Buang Banjathorn (2017)

Okay this was an emotional rollercoaster here. There are different reasons for this – maybe especially because you get to look in two different timelines. Here are my thoughts about the lakorn.

Story:
Woah… it’s really difficult to judge this. I like most parts of the past storyline. Accept for the two villains and their sidekicks, the people are actually quite nice. Well yeah, it’s annoying when those nice people get played by the villains but it’s always like this right? For the couples I liked the main couple for what they were. It was not really difficult to ship Prae and Laoperng. They were basically a thing right after meeting and you knew that there was tension. (It was helpful that her husband in modern times was a cheating coward.) I also liked the second leading couple with Thongriew and her decision to choose love over the expectations for her. What I liked about Prae (in the beginning) was the way she was so cautious, experimental and curious about everything once she was back in times of WWII. I liked that she was not acting recklessly or dumb but rather used her brain to explore the secrets around her. This is why I was even more surprised that the tough and curious Prae was sometimes such an easy prey for her enemies. She was sometimes so easily fooled that I found it ridiculous.

The story of the modern timeline was a mess to me. I despised almost all of them which is quite surprising. I just couldn’t get over the fact that people were pushing Prae to stay with a husband who cheated on her several times! It was ridiculous how they argued that “their own partner had affairs too, but you get used to it with time” and “he really loves you so much! The other 5 women were nothing to him”. Her husband acting all pitiful while still sleeping with his secretary was also a total let-down. I probably would have given the plot more points if not for all people around Prae. It was utterly ridiculous to be honest. The only light in the tunnel was cute little Laem who was the only one really caring for Praes thoughts and feelings.

That being said, the last episode ruined a lot for me. Not because of the ending (which I found refreshing because the viewer get to decide what to believe) but because of all the chaos and messy editing. I don’t know what exactly went wrong that it suddenly escalated so quickly. This is where both timelines mess up. If you’re a fan of fight scenes this lakorn is definitely not your cup of tea since it actually looked a little bit funny to me. People get shot in the lungs and still manage to run around! Episode 10 seemed to me like the producers were starting to get greedy and put in every possible plot twist they could think of. Some things were managed off-screen and viewers were told what happened while being super confused about the sudden change of scenes (e. g. the bad guy was surrounded by soldiers and in the next scene he suddenly escapes with hostages in a car). Because they jumped from scene to scene without telling the whole story, it got messy and confusing. Yeah, they explained later but there was actually no real need to disfigure the story in such a way.

In modern times people were so busy pushing Prae around that it annoyed me. I mean yeah she is talking about weird things but come on! She is still their friend and their family member; shouldn’t they at least talk about what they are concerned about? It was basically them judging her for everything (discussing things in her absence) and because they were judging her she was more desperate to explain herself which made her seem crazier and crazier. It was plainly unfair what they did to her.
The story premise it quite interesting so you get curious about it, but as in every TV show there are plot holes. It was going well for me until Episode 10, though.

Acting/Cast:
I know some lakorns where Mai or Mario starred in. I never really loved them or hated them. They were ok most of the time. So I watched it without much expectations and that was okay. The leads were doing a good job and it was believable that Laoperng was head over heels for his leading lady right from the start. Some parts of the script were super cheesy but well it’s a lakorn right? Mai was also doing good in both timelines. I actually wished that she would stand up more for herself – in both times. She was doing good in the past timeline but got weaker – but that’s the script. Innocent Thongriew and her lover were likeable, and I actually felt bad for them, when they fell in the trap of the evil people.
I don’t think I watched something with Sara Legge before. She was definitely a hateable villain as Ruengrayub but I wasn’t really impressed by her acting. It seemed stoic to me. The acting overall was okay – not amazing though. Especially the main villain Ausor overacted to me way too much. His facial expressions caused me to not take him seriously most of the time. And those fight scenes… oh those fight scenes. I really want to forget them.

Music:
You know how music directors in TV Shows use music to prepare/help viewers to get into the mood of what is happening or how the character is feeling right now? This music director overdid it at some parts. In the first episodes there was a change of music from dramatic to sad to funny to sad again – in one scene. I don’t know if I got used to it but the more I watched the less it bothered me. The sound effects were also funny to me – yes those already mentioned fight scenes! The OST was fine though.

Rewatch value:
I don’t know. I don’t think I would rewatch the whole lakorn. I don’t even think I would rewatch some scenes. It was okay to watch it once. I mean I liked watching it – sometimes more sometimes less – but the story is over for me so I don’t think I’ll go back to this one.

Overall:
This lakorn has its ups and downs. It’s a mixture of a fated love story and the message that you should love yourself in order to find true love and happiness – at least that’s what I want it to be. It’s neither a horrible lakorn nor is it the best lakorn ever but it gets you hooked at some points. You actually feel for a lot of characters – and obviously you curse at some of them too. Some scenes were unintentionally funny to me. I wish I could rewrite the last episode though because without Episode 10 this would have scored a little bit higher for me. Anyways, if you decide to watch it I hope you enjoy it :)

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The story presented are very interesting, historical themes wrapped with fiction - time magic. However, if you watch it you will feel that the story shown is very confusing. Making a fiction story with the theme of time, I mean manipulation of timeline, is very difficult, not many stories are great presented. I don't care about old story of the drama, but the courage to raise a story with a difficult theme like this deserves a thumbs up, but sorry, I don't think they are ready to do this and seem very difficult to present this theme in the drama. Lots of plot holes, this is very bad. In addition, conflicts that occur are always repeated as if they are confused to create anything more than kidnapping, kidnapping, kidnapping and kidnapping. I cannot objectively judge the acting role in this matter, I am a fan of Mario Maurer and Davika Hoorne. I just wanna say they do whatever they can do. The problem of cinematography, dialogues, visual effects, and others, I think all is so-so, I mean, not bad, nor is there anything special.

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