Tomorrow, I’ll Still Love You (Spanish subtitles)

Anyone want to learn Spanish? Lol. Below is the first scene where Pee and Kong meet. It’s a hard sub in Spanish.
The Spanish title of the drama would be Manana, Te Seguire Amando and the Pee Kong scenes are being subbed.
Enjoy!

Proong Nee Gor Ruk Tur (Tomorrow, I’ll Still Love You)

So I have recently finished the above mentioned Thai lakorn. I really enjoyed it for the most part. I started watching out of curiosity to see Aom but what kept me was the Pee & Kong relationship.

This is the story of Kaew who six years before was dating Por. Por’s sister Put in a fit of jealous rage killed Kaew’s sister (King?) thinking she(King?) was having an affair with Put’s husband. This caused Kaew to break up with Por. Six years later the family is still suffering the loss of the sister and Kaew’s mother is in poor health. Needing money Kaew gets a new job where surpirse, surprise, Por is her new boss. He is understandably bitter about the dissolution of their relationship years before.

In the meantime Kong while with his mother in the hospital mistakenly accuses a good Samaritan of having stolen his mother’s wallet. That guy turns out to be Pee, the brother of James, husband of Put, who was the reason that Kaew and Kong’s sister was killed. Neither of them realize the connection at first. When Kong does realize he wants nothing to do with Pee.

I actually found this secondary couple more interesting than the main couple. Perhaps because I just came off of watching Life is Beautiful. Kyung Soo and Tae Sub were good together but they were already in an established relationship when LiB started and their whole storyline centered around them being gay. Pee and Kong it’s almost incidental that they are two guys. Their storyline in reality is the same as Por and Kaew. Por’s family has caused them a lot of pain and a relationship with anyone from the family would be out of the question. It was interesting to actually see feelings unfold between them naturally.

I’m so inspired by this drama I am seriously considering writing a Spanish sub for the Pee/Kong parts, LOL.
I don’t know if it’s just the actor’s ability or the writing but Pee and Kong actually seemed like a more natural couple to me. There were plenty of longing looks and O is a fabulous actor. Some of the looks he was giving Kong you could tell he wanted him, haha. He was exactly the same as when I’ve seen him in other dramas with no awkwardness that he was paired with a male rather than the usual female. Fluke also did a great job especially I think with the emotional scenes. I don’t want to spoil it but things get really tough for Kong in one of the later episodes and I actually got a bit teary eyed which is very rare for me. I watched a sub interview someone posted on YouTube and apparently Fluke did not know he was playing a gay character when he was given a role in the lakorn. He really threw himself into the role. There were a few bits of awkwardness but I attribute that more not having a lot of acting experience.

Some of my negatives with this drama had to do with the Por and Kaew relationship. I found her to be somewhat of a doormat in many ways but unfortunately this happens way too often in lakorns. Por was the usual lead male acting tough and arrogant but inside you know he is crying.

I am posting two clips below. One is the first part of ep. 5 which is when Pee and Kong first meet. Below that is the song that Fluke sings for the drama. He’s got a nice soft voice.

Episode 5.1

Kwarm Roo Seuk Dee Dee (Tee Mai Aht Bauk Krai) / Good Feelings that we Can’t Tell Anyone

Some Kyung Soo/Tae Sub fan vids

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks Kyung Soo and Tae Sub are a cute couple. The KyungTae pairing now has some vids up on Youtube. Enjoy!

Life is Beautiful -K drama

So I am watching the Korean drama Life is Beautiful and can I just say this drama is beautiful too. I am up to Ep. 28 and unfortunately don’t have access to some eps but what I’ve seen has been very touching. It is basically a drama about the different relationships in a family. Their relation to each other as well as touching on the love lives of the adult children.

I think the parents in this drama are great and very understanding parents and it really comes across how much they love their kids and want what is best for them. At the heart of the drama (at least in the eps I’ve seen) is the relationship of the oldest son Tae Sub with his boyfriend Kyung Soo. It really depicts how difficult it is in to be in the closet and then how difficult it is to make the decision to come out to the family. There is a good contrast in the reaction of Tae Sub’s and Kyung Soo’s family. It is at times heartbreaking to see Tae Sub’s parents try to be strong and balance their love for him with the news that for them came out of left field.

Can I just say that Ho Sub is the brother everyone would love to have. No matter what is the reaction of people around him you can tell that in his eyes Tae Sub is still his beloved hyung and nothing has changed for him. The character is very cute, not just physically but also in his eagerness and his caring towards those around him.

I think the writer is doing a wonderful job of conveying how even within families people can have very different beliefs of what they find acceptable. Tae Sub and Kyung Soo look good together (some slight awkwardness on the actors’ part but that seems to change over the course of the eps.) and care deeply for one another while at the same time being very much aware of how their relationship is impacting their families.

All in all a drama well worth watching. Though obviously due to the topic if you are a homophobe then watch something else.

Harit is not so bad after all (in comparison anyway)

I’ve been thinking of how best to phrase this because after all I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I condone any of Harit’s actions.

I don’t.

However in light of what I’ve been seeing on Sawan Biang I decided to go back and re-watch some episodes of Jam Loey Rak. What I’ve discovered is that Harit is pretty much a sweetheart compared to Kawee thus far. Episode 8 in particular, in which he discovers that Soraya is not Sansanee, is particularly telling. I’m including a clip here so you can see what I refer to (much thanks to Wishboniko for taking the time to subtitle and upload the lakorns).

If you noticed at about minute 4:05 when she tells him to stay back they make a point of showing him stepping away from her. We at least see that he is trying to respect her space in the face of her distress. And the actor does a good job of appearing sorry at least. He actually seems hurt that she tells him she hates him (I love that by the way, that is exactly what you should be screaming at someone who did what he did).

Rape is wrong obviously. However in the mythical world of drama, Harit did this one time. What is up with Kawee in Sawan Biang? You can’t even really blame it on Leela because except for the slap most of her dangerous personality had not even come out until after the rapes had occurred. Now let us say Kawee suffered some intense rage etc. after the slapping incident and thats why he essentially kidnapped Narin and forced himself on her. Well he still continues the behavior after they get back to the house!

They just appeared to go so way overboard with the amount of times Narin was assaulted and the “reasons” behind each assault. I guess it is to show the contrast when his personality softens later in the drama. In real life I don’t think there is forgiveness for Kawee. His turn around could happen again and he could go back to being an asshole who decides to rape someone because they don’t want to eat their dinner or whatever.

It almost pains me to write this but I guess Harit is better in that way because judging by his remorse and actions etc. I don’t think this is something he would ever do again whereas Kawee just seems really mentally unstable and does not have any healthy outlet for his anger.

What mental disorder is this?

It’s funny how you can watch something and see certain behavior that either doesn’t bother you or that you create excuses for. I find myself doing with this dramas. I’ve mentioned before here, the drama 30000 Miles in Search of My Son. As I watched I found it sort of amusing that he claimed a baby as his son in order to get out of an arranged marriage. In real life it is pretty obvious that you need to turn this child in to social services.

I find the reactions to certain characters in lakorns just as interesting. I don’t speak thai so if I happen to be looking at something raw on YouTube I will usually look at comments just to get a general idea of what is going on in that segment of an episode. I took a glance at Wimarn Sai comments where people were talking about how hot the lead was etc. Imagine my surprise when there was a rape scene in that ep. No one even mentioned it! This was only episode 2 mind you who knows what he’ll engage in, in later episodes.

I find the same sort of thing in Sawan Bieng. I’ve seen a lot of discussion around blogs and stuff excusing Kawee’s behavior. This guy is engaging in mental torture and already several rapes. Saying that he doesn’t have his father’s love is not quite enough to excuse this kind of behavior. It wouldn’t be a lakorn without the craziness I guess. It’s not so much the behavior that I find interesting but the reaction to it. In real life I say this kind of person needs to be jailed or committed.

What disorder is it that Kawee is displaying exactly? Is he a sociopath? Is he a danger to society in that he can’t seem to engage in a healthy outlet for his anger? One that doesn’t involve hurting someone. Maybe it would be a less acceptable character if it were not for the fact that Ken is playing him.

I guess thats the point of watching dramas. It’s real escapism from what is (or is not) acceptable in society.

Btw, Kawee’s craziness aside its good to see Ken playing this kind of character and stretching his acting skills beyond the adorably good natured characters I’ve seen him play.

Irritating characters in dramas

It’s only one character in particular I am thinking of and that is the mom in Sawan Biang. Kawee is going around harassing her daughter in her new marriage. You can see the obvious animosity he holds towards everyone. Now in episode three in a fit of pique he hurt his dad to the point that he had to be hospitalized. It wasn’t intentional on his part but never-the-less it did happen. Yet through it all she’s telling her other kids that they shouldn’t speak badly of Kawee.

Huh? Is he your child, that you are defending him so much?

I understand wanting to give someone the benefit of the doubt but he’s pretty much beyond that point now and it’s annoying to see her reprimanding her own kids in his favor. I wonder if in the original the mom was like this?

30,000 Miles in Search of My Son…underrated drama

I recently had the opportunity to see this drama (with incredibly sucky subtitles). Unfortunately no fansubbers that I know of have picked this drama up and it’s kind of a shame. I actually decided to watch this drama because Soh Yoo Jin was in it. She was in Bean Chaff of My Life a few years ago which I actually did not get to watch but am intrigued by the concept of musical drama. Because of this, when I saw her in the pics I was curious as to what her latest project was.

Soh Yoo Jin plays a young single mother who has spent the past six years trying to locate her kidnapped son. What she doesn’t know, that the audience does, is that it was actually her then husband who orchestrated the kidnapping. Due to his ambition he wanted to marry another woman to advance his position in the company and had his son kidnapped so that he could blame Soon Young (played by Soh Yoo Jin) and use it as an excuse to divorce her.

Due to a series of circumstances the child winds up in the car of Kang Kye Pil who decides to claim him as his illegitimate child in order to get out of an arranged marriage. Kang Kye Pil is a very interesting character in that at the beginning of the story he is very immature, as evidenced by his decision not to report to the police about this child. As the show progresses you really get to see Kang Kye Pil’s progression to a more mature person and his genuine love for his son. I found this drama also gave real insight into why Kang Kye Pil’s personality developed the way it did.

It wasn’t the storyline so much that caught my attention, in this case it was the acting. Lee Hoon was believable as Kang Kye Pil who is in essence the result of growing up emotionally abused by his stepmother.

The “bad guys” in this drama were really unlikeable and this is actually meant as a compliment. Though I don’t agree with the lack of consequences for the stepmother’s actions it was interesting that they actually chose to have the character basically explain her reasoning and the emotions behind it.

Emotion is a very important part of this drama, not just in the sense of the normal melodrama but in the sense of the long term consequences that result from negative treatment of others.

Big kudos go to the gentleman who plays Soon Young’s ex-husband (anyone know the actor’s name?). This guy was evil personified. The acting was a little too good there, it really made me wonder… :)

The actor did a great job of expressing this character’s greed and contempt of those around him. He feels absolutely no remorse for what he has done to his son and the way he has destroyed his ex-wife’s life.

It’s a drama that no one seems to be talking about, on Soompi at least. I have no idea what the ratings in Korea were like but I think it’s worth a look. Not the greatest plot ever but some fine acting and a really convincing (too convincing!) bad guy.

I still don’t understand — Jam Loey Rak -Take 2

-Warning! Spoilers ahead–

So I finished watching Jam Loey Rak about a week ago and I still don’t understand how she fell in love with him. I can understand his feelings towards her in a sense, fueled by lust and remorse at the way he has treated her. Soraya is also a good person and he can see that and realize that she was a treasured friend of his brother.

There is however no reason that I can see why she should fall in love with him. He did give her a lovely bracelet as a gift but as lovely as it is, it can not compensate for his treatment of her. Actually as I was watching it I began to wonder if any feelings Soraya exhibited towards Harit were really a manifestation of Stockholm Syndrome.

It’s also interesting to me that the few pics and images I’ve seen around of Soraya and Harit will show them in a loving embrace or holding hands and smiling as if this was some grand love. Maybe if they put the words “1 year later” on the bottom of the pics? This really isn’t that kind of lovey-dovey drama you would expect from the images. Whether or not you agree with my character assessments I think most anyone would characterize this as a very angst laden drama and not a grandly romantic love story.

Kidnapping, angst, crazy unrequited love, misunderstandings…it must be drama!

No I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have just been trying to catch up on all the drama and fanfic out there. A futile effort I know since there is just no way I could do this and maintain a full time job.

I have though, started to watch a Thai drama named “Jam Loey Rak”. I have made it to episode 6 through sheer force of will and, I admit, morbid curiosity as to how in the world they are going to get the two main characters together. I have missed episode 1 but from what I have gathered Harit’s brother died after having his heart broken by someone named Sansanee. In some twisted bid for revenge Harit kidnaps Sansanee. The problem is he has made a mistake and kidnapped the wrong person.

Episodes 2 through 6 has Harit treating So as if she were dirt and mentally torturing her with threats of violence and sexual assault. He has his servant Bai also watching after So and does not hesitate to beat him and threaten him whenever So makes one of her tries for freedom. I wouldn’t touch a guy like this with a ten foot pole. He really seems to have an abusive personality. I understand, for the sake of the story line, his treatment of her but the fact that he whips his servant to the point of leaving marks on his back…well I have yet to see what could possibly make her fall in love with him. I’m basically hanging on to this drama to see how the writers are going to accomplish this one.