Pluem Khon Prot (2024)

I feel robbed

(SUBTITLES ASIDE) okay, I didn't mind this series, I think the main reason I enjoyed it is because I know Thai so the subtitles didn't bother me but I completely understood those who couldn't watch it because of the subtitles

I liked the slow burn of Prod and Pluem getting together, we had Prod who was head over heels and Pluem who had no clue what he was doing or wanted, HOWEVER, when they were together, it was completely rushed and unfinished. We didn't get to enjoy them together in the relationship. Seeing them struggle with whatever issues and then seeing them happy. The last episode was extremely rushed and unnecessary, they could've added all that in episode 9 and made 10 the behind-the-scenes

Furthermore, I wanted to see Tum and Suea's relationship because that was extremely out of left field because nowhere in the series does it indicate that they even liked each other, I would've liked to see how they realized they liked each other and how their relationship developed.

Also, I really liked Jess so I wanted to see him happy, also towards the end, it seemed like Nick kind of liked Jess, idk if that could be something but I wanted more of Jess being happy and not just chasing Prod

I think the only true relationship development we got was Soi and Froi's because they showed us pretty much from start to finish.

I almost feel like this was GL more than BL because from the BL standpoint, we really didn't see much but a few kisses, but with the GL part, they sort of had a spicy time and better kisses, in my opinion

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Hoo Whee

Wow. This is rough. And I'm not talking about the subtitles.

The subs are bad, but I didnt factor them into my rating and they don't factor into this review. Aside from episode one, the subs are mostly understandable even if theyre still a mess. What really made me give this such a low score is the plot.

It's bad. No way around it. The characters are irritating but, more importantly, don't seem to know what to do with themselves or have any real incentive behind their actions. Prod likes Pleum because............????? Pleum is suddenly interested in Prod because.......????????¿¿¿¿¿¿ Sroi knows Prod because???? Pleum is jealous of anything that breathes in Sroi's vicinity because????? Pleum wont take no for an answer but immediately gives up when Sroi starts dating someone else because?????¿¿¿¿¿?????? It's all so aggressively contrived with no care for giving the charcaters any consistency. Throw in a mother who's sick with some undescribed disease (and coughing up blood because how else would we know she's sick) and you've got yourself the world's most boring series.

I wanted this to at least be unintentionally hilarious because bad subs really lend themselves to that sort of thing, but I watched at 1.5x - 3x speed absolutely stone-faced. I forced a laugh at one point just to see if it'd kickstart things, like maybe I'd forgotten to laugh and just needed to get it started up. Nada. Nothing. And the show is actively trying to be funny. But between every single character just reading lines (except Pleum, for whom all lines are overacted in comparison) and weird ass interactions, all opportunities to laugh just inspired grimaces from me.

Speaking of weird ass interactions; the story is tied to like one eating area outside a faculty, the SOTUS room, and The Bar. Bold, underline, capitalize, and italicize The Bar because that is the primary location of all things in this show. Prod works at The Bar. Everyone seems to go drink every night. Pluem frequently acts like an ass at The Bar. Sroi goes there daily with her friend-turned-gf. I wouldnt be suprised if Prod's mother moved into The Bar so they could shoot more scenes in it.

Lastly, the main CP have negative chemistry. I dont even have examples of this to give because its just inherent? Like, Prod has more chemistry with the guy who's obviously going to become a love rival later. He has more chemistry with Sroi, Pleum's ex. He has more chemistry with a random extra who asked for the flowers he was going to throw away. He has more chemistry with the extra who punched him.

Watch this if somehow all of the above sounds like a good time, but I'm tapping out. I really hope Kimmon gets something good in the future because I missed him since 2 Moons but not for this. Never for this.

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"I'm traveling. I'm getting mashed into pies."

In the special, the actors introduce themselves and their characters. My favourite subtitle: "Hello. I'm traveling. I'm getting mashed into pies." which is the intro for Pure Papawan who plays Pie.

This is such a mediocre series with no real story and stilted acting. But the English subtitles are so bad that it makes it a binge watch for comedy value.

On the plus side I now know that "Khon Prod" means "favourite person" and "Sroi" means "necklace" so maybe it's a good series to watch to learn Thai vocab (unless they redo the subtitles, which would just ruin the fun).

Watch on 2x speed and enjoy the ride.

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Most realistic approach - ? unpopular opinion

At first I never thought that this series would have an impact on me on the first 2 episodes.
I like Kimmon’s acting so much from the series I watched.Always so caring.
I do believe that series was challenging as well for him,he played a difficult character, with unclear feelings and actions.
I gave a second shot to the series and I’m glad I did it. It’s true that Kimmon’s character suffered a lot,he got slapped don’t know how many times,that really tore my heart but in other hand that’s the irrefutable proof that he delivered so well that I was able to feel the same pain as him.
They had things that bothered me as the subtitles for exemple… it was difficult to keep in track with the story with unrelated sentences that they added. Hope they will revise it carefully for us international fans. They had most of parts that I understood without the subtitles… as a regular BL watcher we got our most heard and favorite words and sentences????
From the moment I detached from the fact that most of the out of context subtitles and the engineer school recurrent content plot .I got to enjoy more about the content and what I seem to understand what they wanted to share with us.
All the actors delivered very well their characters,for a 10 episodes series I think they were more authentic representing how a balanced friendship should be. Taking notes and don’t want anything less???
And the ost sang by Kimmon is simply … P-E-R-F-E-C-T (who have the English sub please?)
I would like to express my gratitude for a review a received telling me that I have to see for myself and take my own thoughts from it. Probably you won’t agree with me,you didn’t feel anything but if you can,give it a second shot and whatever is your position,know that’s alright ?
It wasn’t the perfect series not gonna lie but it heats me deeply

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The cliché of engineering students in BL series: from 'Sotus' to 'Secretly Love'

University environment? A university in Bangkok? Faculty of Engineering? Hazing boss? A secret love between two boys? A boy in love with a sundere, that is, a person whose initial behavior is cold and reserved, but who gradually transforms into someone warm, sensitive and friendly? One of them who, after a while, turns from hostile and unfriendly into an individual whose behavior is affectionate? Is one of them from a year older than the other? One called Khonprot, a name very similar to Kongphob? All this in a Thai BL?
This is how I reflected while reading the synopsis of 'A Secretly Love'. Then, other recurring questions would arise: By some chance one of the boys gives the other a "gear", that small toothed wheel, symbol of the Faculty of Engineering? Are you sure it's not SOTUS?
With this idea I immersed myself in the first episode of the series that tells the romance between Khonprot, a role assumed by Kut-Thanawat Sukfuengfueng, a third-year hazing leader at the Faculty of Engineering, and Pluem, played by actor Kimmon-Warodom Khemmontha.
Since I started watching BL dramas, I have found that if you ask any fan of the genre what the biggest cliché is in this type of productions, they will undoubtedly answer that placing the plot in the Faculty of Engineering and its protagonists are future engineers. I don't consider it bad to repeat the same cliché over and over again, especially if it is developed well. But this requirement is rarely met, which undermines the success of the drama.
The main problem with these series is not the use of the much-questioned cliché ad nauseum, but the fact that it is not even made good use of, in addition to ignoring a cruel reality, such as the hegemonic masculinity prevailing in the faculties of Engineering.
Homosexual engineering students in Thailand suffer from violence perpetrated by homophobes, both inside and outside the University, as well as mockery and harassment from students in higher years. This affects their self-esteem and daily life, to the extent that many have been forced to leave their studies because they feel harassed, while others commit suicide.
Future engineers and other careers, especially the "effeminate" ones, describe psychological, physical and sexual violence against them, demonstrating the articulation of homophobia and misogyny in Thai universities. Much of his narratives describe the role of alcohol in strengthening masculine bonds, negotiating manhood before groups of peers, and evading feelings and frustrations. Others, to hide their homosexuality, are forced to seduce and have sex with several women and separate them from their true feelings and emotions.
Let us remember that Thailand is a sexist and conservative society in which marriage between people of the same gender is not yet legal and in which homosexuality is taboo and frowned upon by both family and religion.
Topics such as the need to seek new ways of “being human and free” in the university environment, or how boys construct new ways of being a man and being young in the society in which they live, as well as the other problems highlighted in this review. to 'A Scretly Love' are absent in the plots of BL series, which do not take into account the social and historical nature of masculinity. This is a social construction recreated, reproduced and reinvented daily by social actors differentiated by age, sexual orientation and other factors.
Whether it happens organically due to the environment in which they grew up, due to their desires for expression through physical appearance, due to experiences lived in the school environment or, on the contrary, due to their feeling of not aligning with the paradigm, the Engineering students assume the consciousness of being a male subject who develops daily in a sexist environment or environment, exalting masculinity and even homophobic, which expects from them strength and resistance, sporting inclination, independence, self-sufficiency, passion, determination, open mind and abruptness as concepts associated with them.
Thai BL dramas, and others, do not take into account the reasons why these situations and beliefs have arisen. They do not tell how homosexual engineering students (and other majors) are excited about the possibility of reimagining and deconstructing the reality that surrounds them. They do not reflect on how they expect to live in a community in which no one feels pressured to align with certain thoughts or be forced to act in a certain way that is foreign to their personalities and characters.
Given this reality, the series on this topic within the BL genre suffer from not addressing the necessary equality policies that must be established in Engineering faculties in Thailand and other places in the world, and for which so many members of the LGBT+ community have fought and still fight to make them a global reality.
These dramas are limited to reflecting a homosexual romance and leave aside everything related to equity, justice and equal opportunities as the benefits that everyone would receive as a result of actions being implemented for their benefit. These dramas ignore everything that has to do with the need to recognize problems, question behaviors and join the essential changes that do not come and do not focus their attention on something more rooted in the freedom with which each person experiences life. .
In this context, the interest of scriptwriters and directors in presenting engineering students in romances with other boys of the same sex is striking and, above all, if they all dream of training as engineers, ignoring everything else.
All of the above would change if the premise were better supported within the script. It can get tiring, due to oversaturation, that creators want us to believe over and over again, that engineers, so “masculine”, can also love other boys, especially when in most cases they represent to these not so masculine.
'A Secretly Love' shows that it is not necessary to place the protagonists as students of the Faculty of Engineering. In the series, as in other previous ones, this fact has no relevance within the plot. Apart from using the faculty as a setting for various scenes, the interest in demonstrating a supposed superiority of some students over others depending on the faculty in which they study, or the much-used gear as a symbol that represents the official acceptance of the student at the faculty, or the representation of the actors proudly wearing the blue shirt that becomes another emblem of future Thai engineers, do not seem to have greater importance than the role they play in the story.
The series repeats the same mistake of its predecessors determined to place the story and the characters in an Engineering faculty, by attempting to show the great importance that this career has, when this circumstance collides with the little value that it truly represents in the plot line.
As is the case in other Thai BL productions, 'A Secretly Love' confirms that it would not suffer any alteration in its plot if the protagonists were placed in any other faculty other than Engineering.
At the opposite extreme, stands SOTUS: The Series and SOTUS S: The Series (2016-2017), by director Pongpisit Sri, based on a BL novel by BitterSweet, a pioneering work par excellence within this type of series of this Thai genre.
Sotus is the perfect demonstration of the evolution and development of the main plot, subplots and characters, both main and secondary, in an environment of students from the Faculty of Engineering. The entire cast manages to cope and develop within this reality in such a deep and emotional way, as has never been seen before or since in a BL, by achieving a good balance between romance and the everyday life of engineering students.
It would be meritorious for Odd Ramet Ruangpratum, the director of the television adaptation of Avery Pie's novel of the same name, if he managed, without repeating Sotus, to show us in a more profound and convincing way than his predecessors within these BL-themed series, a romance between engineering students, renewing formulas and ignoring clichés.
I just hope that the fictional characters that represent one a noble boy who keeps his word and has leadership qualities, the one who tries to act strong all the time, although inside he is a very sensitive person, and the other a young athlete who speaks little, but hits hard and likes to be pretentious, but deep down he is a sensitive person with a fragile heart, easy to love and difficult to forget, so that the young Engineering students that they embody can live in freedom. , equality, equity and justice, and their human rights are respected.
I would like Khonprot and Pluem to be able to live up to Arthit and Kongphob, the two heroes of Sotus, by convincingly showing us situations such as hazing, the upper-year student-lower year hierarchy relationship, the effort involved in achieving the long-awaited gear, or achieve the title of engineer, while their romantic relationship matures, grows and becomes as strong as the metal from which the small cogwheel, symbol of the Faculty of Engineering, is made.

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Third time's the charm? Not here.

They say "third time's the charm" in English, so I watched it up to the third episode. I won't watch any more.
This is now almost to the one-third mark, and I still have made no emotional connection to any of the characters whatsoever (maybe the hat guy, but that's just because I like hats).

The script is formulaic -- there's the secret crush from highschool, the womanizing tsundere alpha-male-type "top", the spurned ex-girlfriend, the comedic sidekicks, the engineering setting, the sick family member and subsequent money troubles etc.
The acting is bland and uneven -- it's probably mainly the script, but also I think directing choices.
The sets show the low budget, especially in the university spaces.

The GL couple also feels as if someone said: "Oh, GL is all the rage now, let's put that in." and nobody gave even the smallest thought on how a girls couple could work. All their interactions are so ... bizarre.

The roles for the main actors feels like they tried to squeeze into ill-fitting jackets -- especially for Konprot, who they tried to make into a typical "bottom"-type of character with his gentle demeanor, soft voice and the haircut. Thing is, he shouldn't have to: "Manly" men can also have secret crushes, and just because one is the "alpha-male" type, doesn't mean the other cannot be. (That's not to say that bulky and tall men can't be soft-spoken or gentle or shy or whatever, it's just so obvious that the people responsible here thought there should be a stereotypical "bottom").
I wonder what happened here. Did they not find other actors for the script? Did they not find another script for the actors? Or was it initially planned as a parody, and that information got lost somewhere?

Because this series could have been a great parody of the Thai college BLs of past years. Everything is already so over-the-top stereotypical. Then you get a cast that is actually not at all suited for the roles -- which could be played as a strength in a parody. If the director and the actors would have been just a bit more daring to really get into the absurd side of things, I would have had a great time.

As it is, this series is one I won't finish.

Edit: Please note how I did not say a word about subtitles -- even if those were better, the drama's problems would stay the same.

Edit 2: I watched episode 8 with half an ear. "I like women. I like Konprot now." The writer *actually* did a Gay For You and wasn't even ashamed to let Pluem say it out loud?! Unbelievable...

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DISAPPOINTED WITH KIMMON'S SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME

Okay I know that we prolly have to move on already from KimCopter ship and I am ready to move on. Before I watch the series, I keep on telling myself that before I watch this series. I want to give a new ship a chance but MISS GURL WHAT IS THIS??? What is this shit??? I am sorry but THIS IS JUST NOT IT! The plot is very immature and the plot development is very slow. I am not going to waste my time to watch this series while my eyes are fighting for its life to stay awake. It's the 3rd episode and I was like "Huh??". The chemistry is not chemistrying. Kut's expression sucks. I said it. Is he happy? Is he sad? Is he angry? Who the fuck knows. 1 face for all expression. He is just not it. Where is the lovable expression when he gets to meet with his crush??? bruh. And also, the acting gap between these newbie actors and Kimmon is FREAKING HUGE. All of them looks like they are reading straight from a script but Kimmon's acting is immaculate. He is the only one carrying the show. I am sorry but I am not going to watch this shit anymore.

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Hmmmm, difficult...

I wonder how the relationship between the two main characters will develop. I feel absolutely no vibe. The acting is so-so. I'll be honest, since both mainactors have some experience, I was expecting a bit more. Especially Kimmon is not a newbie here. He has been in much better productions in the past, in my opinion. But I don't want to be too harsh. I watched the 2nd episode and will continue to give it a chance. We'll see how the whole thing develops.

But please, what the hell is wrong with the subtitles? There's no excuse for that. This should be revised urgently, as soon as possible.

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Oh dear!

No spoilers because I can't even make it to the 30 minute mark of episode 1! I love Kimmon, but why on earth can't he and Copter ever catch a break? The story is definitely nothing new, but that didn't bother me - I don't mind a blue shorts come engineering story, and I can handle one-sided/unrequited love tropes too, but what I can't stomach is a lead couple with absolutely no chemistry, and who really don't even look good together. Nor can I stand a crap script, and worse subtitles that make absolutely no sense. It seems that Kimmon and Copter just keep accepting roles in really awful series for some reason. They're decent actors, but never get a chance to show it. They've got the chemistry, but even when they're a couple in a series, they're dealt a dud hand when it comes to the script, or even the general quality of the series. I only found out about this series because it was mentioned in something I was reading... and now I know why I hadn't heard of it. I usually always give a series a fair go by watching it all the way through, out of respect for the actors, but I just can't this time. We've been thrown so many bad series recently, with 2023 being the year that channels for some misguided reason, decided that the viewer would be happy with quantity over quality, no matter how bad the offerings, that I've just had to starting saying no to series that just don't cut it. I still maintain however, that I will never blame the actors, because what we get to see, is what the scriptwriters, directors, and acting coaches want us to see. Unfortunately, series like this do nothing to show how good an actor is... or isn't, for that matter, because you can't see past all the other bad things about it. Just once, I wish Kimmon would be offered a decent, serious, and credible role. Honestly... don't waste your time. [Unfortunately, it seems that I have to give a rewatch value of at least 1 star. If I could, it would definitely be no stars at all. So all I can say is, watch at your own risk.]

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