Fala

Oh, I guess you are right. It could just be that I want them to be appropriate. But why I said that was because the age rating always comes with an explanation why the commission found that certain rating to be the most fitting one and in there you often find sentences like " children of that age group will be able to fully comprehend such and such topic". So I felt like how a topic was portrayed and at what age children are old enough to understand it, is the essential factor for choosing a certain rating. But maybe they really just have a checklist... ^^

I would agree with you that violence is perceived as the more harmful. As a teenager I always felt that the age ratings were appropriate, sometimes maybe even a bit too lax. Or maybe I was just a bit on the sensitive side... ^^
I don't really understand your question though. What am I wishing for?

I feel like you really hit on something there. I guess it depends on the country that made the age ratings.
In my country (Germany) the age ratings reflect how old someone is who will likely be able to comprehend the fiction of the depicted scenes and reflect upon it. Apart from violence and erotic scenes (nudity alone is never really a factor, I mean even kids have seen a person naked before) that also includes suicide, murder, drug use, etc. I mostly feel that these ratings are able to assess the maturity of kids and teenagers well. That may not be the case for all countries.

Please put spoiler tags on your posts. You give away vital plot points.

This was such a great lakorn, but I HATED the last episode!!
Why are redemption arcs such a big thing in Thai lakorn?! I don't mind if there is some forgiveness but if it comes out of nowhere and is so undeserved that it's ridiculous, it simply drives me mad!

I am glad I watched this! I remember when I first discovered this drama I read several reviews and a lot of comments and then decided that this was maybe not for me. In hindsight I don't even know why I thought that. It is such a wholesome show and I wasn't bored even for a minute, I binged the entire thing in one sitting. I love how they tackled many different social problems that exist in the current Japanese society without ever being too heavy. Well done!

I found episode 13 a bit too mellow. I guess it gave answers to all questions, closure to all the couples and let us know what happened to every person that ever played a role in this lakorn, so as an ending to the overall story it was not bad I guess.
If it would have been broadcasted right after episode 12, I probably wouldn't have minded. But since there was a whole week between them it felt too bland after all that suspence in the episodes before.
But I am nitpicking. Overall a very entertaining lakorn, although I am not sure I would rewatch. I love the opening song though, that one is awesome!

Hitting an insect would be my best guess. With Ice crinkling her nose I had the impression that an insect was flying around their heads and disrupting the shoot... ^^

That's why I said traditionally. Thailand is subjected of course to modern (mostly western) standards of what is morally acceptable, like a lot of other countries as well. Kissing - sometimes quite intensively - becomes more and more normal in lakorn.
I remember enjoying lakorns with Weir a few years ago, because he was one of the few actors that would let me see real kisses, not the angled ones where I can only see the back of the couples heads.
The difference in BL kisses has also to do with gender roles, as the traditional ideal of a Woman being modest and shy and thus restrained does not apply to the Males.

Exactly as Brownie said. Traditionally a kiss with lips is considered a sexual act in Thailand (as it was the same in many countries before).
To simply show affection Thai people use the sniff kiss. You press your nose against someones cheek and breeze in. Your mouth normaly doesn't even make contact with the cheek. You can see mothers and grandmothers use this often to young children in lakorn and there is a very audible long sniffing sound when they do it. For lovers it's often a silent one.
There also is a word for it: haawm (in contrast to chuup which is the kiss with lips). The word means to smell good, fragrant.

I liked the main couples storyline from the beginning. It was only the mysteries that they are trying to solve that were a bit bland in the beginning. The first one was okay, the second one I found boring. I guess the change came in episode 5, after the second mystery was concluded. From then on every episode became better.

Wow, this is really sad. He was one of my first loves in Japanese cinema, I was so impressed by his portrayal in Bloody Monday. His foto is my profile picture since the day I joined this community, his smile was always so charming. What a loss...

Man, Thai slapstick comedy is such an acquired taste!
I didn't realize that before, but while watching this series it suddenly dawned on me that a few years ago when I just started out watching lakorn, I probably wouldn't have found this funny but rather annoying instead.
I remember hating the gay character being extra af and the FL screaming all the time. Over the years I got so used to that kind of humour that it doesn't bother me anymore. Now I am laughing my ass off at all the hilariousness and am enjoying the slapstick sometimes more than the romance. Weird, how taste changes... ^^

It's part of the original Chinese title 萦萦夙语亦难求 (yíng yíng sù yǔ yì nán qiú), which according to Google Translate means: The lingering language is also hard to find.
Sù yǔ would be language in that regard. It could also be a wordplay of some sort, the female lead has a yu in her name for example. Or it could relate to something in the story. We will have to see...

Did you do the subtitles yourself? Then, first of all thanks for the hard work! Making subtitles takes a lot of time and effort, I know from experience.
But I have to say that the quality is a bit mixed. Some lines are spot on, but some show something entirely different than is being said. I guess you can understand the overall storyline as a watcher, but the meaning of some sentences gets completely lost.
I am just being curious, are you a native Japanese speaker?

Oh, this lakorn is getting so good! ^^
In the beginning it was dragging a bit, but now it's actually very suspenceful and I am caring about what happens to every character, even the side characters. And Nat is really good in his role as Auaychai, I love to hate him!

Thank you! Your review made me watch this drama and I binged it in two days. As you said the calligraphy and the martial arts were the most fascinating aspects of this drama, especially since the romance was very subtle. But I don't regret watching it. I had lots of fun, was not bored in any episode and I even learned a lot. It made me read up about taijiquan and I am considering learning it.

Okay, then I will give it another chance after some time. Let's see if I will be as amazed as you are promising me... ^^
But at the moment I need some distraction from all that stress that this lakorn puts me through, so I am watching Kaew Klang Dong. In comparison that is simply wholesome!

Oh, and you don't have to apologise for your English. A lot of users here are not native English speakers, me included. I think the only criteria is if other people can understand what someone has written and in my opinion there is no problem with your English.

Thanks for the encouragement, but I think I need a break from this show. I am an avid lakorn watcher, so I am used to a lot of plot holes and strange story development but at the moment I can't find anything I like about this one. I was so angry at Tien, at Moei, at everyone in this episode. I took a break of several weeks after episode 4 because I was annoyed, so it's frustrating that I am already at my limit again after two episodes.
But I will not drop this yet since you are recommending it so much. I will put it on hold for now and give it another try after some time.