Remember Me (2022)

A life drama full of great messages, but a romance it is not

The first and foremost thing viewers need to know when coming into this drama is that this is not a romance drama. It is a life drama with a few romance plots. It's slow. It's meandering. It's chock full of time skips. There's not a lot of focus on developing romance or chemistry.

As a life drama, it's about our many main characters finding their way through life. From elementary to high school to university to working life. On their relationships between each other, their romantic partners, and their family. And how their respective character flaws need to be overtaken before they can get what they want. As viewer, we are taken on a ride to see how they come to terms with a change in future plans, grief, insecurities, trauma, distance from loved ones, and more.

We get to feel the nostalgia of watching how people communicate/d through the passage of time. How certain technologies made it easier, but were still subject to the same difficulties because of the people using them. But through it all, we were able to see a friendship that lasted through multiple decades, even as the people within it changed. And we got to take a look at several different family dynamics, and how they are still family regardless.

I loved this drama. It had a nostalgic and comfortable atmosphere that I enjoyed sitting in with each episode. I also enjoyed seeing how our mains grew as individuals and all possessed some trouble or another that I could relate to. There wasn't much focus on relationships, but I think that's okay. Because it wasn't the direction this drama was trying to take.

If you're coming in expecting your typical BL, you'll be sorely disappointed. The Life/Slice-of-life genre is not for everyone. So if that genre is not for you, I highly recommend skipping. Because it is actually a good story. But it's a good life story, not a romance.

However, I do wonder if the drama might have been too ambitious with the amount of main characters it was tackling. All of their stories were told completely, but I didn't get to emotionally connect with them as I usually would have liked, despite their performances being pretty solid. In my experience, most life dramas with such a big array of characters will choose an episodic format, which helps establish to viewers that they aren't meant to emotionally connect with the character too much. But by putting all of their storylines together into the same episodes, it made me feel like I was expected to connect deeper than what I actually did. Nonetheless though, it is a quality that is common with life dramas, so I can't really hold it against this production in particular too much.

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It’s really not a BL series.

I placed spoiler alerts at the end of this review.

This series is mostly about a group of friends that struggle with their problems throughout life. This is really not a BL series because the BL storylines are mostly treated as a secondary thought. However, that’s not the main problem for me. The overall story concept was actually a good one. See the spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more information. However, the script was a complete mess. It suffers from the two main problems that is often seen in Thai series: too many storylines and too many supporting characters. The script started off really good in episode 1, but then the cracks begin to show by episode 3. By episode 7, the script starts to make no sense and the logic behind the characters’ actions don’t add up. Overall, the acting was ok. Some of the actors were better than the others. I expected better from this cast considering they are not newbies. There were also some poor editing choices. One major editing choice caused a major timeline continuity problem in episode 11. There was a lot of wasted screen time starting from the middle of the series and onward. This did not need to be a 14-episode series. They easily could have trimmed all of the useless filler screen time to make this a 10- to 12-episode series. I also don’t understand why the Special Moment Director’s Cut at the end of the series was done and not incorporated into the other episodes. The songs they used were good, but the background music throughout the series was bland and very annoying. As for the ending, see the spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more information.

Random notes:

I know everyone else was complaining about the bad wigs, but I thought it couldn’t be that bad. I was very wrong. It’s almost like someone showed up with a box of wigs and dared the production team to place them in as many scenes as they can. This could basically be turned into a drinking game.

The opening and closing credits are way too long.

******Spoiler Alerts******

I give the screenwriter credit for writing a series about the different means of communication with characters that don’t know how to use basic communication with each other. This was the only successful thing that came across in the script. I had an idea this was the general concept and was happy it was confirmed in the last episode. I actually gave an extra point for this.

Am I supposed to believe that none of Name’s friends went back home for any of their breaks during the first 2 years in college? None of them, not once? This is just a small example on some of the lazy scriptwriting.

It does show happy outcomes for all of the characters in the last part of episode 14.

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A pretentious BL with very poor execution

This is a long and tedious series. The first two episodes are not indicative of how this series will continue, and you will be exasperated by the end of it because so much of the promise of the first few episodes is totally wasted. The director is just stringing people along with a lot of angst that is just never treated with any kind of sincerity and feels totally illegitmate. Even as they use everything to keep you watching, drawing upon your tear ducts, and plying you with pitiful scenes of disabled people suffering in miserable conditions, they still bore you to death with repetitive, and meaningless scenes. There are also far too many characters, and too little movement in every episode to keep anyone interested in the general progression of each individual story.

The main issue will always be to me, that all the major ideas are treated with little to no real honesty. What does this mean in a BL? Well, if you want to introduce people with major disabilities you should really treat their conditions with some heart and sensitivity. You can’t just mention it or depict it and then totally treat it like it’s irrelevant. They don’t seem to know what to do with the idea once it’s been introduced. I also suspect that they just use it to keep you vested in the story like how a panhandler uses an injured limb to keep you paying attention to them [sorry for the example, and any panhandler that does this is far more worthy of the attention than this drama]. Name’s selective mutism is first treated with some kind of brutal intensity because they really want to make you watch the next few episodes. He suffers more and more with each passing episode, but then it suddenly disappears, and we hear nothing more about it, like it never existed. The suffering is intense but it is also not real because there is no consequence to it. Name moves swiftly to a normal life and all his past trauma does not affect his relationship with his mother or his future boyfriend, and none of us even know why we cried about it. Now if there was some transition we would treat it as a real thing, and if it crops up again, as it should, being as severe as it was depicted, we would believe in it. It just vanished, and you will note the character also has far less screen time because he’s not relevant anymore, and not useful in producing the phony angst they constantly use to keep you enticed to watch the next episode.

Before I move on to the other disabled character, I want to talk about just how this phony angst and unnatural suspense is used in the relations between normal healthy people like Gun and Golf. After waiting an almost supernatural amount of time to get together – beyond a decade – they finally jump right into a relationship. Forgetting how Gun has to be the shyest person on the planet to wait so long, never letting Golf even know who he really was, he jumps immediately into becoming his husband, and that really is what he became in a matter of minutes. Then they somehow abandon each other, or supposedly Golf abandons Gun while working like a maniac at his new job. We find out later that he only works like that so they can get visas to move to the US and marry legally. They have a break-up because Gun is mad that he was abandoned for 2 years while Golf was securing their visa. Forgetting that this is awfully unlikely, given that Golf has always been the more communicative, outgoing member of the couple, and that he would still have plenty of time to spend with Gun, they resolve the issue in a matter of minutes after reading a touching note from Golf. Then Golf, who supposedly abandoned his lover, asks Gun to marry him, and he blithely accepts. This is just idiotic. They really should have broken up or they should have a long period of time where they healed their wounds and gradually reconciled with each other. But their drama was all phony and was as irrelevant as anything you would experience having lost your pet rock.

The third story involving Champ is just so hum-drum, and so unrelated to any BL content I’ve ever seen, it almost feels like a random throw of the dice as far as content. The only reason this story is even here is to provide more angst to keep you watching. First, Champ’s grandpa slowly gets sick and they give you the kiss of death cough in early episodes, and slowly string you along with more hints that gramps is getting worse and worse till the inevitable croaking occurs in episode 8. But Champ’s story has more deaths to keep you vested in a story that has nothing to do with anything you normally would be interested in. The death of Lucky the dog is just a gimmick, and then you are teased with possibly more deaths to come as if you are being groomed to become a necrophile. Now Champ is supposedly angry at his family for like a century because they never told him about dying Grandpa, and Lucky, and is a spiteful little bitch who pouts at his job thinking about this, but has finally decided to cry it out with them after a century because it’s time for some more phony angst to draw you into the final episode. Just to show you how little they even thought about this character, they have him finally show some interest in a relationship for the first time when he must be about 30. Champ is basically asexual till that point and you can’t help but wonder why he hasn’t shown any interest in anyone after hundreds of opportunities. It’s just incredibly lazy writing.

Now, I’m going to return to the last story and the theme of disabled people finding love. Now, Remember Me does do a lot of innovative things even if it is mostly boring, so why do I really hate this drama? I think it’s because it’s doing something really distasteful and borderline unethical in its treatment of disabled people. The last story concerning Nan and Chompu is really kind of perverse. Mean who will be forever remembered as wearing the ugliest wig in any drama in history which we were all visually bludgeoned with for most of the series, is really in the worst role of his lifetime. His grating, insincere, snide, and flippant demeanor in every scene seems fitting for a superficial person who has no depth of character, but he’s supposed to be some saintly, heroic person. This role is just meant to appeal to his fanbase, in my opinion. The actual character is an afterthought and feels totally out of place. His interactions with Chompu are just emotionless and he never conveys any affection for his love interest. He doesn’t even care about who she is, or what she wants to do with her life. It’s all about her accepting his love. Chompu has no agency, and is treated as nothing but the pitiful object of Nan’s affection. Her initial rejection of him was, again, phony angst, and she instantly accepts him when he finally finds her after a needlessly drawn-out search. Even her brother follows her around everywhere, taking care of her, and making all the decisions for her like she’s totally helpless. This is a series that is really tone deaf, and thoughtless. It uses disabled people as props, rather than treating them like people.

There is nothing they wouldn’t do in this series to keep you watching except actually creating any real content. I’m just surprised they tried all these new ideas. It’s a series that incorporates elements of four different genres [Bl, gay drama, coming of age, slice of life], and employs elements of nostalgia, and family dramas. It also makes a feint of depicting the lives of disabled people. But, it’s like a diver doing an incredibly complicated dive and landing it with a belly-flop. It’s just not enjoyable, no matter how creative they tried to be, and the episodes moved along at a snail’s pace because there were too many characters, and too many story-lines. Even considering those big drawbacks, there was a poor use of time with many redundant, and unnecessary scenes. The incredibly redundant music score also adds to this tediousness. You felt like you had to mute the sound to continue watching this series after the first few episodes. In the end, they just wrapped up all these stories in the most facile way, because they never did the work to actually make you feel them, and completed the series with nearly meaningless happy endings that no one actually earned. It just feels totally flat at the end of the series, and you felt like no emotions you experienced during the show ever meant anything. Remember Me was just a huge wasted opportunity, and I don’t really even want to see any future content from the people who made this show. They just don’t seem to have any concern about producing good content, and are just seeking praise from people for being innovators.

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Utterly Forgettable

I wasn't fully sure what to expect with this drama. My sole interest was in the casting of First and Ja as Gun and Golf, respectively. I think I was expecting more romance than there is. Ultimately, this is less of a BL drama and more of a coming of age drama. It's not totally devoid of romance or BL moments, but if you're looking for steamy moments ala Don't Say No, Love By Chance, etc., you will be sorely disappointed as thus far there has been a single, very chaste kiss. What it does have is more depth to it and unique, compelling characters. It doesn't always seem to know how to use said characters and it does seem to leave some of them in the same place for periods of time with little development, but ultimately I've enjoyed the diversity. That being said, it has also struggled with pacing, conflicts between characters being dragged out, character development, the costuming/makeup and being downright predictable at times.

The story really is more about the friendship of the five central characters than anything else. While Ja's character Golf is considered a main character, even he's more on the fringe. Gun, Em, Name, Champ, and Nan have known each other since they were kids and that's exactly the age the viewer meets them, as little boys. The fun part of this drama is seeing the boys age, from little kids, to high schoolers, to college students and then after. This drama is definitely a slow burn and sometimes it feels like its about to go out. There are definitely scenes that could have been shortened or cut completely that would have streamlined the story without leaving anything important out. Time in general is just kind of an issue with this drama from the slow pace to all the time jumps. Some of them are well documented with a title stating that time has passed, but other times you have to try to figure it out for yourself from what the characters are saying. This is primarily during their college years where it gets confusing. In terms of romance within the story, again that really does take more back of a back burner. While romance is central to some character's stories, since each character has their own story, that's why I don't I feel like the romantic aspect itself is central to the drama.There are three couples: Golf and Gun, Nan and Chompu, and almost-couple Em and Name who I trust will get there before the end. Their relationships are all unique in their own way and I've enjoyed watching them grow. My favorite time period with the group has been their college years. I feel like this drama has a more realistic depiction of college than others depicting the struggles of burn out, school/life balance, working on projects, etc.

While I came to this drama for First and Ja who have been wonderful, the actor I truly have to give kudos to is Title Teshin. While his character was one of the ones that was left stagnant for a while, his acting is anything but. I can only imagine the challenge of playing a mute, since you can't use your voice to convey how you feel or what you want to say. He absolutely blew me away with the level of emotion he was able to convey just with his eyes and body language. The scenes when Gun and Em leave for college and when he was telling his mom that Em had promised him to stay in contact were so incredibly powerful to me. They just broke my heart and I wanted to reach through the screen and give him a hug. The other actors have been great as well, but he's the one who stole the show for me.

This drama has such a diverse set of characters and I love it, particularly the inclusion of characters with disabilities and the treatment of them as actual human beings. At the beginning of the drama, it was so heartwarming to see the boys accept Name so completely. Just a "he doesn't talk much" and they were all totally fine with that, he was instantly one of them. And with Chompu, I appreciated seeing a woman in that role and not as a recluse, but as a woman in college who knew her worth. What I haven't loved as much with these characters is the lack of character development. With some characters there's very obvious growth, but with others it doesn't seem like there's been much of a change from their high school selves to where they're at now.
-Gun is a very likable character, he's adorable and he really is a sweetheart, but he's definitely one of the ones I don't feel like had a whole lot of growth. To be fair, he didn't get as much screen time as an adult aside from his break up with Golf. But aside from the lack of acne, there didn't seem to be a huge difference between where he was in high school and where he was at the end. At the time of their breakup, he still wasn't really communicating and was still keeping things to himself. He obviously loved Golf and didn't really want to break up with him, but rather than sit down and communicate how he felt, he immediately jumped to breaking up. I was initially very disappointed with how that was resolved because it seemed far too easy, but I was glad that Name's narrative at the end gave some further insight into their relationship and that they had learned from what happened and set some boundaries. Not the most satisfying way to resolve it, I would have liked to see the growth myself, but it works.
-Golf is a little more interesting since, while he is billed as a main character, his storyline was shorter, completely tied to Gun's without a chance to really see him as a character on his own. So the change seen is more tied to his relationship with Gun than directly to his character. When first introduced in high school and college, he's fairly carefree, I didn't get the impression that he was the kind of student who studied all the time and his relationship with Gun was sweet and easy. Fast forward to after college and suddenly he's a workaholic, forgetting or ignoring important dates, not checking in, essentially completely neglecting his relationship with Gun without an apology or any signs of remorse until Gun breaks. Now I mentioned above that Gun fails to communicate how all of this affects him, Golf, in turn, fails to recognize how he is neglecting his relationship and the damage he is causing by doing so. They ultimately fail each other. I would have liked to see more character development of Golf as his own person, however, that really never happened. I was glad to see that he had some self-realization that he had been neglecting Gun, but also his thinking didn't make sense to me. He was working so hard so they could move to the US, but he hadn't run this by Gun? Moving to a whole other country is a huge decision and not one made lightly and without your partner's input. And then to suddenly spring a proposal out there was a bold move that somehow worked out and again an extremely unsatisfactory ending to a conflict that deserved an actual sit down conversation to figure things out. I liked Golf, I just wish more was done with him.
-Em is one of the characters who I felt had more character development. He actually seemed to grow as a person. I loved his relationship with Name, both as a friendship and with the way I felt it pretty naturally took a romantic turn. I really appreciated how he implicitly accepted him when they were children and the fact that he didn't talk wasn't an issue in the slightest. While he came across as very easy going, he also struck me as a deeply empathetic person. He understood Name when others didn't and I think that empathetic nature is what allowed him to do so. I do, however, take issue with his plot with Name's mom. While I understand he had good intentions, I found it manipulative and damaging. Considering how close the two are, he should have been aware of the damage it could cause and he should have steered Name's mom toward a different solution. I was glad that he told Name everything, but that whole conflict was dragged out for far too long. I was glad that he stuck by Name afterwards and again, his feelings turning from friendship to romance felt pretty natural although I wouldn't have minded a little more of a gradual build up there though I understand why they couldn't. I did find it very sweet that his gift to Name was the hourglass and he told him that he was giving him the rest of his time. Very smooth. I think ultimately, what I love most about his character is his unwavering support for his friends, but particularly Name. No matter what, he is there to help and support them.
-Name has the greatest character development out of anyone in this drama with overcoming his fear and beginning to speak. Him speaking to Em before anyone else was the sweetest and most heartbreaking thing to watch, especially the bus scene when Em leaves. While he does have the most development, he is also left stagnant for several episodes during his conflict with Em and his mom. That got frustrating to watch seeing him in the same place after a while interspersed with great moments like when he tries to speak in front of the mirror or when he's writing on the sticky notes to his mom. One of the hardest scenes to watch though was when he contemplates suicide and is only prevented from taking the pills by his mother's collapse. That was never mentioned again which, on the one hand, I understand because he's moved past that, but on the other hand, I think is something important that should be addressed. And while I don't condone Em's or his mother's actions, it was sweet to see him realizing how much his mom really does love him. Since overcoming his fear, it was lovely to continue watching him grow and try new things, aided and encouraged by Em, of course. His conversation with Champ was fantastic to watch, to just see how far he's come, from not being able to speak for himself to actually being able to help others speak for themselves. I'm not a huge fan of Champ, but that was a great scene. And, of course, I was happy that he and Em finally got together and, in the end, apparently open a café together.
-Nan probably has the second greatest character development, changing from a self-proclaimed playboy to a man devoted to only one woman. I found his development really interesting to watch mostly because I felt it was portrayed in a relatively realistic fashion, going from woman to woman to finding one who finally fully captures his interest. His pursuit of Chompu after their breakup feels less realistic. Part of the problem is that whole time issue I mentioned. I never got a good sense of how long the two of them were together. The translation I watched said years at one point, but something said later on contradicted that, so I'm not sure. My general impression though was more like months maybe, in which case his pursuit of her seemed a tad aggressive and kind of stalkerish, honestly. I get that its supposed to be romantic, but it did lean a tad more towards creepy. That being said, I do like his relationship with Chompu, particularly that he realizes that she wants to be seen as normal human being and that he doesn't immediately jump in to help her. I don't think he would have had that level of perception when he was younger. And on the flip side, he finally realizes that she loves him just as he is and wants him to be himself as well. You can definitely see that he's matured while he's also still his goofy self. Now if Chompu would just rip off that stupid wig...which thankfully it looks like she eventually does since its gone during Name's final narrative. Thank god!
-Champ is probably my least favorite of the gang. I feel like his character is the least interesting and frankly could have been completely omitted with very little lost. His claim to fame is really only his grandfather's pickled fish and the fact that he's the smart one of the bunch. Aside from that, I don't feel like there's much to him. I don't feel like he's really developed as a character, certainly not positively. He went from being a sweet kid who loved his family to treating them like dirt. I still don't fully understand that. I get that he was angry that they didn't tell him about his grandfather being in the hospital, but they were doing what they thought was best and trying not to cause him undue stress and he's been punishing them ever since? For years? That's a lot of anger and resentment. I'm glad they get things resolved in the end and he goes back home and reconciles with his parents. The scene with his parents eating dinner and having the pickled fish again was sweet, but he remains my least favorite character and the least developed, in my opinion.

The nostalgia is strong with this drama. I'm at an age where a lot of this was relevant for me growing up so it's been fun watching it. The letters, in particular, got to me just because it used to be such an exciting event to get a letter from someone or even to write a letter to someone. Now all I get is bills. lol

The music for this drama has been unusually bad. I'm used to the repetitive soundtracks with Thai dramas, this one just feels more tedious than usual. And the background music is way too loud. Whoever did the editing did a poor job of it because it is incredibly distracting and annoying. Also, repetitive, again.

Probably the worst part of this drama though has to be the makeup and the wigs. I don't know who looked at these men in those wigs and said, yup, that looks good, but they should be fired. They are god awful and they both distract and detract from the quality of the drama. If you want them to have different hairstyles to show passage of time, then get some decent lace front wigs, not cheap anime cosplay wigs that wouldn't fool a mannequin. Ja's is probably the least offensive. Honestly, he's giving me serious Sin vibes from Until We Meet Again with that look, but the wig's so ill fitting you can his own hair at the nape of his neck that the wig doesn't cover in one scene. I honestly don't understand why they needed wigs in the first place. Besides the wigs, Gun's acne was nearly as bad. Besides the fact that it would change between takes within a single scene, it looked so fake and really nothing like acne. There are literally YouTube tutorials that show you how to do something more realistic. I just, I don't know with this part of the drama in all honesty.

While I am enjoying parts of this drama, there are other parts that I have not enjoyed as much.
-The predictability of some parts was just a little too obvious. For example, Champ's grandfather's death. As soon as the grandparent starts coughing or something, I'm calling it. It's an overused trope, in my opinion, and an unnecessary one at that. The fact that N was Name's mom was also pretty obvious. There were a number of other moments like that where it was just very obvious what was going to happen. Subtlety is definitely not this drama's strong suit.
-Probably my biggest issue though is the manipulation of Em and Name's mom. I understand they had good intentions, I understand his mom was at her wit's end and she wanted her son to open up to her, but seriously, that was the best idea you could come up with? To further isolate him and take away the one friend he had? That I don't get. It has to be the worst thought out plan ever. There's no doubt that they both love Name, but they seriously went the wrong way about helping him.
-I nearly always have this issue with Thai dramas, so this really isn't a surprise, but too big of a main cast. They are trying to cram in too many characters and stories into too short of a time period and it doesn't give time to do them justice. This is where removing a character like Champ who, in my opinion, adds very little to the story, would give more opportunities to develop the other characters stories and relationships which I'm far more interested and invested in.
-This is my nitpicking more than anything but the pointed time period references are a tad annoying. I feel like they could have found less obvious and repetitive ways to do so.

Overall this wasn't a bad drama. I can't say it was a great one, but the concept was interesting and I really did enjoy the coming of age aspect of it even though I wasn't expecting it to play quite as much of a role as it did. I don't expect that I'll come back to this drama, there just wasn't enough about it that I liked as a whole to pull me back. It really is a slow burn and while those are fine to watch at least once, sometimes twice if exceptional, this drama is not exceptional.

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wasted potential

When I heard the synopsis for this show, I was so excited - we were getting another JaFirst series, we were getting more of Title, and an exciting, different plot. However, the more episodes we got through, the more of an disappointment it was. Em and Name's story is horrifying at best- traumatised young boy meets new friend that he later finds out was a manipulation of his mother wanting to get him talking again. Em disappears from Name's life at the behest of his mother as well during university, again to try and get him talking again. JaFirst's storyline was interesting, but stretched on for 2 episodes too long, Gun hiding his true name and relationship to Golf, to the point where their eventual discovery felt strange that Golf forgave Gun so fast. I gave up after I got to see Gun meeting Golf's incredibly supportive family.

I find it hilarious that Mean has returned to direct a Y series after his history of homophobic statements and well publicised dislike for the industry. He also inserted himself in the show far too much, his storyline also incredibly uninspiring and difficult to be invested in. The rest of the friends had forgettable storylines I can't even speak on, I spent most of my time skipping past.

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I've forgotten why I liked this series...

Overall: although I love some of the realistic slice of life parts, it's just too slow. Aired on GagaOOLala.

Content Warnings: manipulation, something else that is spoilery for a side character and I'll put it in a comment after this is done airing

What I Liked
- those kids were super adorable in ep 1 and did a great job
- set the time well with SARS (2003), although VHS tapes weren't new technology, it should have been a DVD player unless I understood this incorrectly
- differently abled representation with two characters
- the transition with the photo taking helped me figure out who was who in ep 1
- some realistic parts like having school pen pals, how you feel when you first start university and are on your own
- that hair made me laugh and the grandpa and friends reactions were hilarious*
- supportive friends with the pen pal thing
- production value

Room For Improvement
- too many time jumps and some not clearly marked, this reminds me of when I used to write stories and came to a less interesting part I'd just skip over it and jump to the next section
- I watch at double speed and it still feels slow, they should have cut this down to 6 or 8 episodes instead of 14
- in general I didn't care about any of the romantic relationships, I felt nothing about them
- Champ's character's plot could have been folded into another character
- that's an oddly aggressive pursuit from Nan, I guess it's supposed to be romantic but it felt unrealistic and unwarranted
- the whole thing with the Name's secret online friend was annoying and I would have been waaaaayyy more angry but I guess with the other circumstances he didn't care
- the lack of communication/being honest dragged out way too long
- need more than 1 song played on repeat every other minute (it's a nice song but I've come to loathe it)
- the constant references to the time period are unnecessary
- in episode 1, it seemed unrealistic that a parent or teacher wouldn't have talked to the other students about Name (update, confusing if he was homeschooled at that point because he was wearing a school uniform)
- the awful wigs* why oh why were there sooooo many bad wigs for so much screentime

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Three Little Wigs

I started out liking this but my enthusiasm fizzled as the series went along. Here are my pros and cons:

PROS

CHOMPU. I appreciated the feature of a disabled character, and that Nan sincerely fell for her.

THEME SONG. I thought it was catchy and I liked the background ensemble singers.

SERIOUS ISSUES. Especially the Name story.

CONS

WIGS. Wth? Seriously. It was a battle of the wigs and the wigs won. Their evil plan is to take over the entire BL industry and star in their own series. Seriously, the wigs were beyond stupid.

CHAMP. Sorry honey, you're just boring. Way too much time devoted to him, and his sister was weird. She turned her own wedding into a funeral service for her grandfather.

TOO MANY CHARACTERS. There were so many characters that it was impossible to "know" any of them. I suppose we got to know Name more than anyone else.

5.5 from me.

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A failed slice-of-life

This series revolves around a group of friends and follows their growth across different stages in their lives, from childhood to adulthood. There are multiple plotlines for each main character, two of which I assume are supposed to be the main ones.

I want to stress that I believe that the ideas for the series are actually very interesting. I really wanted to see how would Gun and Golf's relationship develop after being semi-anonymous pen pals for so long, I was curious about what happened in NoName's past that led him to almost entirely stop talking, I was curious to watch Nan's character development after getting to know Chompoo, and I was even curious to see what choices would Champ make in his life and how would that affect the relationship with his family. There was a lot to show, a lot to unpack, and to be honest I was even ready to shed some tears.
As you might have guessed by the overall rate I gave this series, I was very disappointed. I could complain about every single thing that I found annoying about it, but to be entirely honest, watching this series was tiring enough and I don't have the extra energy needed to navigate all the details that got on my nerves.

What I believe is the main and fatal flaw of this series is that it's supposed to be a slice-of-life, but it wasn't treated as one. There are no major plotlines, we simply follow the lives of these kids/boys/men, so to compensate the lack of an interesting plot, there should be more characterization, more character introspection. The feelings should be vivid and intense, I should be able to empathize with the characters, feel sad when they're sad and happy when they're happy. Unfortunately this was not the case with Remember Me: all the characters are awfully bland, their feelings seem non-existent, and the only reason why I can understand how they feel at certain moments is because they actually explain it out loud. The dialogues describe their (supposed) inner turmoils, their hopes and their dreams, while the actual scenes and the acting barely say anything at all.
The inclusion of some little details that hinted at the year the characters were in was a nice idea, but it was executed poorly, with characters going out of their way to stress that a certain thing was trendy or that a certain event was happening, even when it had little to nothing to do with the story - they oddly reminded me of the usual product placements I saw in other Thai series. The time skips every now and then were also very confusing, and they were also not used properly: it often felt like the characters actually skipped from a certain date to another and their lives just didn't exist in that timespan.
As a result, the series felt awfully long and slow, with no real plot and no solid characters to make things interesting. Since I believe that the actors weren't bad, I have to assume that this is all bad writing and bad directing.
The music was very annoying as well, with the same 3-4 tracks being played depending on the situation. Also, I'm not sure if this was just a Viki problem or what, but the audio mixing was pretty awful: sometimes the dialogues were too quiet and the music too loud, and there were even moments when the voices couldn't be heard or were out of sync.
While the wigs did represent more or less what haircuts were fashionable during certain years, they were not even remotely believable and broke my immersion every time I saw them. They weren't even necessary in my eyes since there were multiple characters with modern hairstyles in the same scenes.

I don't recommend this series because while the ideas are good, they were executed so badly that it was frustrating to watch.

Lire davantage

Artsy flatline

The first review in 2023, I was thinking about why I should review this one, and I still do not have a good excuse. Lol

This series is calm, to the edge of being super monotone. No questionable moments, it is real and totally preoccupied with everyday problems life brings us. No spice, not heavy tension, or some deep passion, except the grief that is portrayed very well...

If you do not prefer slow pace, clash of a bl and bromance (lack of passion and intimacy, well the amount of it is so tiny to make me happy). The biggest issue (personally) is the boredom. I caught my mind wandering and sometimes it was just too slow for me to keep up. Most of the time it is just flatline.

If you like these types of series, please give it a go, it is so well done, colors are wonderful, acting is good, music follows the story so well, diversity is included on so many levels, emotional and psychological obstacles are all there, dealing with real relationship and family problems…

Wigs are so bad. Lol

Remember me has a value, even though it is just not built for everyone.

Lire davantage

shines with nostalgia, not so much romance

this show was made for mid-twenty thai adults. i am very much not thai so i feel like a lot of the nostalgia - that this show just oozes with - didn't hit me the way it would hit a thai person. I believe it would make this show really special.

the production itself was really good. the quality of the camerawork and color grading in of itself was great and suited the show. though a lot of scenes and storylines felt draggy and pointless. then again: i feel like a lot of meaning got lost since i couldn't enjoy and bask in the scenes for the nostalgia. that being said, it's clearly a slice of life drama. it's simply the story of a friend group growing up with the fast advances of technology and navigating their relationships through it. but honestly, i'm glad they had Em narrate the "lesson" at the end because my one braincell really didn't get the point until then.

hm, well the acting. let's say it's questionable. i didn't like ANY of the chemisty. i didn't like FirstJa's chemi in Don't Say No either, which is why i dropped that show, but apart from them, everyone seemed uncomfortable and kind of just said their lines. it felt very unnatural. don't know it that's the actors fault of the direction though.

the show didn't excite me, which is sad. i really wanted to like it, since it had "comfort show" potential. but in the end, all i can say is that i definitely watched a show with actors in it lol. and if anyone is reading this: it's not a bad show - just know it's heavy on nostalgia and one single sound track.

Lire davantage

Hermosamente superadora pero insoportablemente larga

Esta serie sigue la historia personal de cinco chicos desde la niñez a la adultez, por lo que si, es lógico que sea una serie larga, pero lo malo es que durante toda su historia se mantienen las mismas problematicas, no tiene dinámica y se vuelve aburrido ver el paso de los años y tan pocas diferencias, lo que también la vuelve demasiado sufrida por la postergación de soluciones. Aún así, las temáticas que aborda son de lo más interesantes, sensibles pero tomadas con total delicadeza y respetando las personalidades de los personajes (coherentes con su historia personal) es emocionante, y como mencioné, muy superadora, cada cual te deja una enseñanza y una sensación reconfortante aunque después de demasiado drama.
Las parejas fueron demasiado dulces y románticas, igual de largas, pero con toques muy lindos y disfrutables, en especial la pareja de Name y Em que me robo el corazón.
La producción me gustó, visualmente fue muy prolija y el elenco logro transmitirme mucho, es una serie muy linda y está bien lograda, pero con 10 capítulos ya hubiera sobrado para transmitir toda su belleza y no terminar aburriendo.

Lire davantage