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This review may contain spoilers
Enjoyable supernatural tale
Khemjira deserves the kudos it's getting for much of its story and production. I agree with some reviewers that it was strong up to episode 9, after which the story started to falter somewhat. I think that the problem lies in how the character of Khem was written. All in all, if you like supernatural stories with lots of atmosphere, this is probably going to range somewhere from enjoyable to fantastic for you, and I do recommend it. However, the end isn't very strong, so be warned.
I'll break down what I think went wrong below:
The Romance:
Early on, it became obvious that Khem's character was a little under-developed. The romance, for example, relied heavily on the notion of a "fated love" to explain the growing feelings between the leads. Khem feels drawn to Pharan early on, which seems to be based largely on a combination of physical attraction and a sense of security that he gives. Which is fine for a start. But rather than developing a connection between the leads based on their present life personalities, goals, strengths and so on, the story quickly reveals that they were lovers in a past life. The rest of the romance develops essentially based on the notion that they already love each other in this life and the tension in the development comes from Pharan's struggle between his personal desires and his sense of responsibility towards the villagers and his duties as a shaman. In terms of letting us understand who Pharan is as a character, this works, but Khem is just sort of there.
The Ending (spoilers):
The resolution to the curse made sense in the world of the story, but the early episodes had not forshadowed it well, and the whole climax felt like we went in one direction for two episodes only for a 3 minute switch to a totally different direction to resovle the issue. They they had a character ask all the questions the audience was left with and had a monk just explain what had happened. It was disappointing.
The story would have been so much stronger if they had introduced and developed the idea that Rhampheung needed to reconnect with her humanity and let go of her resentments as the way to end the curse. And I think a way they could have achieved this is by giving us more of Khem as a character.
In episode 9, we learn how the curse started. This is such a great episode, because the situation was one in which you could absolutely believe it would create that level of resentment. Khem earlier said he didn't know what he had done, or why this was happening. After it is revealed to him, he had almost no reaction.
If they had developed Khem in such a way that we had a stronger sense of his moral compass, his beliefs, his goals and so on, this would be a point at which he could have really struggled with his new knowledge. Not only does he see his past self doing something that genuinely and significantly wronged Rhampheung, he sees that his mother also participated in that betrayal. If the story had used that turning point to give Khem more of a crisis that he had to work out, we could have seen some groundwork laid for notions of releasing resentment and forgiving oneself and others. We could have had some preliminary interactions with Rhampheung that were unsuccessful, but that started to raise doubts or questions for her. She could have fought against changing her mind in a way that could have still escalated to a battlescene, but at least the groundwork would have been laid for a sort of "talking" resolution and the ultimate reveal of reuniting her with her son. Then the ending could have flowed from the groundwork laid by the story rather than having to have the monk explain everything afterwards.
As it stood, Khem never acknowledged his own role in Rhampheung's tragedy. Although in that life, it's not easy to argue the child had a lot of choices or the capacity to navigate a terrifying situation, nevertheless her actions had consequences that resulted directly in Rhampheung's death. With the distance of another lifetime, it ought to have been possible for Khem to say something like "what I did hurt you and I'm sorry" or something like that. Or, if he wasn't ever going to say it, it would have been nice if there was something about how his character was portrayed earlier to make it make sense.
The Acting:
I've seen a lot of critiques of Namping's acting. I don't completely disagree, but I think in a lot of the crucial moments, there just wasn't much material to work with. Khem is almost more of a plot device than a character. We don't see him doing much to take action in his situation, and as I noted above, the writing doesn't explore his reaction to knowing what happened in the past.
Final verdict:
In my opinion, the things I've seen criticized the most about the show are the believabilty of the romance, the ending, and Namping's acting. I think all of these things were affected by the fact that the Khem character is (in the writing sense) a "weak" character without much depth.
Nevertheless, the show is much better than a lot of the junk out there, and there are many enjoyable aspects that make it worth your time if you enjoy supernatural/horror stories.
I'll break down what I think went wrong below:
The Romance:
Early on, it became obvious that Khem's character was a little under-developed. The romance, for example, relied heavily on the notion of a "fated love" to explain the growing feelings between the leads. Khem feels drawn to Pharan early on, which seems to be based largely on a combination of physical attraction and a sense of security that he gives. Which is fine for a start. But rather than developing a connection between the leads based on their present life personalities, goals, strengths and so on, the story quickly reveals that they were lovers in a past life. The rest of the romance develops essentially based on the notion that they already love each other in this life and the tension in the development comes from Pharan's struggle between his personal desires and his sense of responsibility towards the villagers and his duties as a shaman. In terms of letting us understand who Pharan is as a character, this works, but Khem is just sort of there.
The Ending (spoilers):
The resolution to the curse made sense in the world of the story, but the early episodes had not forshadowed it well, and the whole climax felt like we went in one direction for two episodes only for a 3 minute switch to a totally different direction to resovle the issue. They they had a character ask all the questions the audience was left with and had a monk just explain what had happened. It was disappointing.
The story would have been so much stronger if they had introduced and developed the idea that Rhampheung needed to reconnect with her humanity and let go of her resentments as the way to end the curse. And I think a way they could have achieved this is by giving us more of Khem as a character.
In episode 9, we learn how the curse started. This is such a great episode, because the situation was one in which you could absolutely believe it would create that level of resentment. Khem earlier said he didn't know what he had done, or why this was happening. After it is revealed to him, he had almost no reaction.
If they had developed Khem in such a way that we had a stronger sense of his moral compass, his beliefs, his goals and so on, this would be a point at which he could have really struggled with his new knowledge. Not only does he see his past self doing something that genuinely and significantly wronged Rhampheung, he sees that his mother also participated in that betrayal. If the story had used that turning point to give Khem more of a crisis that he had to work out, we could have seen some groundwork laid for notions of releasing resentment and forgiving oneself and others. We could have had some preliminary interactions with Rhampheung that were unsuccessful, but that started to raise doubts or questions for her. She could have fought against changing her mind in a way that could have still escalated to a battlescene, but at least the groundwork would have been laid for a sort of "talking" resolution and the ultimate reveal of reuniting her with her son. Then the ending could have flowed from the groundwork laid by the story rather than having to have the monk explain everything afterwards.
As it stood, Khem never acknowledged his own role in Rhampheung's tragedy. Although in that life, it's not easy to argue the child had a lot of choices or the capacity to navigate a terrifying situation, nevertheless her actions had consequences that resulted directly in Rhampheung's death. With the distance of another lifetime, it ought to have been possible for Khem to say something like "what I did hurt you and I'm sorry" or something like that. Or, if he wasn't ever going to say it, it would have been nice if there was something about how his character was portrayed earlier to make it make sense.
The Acting:
I've seen a lot of critiques of Namping's acting. I don't completely disagree, but I think in a lot of the crucial moments, there just wasn't much material to work with. Khem is almost more of a plot device than a character. We don't see him doing much to take action in his situation, and as I noted above, the writing doesn't explore his reaction to knowing what happened in the past.
Final verdict:
In my opinion, the things I've seen criticized the most about the show are the believabilty of the romance, the ending, and Namping's acting. I think all of these things were affected by the fact that the Khem character is (in the writing sense) a "weak" character without much depth.
Nevertheless, the show is much better than a lot of the junk out there, and there are many enjoyable aspects that make it worth your time if you enjoy supernatural/horror stories.
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