know the drill. You have the worst day ever. Everything goes wrong. You make the silliest mistakes or the worst choices. Feels like the universe is out to get you. Eventually, you end up reliving it all over again. Only you're not lying in bed at 2AM, scrolling through the 'worst moments of my life' highlights reel in your brain. You're literally living it. Over and over again.
We know the drill with time loops.

But what happens if the time loop is your horror movie, which somehow transitions into a rom - com, only for you to end up realising that.. your time loop is not yours to control after all?

Some Day With Someone took that exact trajectory, and has become one of my favourite time loop stories in the process. Without giving too much of the story away (it's a good story), this had everything you look for in a groundhog day feature, while also being heartfelt and grounded.

I loved that the FL, Mesa was so relatable. I loved that I could personally relate to her on so many levels. I loved that the ML, Ben was the dorkiest sweet pie ever.

The humor was understated, the romance slapped and the acting was wonderful.

I walked into this expecting a quintessential - finding true love - kind of story but this was so much more.

I hope you like this when you watch it, because I kind of want this review to have convinced you to give it a try! I kid, but seriously, give it a try :)

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The heart always remembers

The title clued me in but I was not prepared for heartbreak.
Because even in knowing how the story ends, there's no way to balance out the emotions that came along the journey.

The Last Goodbye follows Heart and Xavier, high school students who are both positive, energetic and bubbly individuals - both carrying deep pain and a story in their hearts. They don't let that get in the way of their lives though.

Heart and Xavier slowly become friends and soon develop feelings for each other. And much like all young love, they face their hurdles - whether it's her father or their future. They manage to cross all of them, but their last goodbye comes sooner than later.

This movie was a reminder of so many others I grew up watching - the ones that introduced me to a romance so strong, it could move the world, with a story so simple, it could move you. The nostalgic look back to a time where love seemed like the purest of emotions, and the genuine way it was presented in the story made the movie what it was - heartfelt.

Daniela and Matt did a wonderful job as Heart and Xavier, it's been a long time since I've watched a movie that depicted a love this silent yet so loud, and their portrayal of the leads only amplified the emotions of it.

I highly recommend this movie if you're looking for a love story. Everyone's definition of a love story is different, but no one can deny that this isn't the love story. But keep some tissues on hand - it is a tearjerker.

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Meaningless Groundhog Day

What was that?
After all that, we got that ending?

Admittedly, a two hour long film isn't enough of a runtime to actually fix all the messes the lead inevitably creates in each time loop, while also fixing the lead, who is a mess themself. Because that's the basic requirement of this genre, for the lead to either be a mess or someone who constantly creates messes even if they don't mean to. And our lead Earth? Well he is a whiny, bratty mess. His antics are funny sure, but make no mistake, he is a mess.

And because he's stuck in a loop, he obviously does what he wants to get what he wants because, no repercussions right? Because that's what usually happens, they're stuck in the day until it somehow resets to the perfect scenario. WRONG.

Earth here, gets out of the loop, and that's when all his antics come back to bite him in the behind. He's gotten every single person in his life in some sort of mess during the Groundhog Day and now it's up to him to reverse it all, or at least set everything right.

Now watch out here because I'm probably going to give away the entire plot.
He's messed up so bad that some things are just beyond repair!
That was the plot.
Earth is selfish. Earth reaps the consequences of being selfish. That was it.
I watched two hours to get this kind of plot-

Going the realistic way? Of course you can do that.
But going the realistic way in a movie about time loops? Noooooo

As much as I enjoyed the first half (great comedy and acting), the minute the loop ended, so did my enjoyment. The second half was also good objectively (great storyline and acting), but where was my feel good factor?! All that Earth did and all that he went through later, what was it for? What was that ending??

I'm torn. On one hand, it was a different take on time loop stories that I haven't seen before but on the other hand, I would've accepted the basic plot that's been done over and over, and I would've watched it happily.
Give it a try, if you're bored and would like some comedy and then maybe some hard hitting stuff about being a selfish jerk, this is the perfect movie to watch then.

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Chuckles uncomfortably

I watched forty episodes and I still can't tell when one of the leads fell for the other lol.

This started with just the strangest teacher - student relationship which somehow transformed into an even stranger master - servant relationship.

All through the episodes I kept coming up with quips for whatever was going on, because each episode was essentially a one short with no real continuity to the next episode for most part. The only consistent was that the student was a massive bully and the teacher never really stood up for himself.

And strangely enough, what I expected to be the most inappropriate aspect of a student - teacher relationship (the fact that they are in a relationship) didn't end up being the most inappropriate aspect.

It was just strange, their first conflict came from a misunderstanding that was never really resolved and their second conflict would've been solved much sooner if one of them would've bothered to clean the house more thoroughly, which just seems kind of stupid. And they tried to convince us that the two of them somehow fell for each other amidst all that, but I'm not buying it. Like I said, I couldn't even tell when the teacher fell for the student and it should have been inappropriate for that reason much sooner but it was for so many other reasons before it was for this.

It's a very short, vertically filmed series, so if you feel like scrolling for a while, give this a try.

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Bizzare, chaotic comedy at it's finest.. most of the time

I have never laughed as hard in public as I did watching this, I'm pretty sure at one point some people next to me thought I needed help because I was bent over holding in the loud laughter and snorting, on account of not wanting to scare anyone.

The story is about two brothers (best friends actually but referring to them as anything but brothers seems to get one of them very angry. That or the subtitles confused me) who buy a cabin in the mountains and a group of university students (this could be on me thought, the subtitles never called them students but I swear I could hear one of the brothers address them all as 'haksaeng') who are vacationing in the same region. The chaos that follows from the first meeting of both groups with each other and their individual meetings with the.. other lead.. forms a majority of the plot.

As established before, this was extremely funny, genuinely heartfelt at points and kind of gruesome. If gruesome comedy is not your cup of tea (not my favorite), you'll have a hard time with some of the scenes, but it's only few in the plenty comedy scenes this movie had. My stomach hurt from laughing too much and my face was streaked with tears by the time I had finished the movie. Because of the laughing.

If you've got an hour and a half, give it a try, especially if nonsense and chaotic comedy is something you like because the entire movie was just that and not much more, but they made it work! Oof, I already feel like a rewatch.

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Not sponsored by the Japan National Tourism Organization

I just watched over three hours of a tourism advertisement for Japan. Four guys roaming around Tokyo, hugging trees, eating food and singing. Of course, making out, unnecessarily.

I've watched a handful of movies and dramas where a lead travels to find themselves and unexpectedly ends up finding love, no, no, this isn't that. This barely came close. I genuinely love those kind of stories because they find a way to move you, bring out certain emotions, but this was nothing.

Two friends (one living in Japan, the other visiting him) meet two brothers and the four of them somehow end up living in one person's appartment for the duration of their stay in Japan.
They go out, eat food, visit tourist spots, sing all the time and.. that's it. It's just a repeat cycle of eat/drink/play a game/make out/go out. They also talk a lot, but most of it was inconsequential, nonsense conversations. And the ones that were supposed to deep and emotional didn't really feel that way.

This was just bad, and I have no way to assess what I actually feel about this series. I know I don't like it, so I guess that's something. At least the episodes were short, because I don't think I would have handled more of this well. I didn't handle what I watched well in the first place.

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23.5 + more wasted potential

There's been a lot of talk about 23.5, ever since the pilot teaser was released, and for good reason. But as of this moment, I'm just a bit dissapointed.

It took me a while to actually clear up my thoughts on this and write a review that was cohesive and not spoiler heavy, because despite my disappointment, a lot of the series is worth watching. A cute and fluffy rom - com that looks like it's been engulfed in peach lighting, it truly did have it's wonderful moments. Unfortunately, the bad almost edged out the good for me here.

Let's start with the positives: a positive and playful setting, supportive friends, supportive family (mostly), supportive teachers, a lot of cute moments between all the couples, and some wonderful supporting characters. It doesn't seem like much when banded together, but there were individually quite a few good moments. But this is also where the list of positives end.

With the rosy lens they used to shoot they series, it's almost like they forgot that sensitivity is important when you try to address important and relevant conversations. This is one of the major reasons my rating fell, hard. The (almost) complete disregard of awareness in the storytelling absolutely boggled me, characters not facing any sort of repurcussions for their actions, slightly troubling behaviour from the leads being glassed over to display forgiveness and understanding, writing off a character's genuine worries and fears as her first being weird and then others being mean, this is just part of the bad writing of the characters.
Not that this was helped much by the plot, it was set up in the way that the plot only magnified the problematic stuff that the characters did. From Ongsa manipulating Sun's feelings, to Sun gaslighting Ongsa, I was incredibly frustrated with a lot of the plotlines they had in place. I realise that these are strong words and I don't have a problem when dramas exhibit these behaviours for what they are, what really ticked me off was the fact that they trying to keep passing all this off as minor arguments, and the fact that they tried to convince us that all was perfect and healthy, when it wasn't.

As I write this, I can say I have no problems with plots where nothing happen. Even if it's just two people falling in love without much else happening, I can appreciate it for what it is, but this felt like an attempt to create something where a lot happens, but towards the end, nothing has truly happened. I honestly would have preferred something that was boring as opposed to this. Maybe try fleshing out the characters a bit more, giving them time to grow into themselves and establish relationships with the other characters? What we got was a ton of half developed characters in a bid to rush along a nothing plot, which meant that when it came time for us to understand why certain characters behaved totally out of character, we're left scratching our heads.

That leads me back to the characterisation. I feel like the characters were split into two: the ones who get development and the ones who don't. They had so many wonderful characters, and only about two or three of them had actual growth and context, and even then, just half done. The rest of them were perfect as they were, needed no growth, could do no wrong which only made it more frustrating when they did something wrong. I'm circling here so I'll conclude the review.

I realise this an incredibly long review, but I guess I just had a lot to say. And for all the faults I found, I will say that they truly did try to make something worthwhile, and they almost did. It genuinely did have some moments that made me so happy, but now I'm just so sad because I was expecting to love this a lot more. The acting was good, the chemistry was decent and like I mentioned, a few of the supporting characters were amazing. But the writing just let everything down.
I've said this before, but bad acting, subpar cinematography and editing can be supplemented, but a bad story? Drags everything down.
I really wish it hadn't.

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A(n) Unnecessary Love

Before I talk about the best worst thing about this series, let's talk about the actual worst things.

Watching this felt like watching something that should have come out 7 years ago, with all the engineers and their gears, the hazing and the "I don't like men, I only like you stuff", and they somehow made all this and more much worse than it should have been.

Even looking past all this, it's still difficult to enjoy because one or the leads is an absolute horror of a person. Essentially what we got was one of the worst male leads to ever grace our screens. He spends more than half of the series being a rude, abrasive guy who harasses his ex girlfriend, his friends, his juniors, anything that moves and breathes. They tried to give him a redemption arc, but too little too late to the point where you're going just end it, I don't care.
Couple this with another male lead who is just.. dull. That's it, his entire personality can be summed up with one word. One is a pushover, the other is rude, you're turned off by the personalities even before we can get to the romance.

There isn't much in that aspect either, a majority of the episodes is Prot pining over Pluem, and the rest is a bunch of misunderstandings that is resolved in the final episode. All throughout, I could not understand why these two even liked each other, and the acting definitely didn't help in selling their feelings for each other. As a couple, they had a maximum of maybe thirty minutes of romantic screentime. The rest was nonsense conversations, the male lead harrassing his ex, the other male lead pining (and failing because the emotions did not come through) from a distance, and Pluem bullying Prot.

I haven't even gotten to the best part yet. The factual inaccuracy.
They've apparently known each other for seven years. They met when Pluem was a senior and Prot was in the grade below him. The story begins when they're in their fourth and third year of engineering respectively.
Do the math, and it's four years.. right?
Nope, the show insists it's 7 years.

The best, best part though. The SUBTITLES.
Horrendous. Truly bad, I had such a hard time making sense of some of those dialogues. But so funny. Not as funny as some others I've come across, but definitely made the viewing experience a bit better.

It's weird though, because secret crushes aren't a new deal, and neither was this entire story, but I kind of feel like I would have enjoyed watching something along the lines of this story. They did not make it work though, none of it worked.

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That was.. a trip..

I'd like to say I understood, but I'm clueless. I mean, I understood and I know what happened, but it's still beyond comprehension.

The plot revolves around Third, a bird watching enthusiast who hires Pai, a social companion to accompany him on a weekend trip to a national park to go bird watching. Each of them are in the midst of their respective personal turmoils and this excursion is the perfect excuse to forget everything and just have a fun and relaxing time. This is where it get convuluted, with the introduction of two other characters who contribute heavily to the plot.

And then just like that, it got.. boring. There was no big plot twist of any sorts because there were literally only four characters, the dots connected themselves way before they actually wanted us to connect them. All this mixed with incredibly repetitive flashbacks (that were also incredibly unnecessary) led to a truly weird ending. That ending literally came out of nowhere and contrasted every word and action of the main characters. They tried to make it seem like an open ending, but again it was incredibly obvious.

I'd like to say I'm disappointed, but that's not it. While everything is clear as it can be in the story, there's just general confusion while watching it because you don't know how you feel, about everything that happens in just two episodes.

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Fake it till you make it

Did they? Both their secrets are still intact at the end of the two episodes, but what was the point since nothing else really happened?

The plot is about two guys who enter into a pretend relationship to protect their respective secrets. And that's pretty much it. They know each other's secrets and they agree to keep those to themselves. A majority of the episodes was utilised to set up their contract relationship, and the rest of it was used to show that the conflict was resolved. It does sound like a well rounded plot when it's put that way, but there was so much missing.

Admittedly, Phol and Pheem do have chemistry, and by the end of the series, they do have an actual relationship that's somewhat endearing. Too bad we couldn't see much of that connection and development though, it was some wasted potential and screen time that they used to display flashbacks instead.

I'm a little disappointed, not going to lie, because I do love a good pretend relationship plot, but the lack of development and the wishy washy dialogues paired with an equally inconsistent story didn't really make for a good series.

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It's about the circumstances...

What would you do if you and your friend are caught up in a multi million dollar debt, being chased around by a hoard of gangsters and a very handsome club owner who just so happens to also be your creditor?

You would inadvertently end up creating a comedy of errors.

It's made very clear from the beginning that the lead of the series, Mote, is a victim of his circumstances. He has his rag tag team of friends who have similar situations and their solution is to come up with a "risque" app to get out of this. Obviously, this leads to murder mysteries, murderous henchmen chasing our heroes around and a whole lot of threats. Nothing exactly new or ground breaking.

The charm of this series comes from the circumstances. The lead trio somehow always find themselves in comical situations, and this is not slapstick humour... The comedy is so subtle that it gives the drama life without taking away from the fact that this is not exactly a comedy. Add to all this a very handsome but kind of psychotic Sun (played to perfection by Mond might I add), and you've got yourself a top notch show.

I would recommend it to a friend.

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Truly Interminable

A while ago, I wrote a review where I said there's no show but this that could be more aptly named, but I could not have been more wrong. The winner of the best named drama goes to Interminable, because this nonsense was truly interminable. It just went on and on and on until I was begging on my knees, praying that the torture will end. Every once in a while you come across a drama that makes you wonder who signed off on it, and I really wonder - why would you sign off on this?

Right from the beginning, it could not have been more confusing, because the story is told in parallel storylines, and it switches between the past (1910s) and the present (1940s), with no sense of coherence. There's no rhyme or reason to the scenes we see, it's in some random order, like they decided it would appear in the episodes based on the Q it was shot in. Almost every single actor plays the same person in both timelines - their names, their characteristics, their personalities are all so similar, so similar that the only way to identify what the timeline is is by looking at their clothing or hairstyles, and even then it's confusing because most of them are dressed in one outfit for the entirety of the series.

The actual story begins to unfold with Kaew recieving an inheritance from a distant relative on his father's side - a huge house that has affectionately been dubbed the Huge White House.. (subtle)
Anyways, it's his, ready to move into, only a small problem, he's got to share the space with a friend of this distant relative who also lives there. They won't bother him, but they're going to be there.

The minute they move in, Kaew starts having even more recurring dreams about a man, and even thinks he sees this man in the house - he's an apparition in white who comes and goes, and he gets the sense that they're acquainted with each other/have been for a long time. This person is none other than Khun Yai, a man who has been waiting for Kaew in that house for almost thirty years now.. because of a promise they gave to each other. Or he gave to Kaew, they're not very clear on that.

But thirty years ago, he gave a promise to the person he loved (also Kaew), and him, along with his assistant Saen and his nanny Yam have been bound to the house since then. With Kaew now reincarnated and back in the house, all he needs to do is fulfill that promise, but first, Kaew needs to regain all his memories of their past. And this fragmented attempt at creating tension gives us no real information, except
a) they were lovers
b) a person named Sophee hated that they were lovers

Sophee was in reality Yai's adopted sister who was in love with him, but he loved Kaew. Sophee is obviously shrill, jealous and vindictive, because her only role is to yell about Yai not paying attention to her, try to ruin his life and attempt murder. The huge narrative is that Yai and Kaew's love was cut short because of her, and that Yai's promise has something to do with this.
And to her part, Sophee has also reincarnated and the girl is smart in some sense, because she regains all her memories before Kaew does. I guess vengeance does run deeper than love? But once again, she can't get him, because one - he's a ghost, two - he's a ghost who still loves only Kaew. She schemes and threatens to try and get her way for no real reason other than a portrait that Kaew has drawn (he's an art student) of Yai, and she's convinced he must have reincarnated as well.

All this while, in the present, Yai has been a nuisance. He won't let Kaew live his life, he's jealous, possessive and incredibly intrusive - but he's also so secretive. To get some answers about his behaviour, Kaew ventures into an underground dungeon that is restricted to him, it's Yai's space and he's not allowed in there. But going into the dungeon gives him some answers about why Yai is so secretive, comes and goes as he pleases, disappears for days on end.. he finally finds out that he's a ghost. He runs away to a temple to talk to the monk there, who knows everything that happened thirty years ago

From them on, we're left to watch as Kaew slowly loses his sanity, not knowing what is going on, except that they were in love, before he gets a sudden influx of information conveniently put together in a couple of episodes, ensuring that any and all possibilities of creating a grand narrative is flushed down the drain. This continuous flashback is also of no use because suddenly there's a political uprising on the horizon that has more screentime that Kaew and Yai do, and their story goes no further - it's once again a ton of scheming and threats and the grand nature of all that is good but no actual story.

Because as it turns out, the entire story had actually been revealed in the trailer. If you've watched the trailer, you know the story. They were in love, they were killed because of someone's jealousy, one of them reincarnated and the other didn't. And that big promise that made the whole thing possible? I won't tell you because if I had to sit through this nonsense to find out - so will you (don't watch it, it's actual nonsense).

Interminable was a snoozefest, I'm not even sorry. There wasn't a single episode where I didn't accidentally doze off, only to wake up and see if I missed something. I missed nothing. Because nothing happens in there. For some huge love epic, they couldn't even convince me that they were in love. Things happen because they're supposed to happen, but why? Give me one good reason why Yai fell so madly in love with Kaew. Give me one instance where it looked like Kaew was also in love with Yai. They literally fell for each other because the plot said so.

Everything in this was just so.. mechanical. They're all just so frigid and statuesque in everything they do - are they trying to tell me that it was supposed to be expressionless ? Not a single emotion came through for me, again are they trying to tell me that two people who have apparently been tied by a promise so strong that their love has lasted over three decades.. cannot afford to actually look like they're in love?
Three decades and all they do is show Yai pine, pine and pine over Kaew while he looks on with a blank expression. No longing, no pain of seperation, no angst - no nothing. This is a classic example of "tell, not show" because every second scene has someone singing the praises of their love story, but I don't see it??

They keep telling us that something terrible has happened to all of them in their past life, but there is no sense of tragedy or urgency to their love story, the fleeting sense of every moment between them in the past was as amplified as a mosquito buzzing by your ear.

All the characters are so one dimensional - reduced to a single characteristic, I mean is that all they can be? Like caricatures, you can plot the exact route each character will have, in fact, if you must watch this make a game out of it. See if you can predict the exact storyline for each character. And if you're right? You win nothing because there are no winners here.

The cherry on top? The amount of plot holes. One or two, I can forgive, but the entire story felt like a pothole I accidentally tripped into and the thing was riddled with plot holes. Who was Sin? Why did he keep calling Saen his father? Who was Kan? Was he reincarnated? Why was there a sudden doppelganger who's body Yai inhabited? Who on earth wrote this story? Seriously who? I need to have a talk with them.

I'm so disappointed in almost everything - even the acting was so bad. I don't know if it's the actors or the writing but the last three minutes had the best acting in the entire series. May just be the writing because they finally let Kaew have some personality, too bad it lasted mere minutes.

I'm saying the +1 is for Billy and the 0.5 is for the chemistry.. but it's really because I cannot go lower than a one while rating it. My extra 0.5 is me being generous, I genuinely implore that you think twice before you watch Interminable. What a shame. I was so excited for this one and we got THIS. Trust me. Just trust me on this and stay far away.

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Rainfall Ruined

Sometimes, soulmates may meet, stay together until a task or life lesson is completed, and then move on. This is not a tragedy, only a matter of learning.
- Brian L. Weiss

Perhaps this would have been better if soulmates really were meant to part sometimes or at some time. Basis aside, the story promised something new, something that would go against the very premise of the drama, that soulmates don't always need to end up together. A situation where the lead doesn't necessarily end up with the person who promises to be his soulmate, or with anyone at all. As the episodes go on though, it becomes evident that this is through and through a "I'm the one for you and you're the one for me story".

The drama definitely starts out strong, the chemistry is clear, the premise is interesting and the characters seem empathetic and fleshed out. However, as the show goes on, small cracks begin to appear, and the story loses it's steam. The creators definitely want to create tension with the "who will the lead pick" storyline, but it's glaringly clear who he will. Filler scenes, uncharacteristic behaviour, unreasonable misunderstandings and unnecessary characters really drag down what could have been a solid story and the more you watch, the more uneventful it seems. Even the genuine conflicts that are presented at the beginning of the show as a roadblock for the potential couple are resoundingly solved within a matter of five minutes, but something that can be resolved with a quick conversation is dragged out for 3 episodes.

Interestingly, with a premise as promising as this, you expect some kind of follow through or proper explanations, but everything is ultimately chalked up to the rain gods playing their games and the very thing that led to this huge snowball is conveniently tossed aside (rather underwhelmingly) when the writers realise they've messed with it too much.

What should have been a simple story was needlessly contorted to create a drama that effectively lost all direction causing them to pull out a Hail Mary at the last moment, and let's just say this should have ended at episode 6, whether the story was complete or not.

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