This review may contain spoilers
The sum of Karma
The costume design for the show is really good, particularly for it's various period settings, they look the best that I've seen in any Thai drama so far. The lighting and color grading provides a gorgeous look. Sadly they are wasted by the other two immensely important aspects of the overall cinematography and atmosphere, the photography and editing which doesn't know how to create horror, atmospheric, or emotional tension with the static shot framing and stagnant edit pacing. Paran being sucked into the earth looked cool, Jet getting possessed and pulling over the bridge, as well as Khem getting possessed was good. Basically the white contact lenses and ghoul make up really give a fantastic lofi but strongest effect. Those are a rare few times the horror finally clicks, but the track record make them accidents rather than intentional.
There is no punctuation to what should be key emotional moments. Other shows do it too much, but here they just don't do anything. The green actors are directed well enough. The show's sluggish pace works best in miring in the emotion like when Khem presents a meal for his spectral mom. I do appreciate the balance of seriousness and humor in the tone of the series though it completely the feeling of tension that should exist in this type of story and I do see the attempt though they can't quite reach it. I also see the attempt to convey the emotion within the nc scenes and not just be fanservice. Some of them definitely could have been or needed to be edited to be a lot shorter .
Paran is already stunning as a young modern day shaman, but he was even more gleaming and every bit the ethereal visuals of a deity in his past life. He tries to keep a boundary between their past lives current selves, but it can't help but overlap for Paran who already memories and feelings of the past before anyone else. Every life is a different person, you make the choices that you can in the specific situation that you are in, yet the karma is cumulative be it good or bad. Paran receives kindness from a fellow deity that lives on from his past life, giving him his past life's godly weapon. Paran's past life Wat's brother who caused past life lady Khem's death with his obsession towards her also came back to help empower Paran in the final fight. Khem's past life despite being a child was one of the people that horrifically wronged Ramphueng that set off centuries of woe though in his current life and as an adult he would not have made that same decision. It's sweet that Thong and Ake is reborn into kids that were adopted by Paran and Khem and Paran will bear eating the spiciest food to not disappoint them despite being so strict with them and also Jet when they were his spirit and human disciples restrictively. He is the softest dad and Khem is probably the main disciplinarian dad.
The first episode starts with an interesting idea that sadly went nowhere with Khem using his curse as a gift to do good. His ability to see ghost saved a child living across from him from an abusive situation as well as the ghost's soul. That would have been cool if Khem got to do more of that as he solved the mystery of his curse. Khem is strongest as a character and in his element outside of his romance plot when he's with his schoolmates. He speaks up and out for himself for and to others. He's really good at art, which also doesn't come into play at any point except for getting a job teaching it at the end. Art degree coming through with an additional income for the family of four. It's lovely that Paran and Khem talk about registering their marriage and going on to have a happy family. The Thai legalization of gay marriage is still so recent and such an amazing human rights win.
The second couple are less supernaturally confused being they were already drawn to each other before any memories of their past lives come into play. They are just regular 20 year olds who have never dated before confused. They are also a good contrast with Khem who is more femme in demeanor because that's just the way Khem is and not because his past life was a femme woman because so were Jet and Charn. Charn's vision seems to be getting worse since his past life though, which is some kind of weird karrma. What did he do to wrong the vision gods? The scene where the fieldtrip club members was fawning over Charn when his glasses fell off was silly. He looks better with his glasses on. The show tried to keep the product placement as organically blended into the scenes as they can while still highlighting it. Charn dropping The Face Shop bag in slow motion is one of the best dramatic use of the product placement I've seen so far.
There is no punctuation to what should be key emotional moments. Other shows do it too much, but here they just don't do anything. The green actors are directed well enough. The show's sluggish pace works best in miring in the emotion like when Khem presents a meal for his spectral mom. I do appreciate the balance of seriousness and humor in the tone of the series though it completely the feeling of tension that should exist in this type of story and I do see the attempt though they can't quite reach it. I also see the attempt to convey the emotion within the nc scenes and not just be fanservice. Some of them definitely could have been or needed to be edited to be a lot shorter .
Paran is already stunning as a young modern day shaman, but he was even more gleaming and every bit the ethereal visuals of a deity in his past life. He tries to keep a boundary between their past lives current selves, but it can't help but overlap for Paran who already memories and feelings of the past before anyone else. Every life is a different person, you make the choices that you can in the specific situation that you are in, yet the karma is cumulative be it good or bad. Paran receives kindness from a fellow deity that lives on from his past life, giving him his past life's godly weapon. Paran's past life Wat's brother who caused past life lady Khem's death with his obsession towards her also came back to help empower Paran in the final fight. Khem's past life despite being a child was one of the people that horrifically wronged Ramphueng that set off centuries of woe though in his current life and as an adult he would not have made that same decision. It's sweet that Thong and Ake is reborn into kids that were adopted by Paran and Khem and Paran will bear eating the spiciest food to not disappoint them despite being so strict with them and also Jet when they were his spirit and human disciples restrictively. He is the softest dad and Khem is probably the main disciplinarian dad.
The first episode starts with an interesting idea that sadly went nowhere with Khem using his curse as a gift to do good. His ability to see ghost saved a child living across from him from an abusive situation as well as the ghost's soul. That would have been cool if Khem got to do more of that as he solved the mystery of his curse. Khem is strongest as a character and in his element outside of his romance plot when he's with his schoolmates. He speaks up and out for himself for and to others. He's really good at art, which also doesn't come into play at any point except for getting a job teaching it at the end. Art degree coming through with an additional income for the family of four. It's lovely that Paran and Khem talk about registering their marriage and going on to have a happy family. The Thai legalization of gay marriage is still so recent and such an amazing human rights win.
The second couple are less supernaturally confused being they were already drawn to each other before any memories of their past lives come into play. They are just regular 20 year olds who have never dated before confused. They are also a good contrast with Khem who is more femme in demeanor because that's just the way Khem is and not because his past life was a femme woman because so were Jet and Charn. Charn's vision seems to be getting worse since his past life though, which is some kind of weird karrma. What did he do to wrong the vision gods? The scene where the fieldtrip club members was fawning over Charn when his glasses fell off was silly. He looks better with his glasses on. The show tried to keep the product placement as organically blended into the scenes as they can while still highlighting it. Charn dropping The Face Shop bag in slow motion is one of the best dramatic use of the product placement I've seen so far.
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