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Quick review. I wanted to love this show, but it fell short for me. The characters ended up one note and boring by the halfway point of the show and I actually didn't care by the final episode that the ending sucked.
I was more interested in Hong Joo's transformation and story and even though I believe she grew the most as a character and became the stronger as a result of all that happened, I couldn't help but feel she got the short end of the stick with that ending.
I mean, really? I felt like everyone else walked off into the sunset holding hands and she just ended up let down and alone again. Ick. I almost wish for a Part Two JUST about her so we can see her with a HEA at the end of all her trials. But that's probably just me being petty. ;-)
I also want to make note of one thing since I saw people blaming the main female lead for being the one who actually broke their marriage because "he didn't actually betray her until after they divorced." UMMM NO.
Nothing happened in Hong Kong. Fine. BUT The point isn't that he wasn't required to sleep with her for that money.
The REAL POINT is that he stayed behind ASSUMING he was going to sleep with her for the money. He let his wife leave THINKING he was going to have to betray her for that money. He was SURPRISED he didn't have to. So... he was FULLY prepared to betray his wife for that money and THAT, MY FRIENDS, is what broke their marriage. Just because (oh sigh of relief) he didn't have to is a side-note and besides the point.
ALSO... him staying longer ($3?) to have "fun" with her before returning to his wife is in and of itself the worst kind of betrayal. His wife was 100% right in assessing the situation. Him seeing her after HongKong and then going to work with her just to test his manly resolve? Stupid, Childish, and the final straw. *shrugs*
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Revenge done RIGHT.... "Fatsuit" done WRONG.
I ADORED this amazing revenge lakorn! Just hoping next time they hire someone who has actually seen a "fat" person IRL or knows more about special effect makeup outside of a horror genre... šLet me say this. THIS is what REVENGE looks like. So. Good. I adored this drama but...
So... I"m just going to be the person to say it. Let me preface by saying I LOVED the FL.. loved the drama & loved how true to her revenge the FL was. Period.
BUT... that "fat suit" Lord have MERCY.
1. Does no one on that drama team know what a heavy/overweight person looks like? Is it THAT terrifying?
2. Did NO ONE on the team try to STOP the "special effects" person...??? did seriously NO ONE do a double-take and say... "uh, guys... I'm not sure her face looks remotely OK"???
3. Dudes... her "fat face" looks like they took a GIANT PLASTIC CHIPMUNK and CGI'd that bitch on top of her face. It's SO plastic-like and unnatural that I literally wanted to quit watching the drama JUST because of how weird and unnatural it looked. Just WHYYYYYYY????
Ok.. I'm done. But... y'all... no one else agrees??? š±š±š±
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this went from "meh" to hot mess... very quickly (and too slow at the same time!)
I'm a bit surprised that I'm writing this review tbh. I stumbled upon this short drama by accident and was super excited that it looked cute, fun, might teach a thing or two about opposites attract and changing as a human for the better, especially since it looked higher quality than most short dramas with some lovely actors but MAN... this was a painful watch for me.1. My BIGGEST GRIPE: The "rural" and natural beauty girl was adorable and lived in the mountains alone and knew how to cook. Past that, she was a walking, talking cardboard cutout of a character. She didn't SAY anything charming; she didn't DO anything endearing. She didn't have any personality at ALL. She was pretty & fresh (untouched by "city life/stardom" and he fell for what he couldn't get with the SNAP of his "Midas fingers". And the writers didn't give a single other reason for him to like her other than being rejected & therefore obsessed with having her.
2. 2nd BIGGEST GRIPE: The male lead. They tried VERY hard by the final episode to make him likeable, but let's not kid ourselves. He wasn't. He was a big spoiled brat used to getting his way and used to getting it very easily. He also expected everyone around him (including the FL) to immediately understand him, adjust to his whims, and fall in line. Even all the way to nearly the final episode he decides to embrace some model in a club just because the FL took a phone call from someone he didn't like and was smiling/enjoying herself with a few friends at a club. He even said he "wanted her to cry". I get it. He wanted to test if she liked him or not. Sorry, not a good enough reason since HE was the one showing his ass in the first place and being an unreasonable jerk that won't let the FL even answer him before storming off like a spoiled little bitch. By this episode I was PRAYING that the FL would just walk away and the entire show be a lesson in "sometime opposites attract but that doesn't mean they belong together"!!
Anyway. I rarely watch a short drama and feel at the halfway mark that I wish it would just end already... yet, this drama managed to do that for me. Not only that but even if I just wanted to watch mindless, cute, fluffy romcom... the comedy felt forced and tiring after the halfway mark... even though I did chuckle several times to start with! (the guys putting up with the male lead were the saving grace of the show!)
ANYWHO... still giving this a 7 because it's probably a drama you'll LOVE or HATE this drama. Maybe even a few years back this would have been a bit more of a fun watch for me, but I was sorely disappointed watching it after watching 1000+ dramas!
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may have actually enjoyed this if it had been 16 episodes TOPS
the real problem in this drama is that the "plot" or in this case the lack of a plot doesn't support 40 episodes. There was a whole lot of nothing going on + 0 credible conflicts to keep a viewer interested. There's a backstory and amnesia plot that we really don't care about and really makes 0 impact on the show anyway. (except to make the FL doubt the ML for 30 seconds of the show) There's a single evil girl who is used to create conflict here and there but still... we don't care. Other than that... the only conflict to keep us interested is evidently buried in the hearts of the FL + ML and definitely not interesting enough to keep me watching. I was over it by EP 12-16 but kept watching to see if anything new, surprising or interesting would happen. I was even praying for some big bad reveal of past events to crop up and liven things up but by episode 26-28... still a NOPE.Was this review helpful to you?
Enjoyed more than the 2020 remake despite the ending ;-)
This one is better acted and has a better flow of events than the 2020 remake for sure. Much more masterfully told, like a story unfolding through the eyes of an elder.Although, to be fair, the remake is VERY close to this source material. Scenes and lines are almost exact in both versions. So, there are no surprises there other than the lovely "current day" scenes in this version which bring a very nice layer of drawing you into the story that the remake does not have. That's the biggest difference between the shows. That you get to see the FL as an elder throughout the show "reminiscing" and telling her & her mother/grandmother's story to her granddaughter. That's the major difference (the dual timelines)... and the ending, of course.
The acting is a little better and not quite as exaggerated as the remake as well.
The ending here is more beautifully done, but not as "happy" (I guess you could say?) than the remake's ending.
If I had to choose one over the other, I'd choose this one even though the ending is not quite what I'd hoped for after watching the 2020 version first. Still, I'm rating this one a bit higher than the 2020 version.
My issue with this show is the actually story itself which I outlined in my review of the new version. I'll quote a bit of it below.
---FROM MY REVIEW OF THE LITTLE NYONYA (2020 Version) ---
"I felt the "pay off" of the final episode did not match the heartache of 44 straight episodes of torture.
There has to be some kind of balance in a drama like this one and there wasn't any in The Little Nyonya.
At least not enough for me to appreciate everything I had to just sit through.
I guess I expected a story here where the FL had a ton of trials and torture but she not only persevered through it, but triumphed over it, carving out her own destiny in the end. And while you can see that "kind of" was tacked on at the end, in my opinion it was too little too late and not done satisfactorily. Not at all.
All that being said... I didn't hate this show. I rather liked it. Kind of. The acting was great. Chemistry between some of t he characters was well done. I enjoyed the cooking and cultural bits, though I even wish it more heavily influenced the drama, but still it was okay.
But if you're here for romance... while the romance was OK in some instances... the majority of the "love plots" were more painful and destructive than anything else in my eyes. The bad (bad characters, bad romance, bad karma) well outweighed the good.
I just wanted a wee bit more sunshine poking through all the storm clouds that The Little Nyonya was as a drama. I wanted to see some triumph at the end of the torture and in the end, I didn't feel like I got that. At least not enough to make me (personally) happy."
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this drama is not too bad!
This show is OK for a melodrama. & honestly, I enjoyed the FL and adored the ML (yum!) I actually didn't find the drama too terribly long or drawn out, surprisingly, since I usually do on these types of shows.Man did they give us a character to hate though, am I right? I hated her guts and wanted to throat punch her SO bad SO often throughout the show.
Also, though I liked the ML... I couldn't LOVE him, mainly because he fell for such a you-know-what of a 2nd FL! I mean... why? how? and can we trust a guy with that kind of taste in women? I think NOT! lol
and finally... SPOILER SPOILE R SPOILER BELOW, but...
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OMG I hate a "give the evil bad b*^ch a disease at the end of the show to make everyone forgive/forget her epic evilness through the whole show like it never happened plot device". UNGH. Yeah, that happens. -_-
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ā”The Goodā”:
1. The main female lead. Adorable. Great actress. Written in a strong and commanding way. She didn't "shrink" away from every.little.thing like most FML's do in J-Dramas. She was smart, tough, and no shrinking violet. I LOVED her character.
2. The side characters. ALL of them were great. No idiots, no over-the-top characters. No backstabbing friends/Ex's. It was a nice change.
3. The pacing. A problem I have with these micro-dramas (20ish minutes each episode) is the pacing is usually always weird and WAY too fast/choppy. The pacing here was not perfect, but MUCH better.
ā”The Could've-Been-Betterā”:
1. The male lead. He was WAY too childish for his role. Not much romance experience? That's OK, but I believe in attempt to make him seem younger and her to seem more mature to shorten the age-gap issue, they wrote him a bit too immature.
2. The parents of the FML. NO way they wouldn't be somewhat concerned about their 16yo daughter and this 26yo man hanging out like they were. I don't care what country you live in!
3. The ending was cute but I am SO hoping for a season #2, 'cause it just felt like build up to not much of an ending.
ā”SO, overall, I PERSONALLY think the "good" outweighs the "not-so-good" in this instance and it's a J-Drama I didn't roll my eyes at or want to fast forward. I really, rather, enjoyed it!ā”
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My only two beefs with this drama are (1) The main guy, every time he was in a serious conversation or wanted to know something, he SHOUTED. I mean, literally, shouted in any scene where there was "tense" dialogue. I started to cringe every time in anticipation of the shouting. & (2) The main girl. WHYYYYY didn't they ever update her wardrobe??? I get that it was part of "her thing" but for what her character was doing... it was too dangerous for her to dress like that. I truly thought she would grow/change just a little in that respect by the last few episodes but it never happened. Also... her character was written just a little over the top on the naivetƩ. Both took away a little from the overall picture/enjoyment for me.
With that being said, I still adored this show. You need to watch it. You can thank me later. ;-)
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loved this drama! ? was ep 12 perfect? not even close.
loved loved loved this drama! š was ep 12 perfect? not even close. most of it was great but I think we can all agree (surely?) some of the random bits thrown in there (whether part of the original novel or not) felt out of place and not keeping with the same atmosphere/pacing as the previous 11 episodes.The entire scene where she went to find him was super jarring/felt like it was from a different show/not the "wrapping up" episode of an epic romance & thriller drama with only 12 short episodes. While the 1st 11 episodes did "short drama" in a most brilliant fashion with character arches, pacing, etc... episode 12 fell victim to what MOST shorter dramas do and that's throw a bunch of nonsensical scenes in there for the "dramatic effect" which instead of keeping us on the edge of our seat like it hoped to accomplish, it instead ice-water-to-the-face pulled us out of the beautiful story we were ENGROSSED in for 11 straight episodes/weeks of watching/obsessing over and that's unfortunate.
If they literally cut out that ENTIRE portion of the episode, it would have been 1000x better of a finale and NOTHING would have changed plot-wise or pacing-wise in the 12 episodes. The decision to shoot/leave those scenes was unfortunate BUT not unfortunate enough for me to hate or even "dislike" this drama. It's still one of those dramas I guarantee I'll watch many more times in the future! I'll just skip about 1/2 of the final episode when I do hahaha
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So well done. I grinned. I cried. I melted. I skipped nothing.
Such a wonderful show!
I watched other variations of this show and this one is definitely my favorite. I loved all the characters, acting was wonderful, and all around easily one of my favorite Thai shows. This one has brownie points for being re-watchable as well. If you've been on the fence, get off it and dive into this one. You won't be sorry. I really appreciated the subtle tweaks in this show compared to the other variations as well. The characters (imho) weren't quite so over the top as the Korean version.
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show could have been good/great but it was a chore for me to get through the last 10 episodes.
Mainly because (personal opinion) for me... the ML was either a jerk/selfishly did stuff or he literally held 0 emotions... like his face just looked confused? 99.9% of the time. Also... for a high-octane thriller/gotta-figure-it-out-before-we-die type of drama... it felt oddly boring for 75% of the drama... by episode 20, I was over it and the plot just drug along with only...(((SPOILERS BELOW)))
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"will she excel at makeup" and "will the microchip kill her before the ml decides to finally tell her what she needs to know or not?" and those two plot threads were NOT interesting enough to keep me watching for 10 more episodes... I held out and pushed through but the end was as mediocre as it was anticlimactic.
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A Tragic Past & A Brand New Chance After Reincarnation
This is one of those Lakorns that has a little bit of everything. Romance, reincarnation, a tragic back story told in a dual timeline, ghosts, an evil 2FL, families with grudges, and more. (A legitimate lakorn, people!)BUT somehow, I like this lakorn more than normal. After watching it a second time through and enjoying it just as much as the first time, I decided to write a review to share the reasons why I find this a "better than normal" lakorn just in case anyone is wondering if they should give it a chance. :)
What I liked about Reun Phayom:
1. The romance between the FL and the ML. It wasn't instant or crazy or super possessive even though this could have been played up because of their shared and tragic past life.
2. The little girl. Even though she's being pretty much mistreated by her villain aunt and manipulated, she's smart and strong enough to know who treats her well and sincerely and I find that super amazing in this drama.
3. The ghosts. So, this may be weird to say, but the ghosts were as human as their actual human counterparts. In other words, they weren't completely black or white. They are three-dimensional in nature. Trying to be good and protect to move on, but still burdened by their own desires of love, revenge, anger, etc. I found that I liked that the writers didn't take away their "personality" and humanness just because they'd died.
I don't know. I guess I just felt that even though there was an over-the-top female villain in this drama, it still didn't push over into "slap kiss" territory or where the villain got all the slaps in and our FL had to endure abuse for 90% of the drama. I appreciated the more complicated storyline, etc.
I've watched nearly 200 lakorns at this point and have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. This one is unique and I love loved it. The flashbacks to the past were painful to watch for sure though, just be warned! However, of the 200 lakorns I've seen, this one is probably in the top 10 of "Lakorns I'd recommend" so that shows how much I enjoyed this one. I hope you like it too. :) If not, that's okay, we all have different tastes. Check out my "custom lists" for my lakorn recommendation list there! ^_^
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If you liked "Another Miss Oh", you will like this one too!
I'll first say that I went into this show sceptically because I am a HUGE fan of the Korean drama, Another Miss Oh. I think it is brilliant and brilliantly acted. SO... I don't usually like to let myself down with subpar versions of something I adore. However, I gave it a shot anyway and am SO glad I did.Here are a few short & sweet thoughts I had about this drama.
1. These Thai actors and the director/writer/whatever all deserve a round of applause. They kept the "soul" of the original when they filmed this one.
2. I liked ALL the actors/actresses who were picked for their roles and even against popular opinion, the ML's older mess of a sister. I liked that she was portrayed a little bit younger and a wee bit more put together than the Korean sister.
3. The famous karaoke/crying/karaoke scene between the FL and her parents did NOT make it into this version and that was probably my only and biggest disappointment. Probably because of how brilliant it was in the Korean version!
4. The Korean version is still the BEST version but I think it is mainly because ALL the actors seemed a bit more, IDK, passionate? about the roles they were acting. Their anger, their losses, their love, their frustrations, their flaws were RAW and REAL and you felt everything they felt. This version was GOOD, really it was VERY good, but it felt just a little short of Another Miss Oh's brilliance.
STILL... this drama is wonderful and I really did love it. Will it replace the Korean version in my heart? Nope! But I will be rewatching it and adding it to my top 10 Thai Drama List for SURE! :)
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Still... it was cute.
This drama had all the elements that were needed to be a GREAT romcom, however, I'm sorry to say that (for me) it fell very flat.The plot fell flat.
The romance fell flat. (truly truly FLAT/non-existent)
The comedy started out decent but fell flat quickly. (there were some cute/funny moments, but I expected so much more here!)
The acting was wonderful, especially by Bomb, but it wasn't enough to carry such a long show.
Still... it was cute. I teared up and I laughed a few times as well. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't amazing either. The 14 TWO HOUR episodes drug it down so bad. The plot was way too simple to support such a long drama. At the very MOST this show should have been (14) 45 min episodes instead of (14) 120 min episodes. By episode 7 I was well "over" the plot. I wanted romance. I wanted shenanigans. I wanted to laugh. & unfortunately, I had to begin FF'ing instead to "just get to the end".
Sad Panda.
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