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Silly fun and serious messages
The Death of Khun Phra is difficult to talk about without spoilers, but there aren't many reviews so here goes.
This constantly moving gem of a light lakorn has a big generous heart, (mostly) low stakes suspense, and at least a dozen twists and turns. To look at it through western eyes, it mixes genres and tones as readily as it combines historical and contemporary references. There's silly fun and serious messages, slapstick and drama, pop culture inserts and calls for equality which are still relevant today. It refuses to take itself seriously, and then it does. Very much so.
If you've seen enough Thai movies and lakorns, you're likely familiar with this flexibility from a culture which isn't exactly fussed about fitting into the limitations or expectations of tidy western genre boxes. Khun Phra takes that up a gear, and mostly hits its marks. There's one shift in the last episode I really wish they'd handled differently, but overall I found it easy to just settle in and follow along.
During the early episodes, I thought I'd love it for several reasons. By the time it ended, I loved it even more and for ones I wasn't expecting. I wish I could talk about those here but I don't want to take a chance of giving anything away.
Go with the flow as it takes us through its many twists, turns and surprises. It's well worth the attention.
(Rewatch value is high for me as I'm curious to see how things read differently now that I know its secrets. I'll give it some time though and hope I happen into the right lakorns to identify more of the references. Story and acting because I found it interesting and engaging throughout, with its small cliff hanger episode endings and the way the different parts layered together. And ... (not going to put it into words because spoilers.) Overall because I loved spending time in this world and they achieved what they set out to do.)
This constantly moving gem of a light lakorn has a big generous heart, (mostly) low stakes suspense, and at least a dozen twists and turns. To look at it through western eyes, it mixes genres and tones as readily as it combines historical and contemporary references. There's silly fun and serious messages, slapstick and drama, pop culture inserts and calls for equality which are still relevant today. It refuses to take itself seriously, and then it does. Very much so.
If you've seen enough Thai movies and lakorns, you're likely familiar with this flexibility from a culture which isn't exactly fussed about fitting into the limitations or expectations of tidy western genre boxes. Khun Phra takes that up a gear, and mostly hits its marks. There's one shift in the last episode I really wish they'd handled differently, but overall I found it easy to just settle in and follow along.
During the early episodes, I thought I'd love it for several reasons. By the time it ended, I loved it even more and for ones I wasn't expecting. I wish I could talk about those here but I don't want to take a chance of giving anything away.
Go with the flow as it takes us through its many twists, turns and surprises. It's well worth the attention.
(Rewatch value is high for me as I'm curious to see how things read differently now that I know its secrets. I'll give it some time though and hope I happen into the right lakorns to identify more of the references. Story and acting because I found it interesting and engaging throughout, with its small cliff hanger episode endings and the way the different parts layered together. And ... (not going to put it into words because spoilers.) Overall because I loved spending time in this world and they achieved what they set out to do.)
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