First Impression: Hua Jai Patapee

Posted on by Jazmin AK

This week’s theme is all about less well-known lakorn elements and genres, so today I am going in search of something rare, a real diamond in the rough. Today, I seek …a good action scene. I decided to try my luck with Hua Jai Patapee subbed by neko and Nash👍. And…

…

…

…

I got nothing.

  • Our hero defeats some bad guys
  • Our 2nd hero Purin
  • Looking cool…
  • 6 guys to 1 guy
  • Come here, I’ll fight you one by one!
  • And…. action!

Episode 1 of Hua Jai Patapee (2015) turned out to have a lot of the same problems that plague action lakorns in general. Here we have the same style over substance, bad action sequences that don’t make sense, that are boring, or typical, and that don’t add anything to the drama or characters. Take one scene, for example, in which there is all these moves, six different bad guys against The Lone Ranger. When it comes down to the last bad guy, he fights hand-to-hand with one of the heroes, but as he’s losing, he pulls out a gun. I mean, really? It was so stupid. There is another scene where we see one of the heroes, Purin, do all sorts of fancy moves on a training course with paper targets, and he’s wearing sunglasses for no reason that I can fathom except to look cool.

And when you think about it, it’s even more disappointing because outside of their romantic comedies, some horror films, internationally Thailand’s action movies garner the most attention.

Chocolate by director Prachya Pinkaew

Basically,  Thailand needs to use their experts, people like Prachya Pinkaew, pay them some money, and have them work on action scenes in lakorns. I think you also need to have people who know how to film action sequences, and training. The way people in lakorns handle guns, their postures, all of it could be so easily improved, I don’t know why they don’t do it, I know they do some training, but it seems to vary. It’s not just Thailand lakorns of course, Asian dramas in general seem to really falter in action sequences. This has always been a pet peeve of mine as I’m a fan of action films.

Hua Jai Patapee (2015) synopsis: The story is about Forest Conservation. The main lead are special agents from the National Forest Ranger Department.

  • Our hero, Pasu
  • 2nd lead Purin
  • Khun David
  • Mysterious lady

But let’s get back to the lakorn Hua Jai Patapee (2015). Episode 1 starts on an action scene of course in the forest. Por Tridsadee stars as Pasu, fending off a bunch of criminals with his team in a gunfight. We learn he is part of a special unit that deals with the forest and stopping those who use the forest for nefarious reasons, cutting down trees and so on. Pasu soon gains a partner, a martial arts expert named Purin (played by Mike Angelo).

  • The team
  • Khun David and son and daughter
  • Bromance?
  • Chief
  • Teammates

Along with Purin, Pasu has a team and they try to figure out the identity of the mysterious Nai Yai, the leader of the group of tree cutters. They learn he will be at a party and so the two leads get to play dress up and spy. Along the way, they encounter a masked figure in black, who turns out to be a woman. Who is she and what part does she play in the criminal group?

  • Mystery lady
  • Another villain

They do find a clue, the lady in black turns out to have talked to a guest at the party, Khun David, but he is supposed to be one of the good guys, fighting for forest conservation. They confront him about it, but is he really Nai Yai?

I think Por is a solid actor, but Por is not really believable as an action hero, and Mike? Uh, no. I really think you need people who are actually trained and even better, are experts at whatever action scenes you’re doing (Jet Li and Jackie Chan come to mind). Several things did catch my interest about the first episode. Number one, I was surprised to see that one of the main girls is in the enemy’s camp, so questions started to swirl immediately, is it true, what will happen later, will main leads fall in love, that made it more interesting right from the start.

Is it love?

Another thing that caught my attention was the mention of dark powers by one character. I didn’t know this before, so is there going to be a fantasy element to the drama? If so, that might be interesting. Neko and Nash subbed this here.

In conclusion, my search for a good okay action scene, just one, continues…. Maybe Maturot Lohgan?

Subbing Now: The Sand Princess

Posted on by Jazmin AK

Where have you been all my life, The Sand Princess? Kids, marriages, nice pra’ek (though that’s been known to change), The Sand Princess hits all of my weaknesses. It’s being subbed on official yt channel too, so easy access for folks.

The Sand Princess (2019) started Aug 24, 2019 and should end on October 6, 2019. At 14 episodes of only 45 minutes long, it’s one of the shorter lakorns I’ve seen and wished like heck it would start a new trend. There are sooo many lakorns (dramas in general really) that would be improved if they just edited it better (looking at you Khing Kor Rar Khar Kor Rang (2019) at 34 episodes of 60 minutes).

  • Kodnipa and Jirapat
  • Kirakorn and Mochi
  • The Sand Princess

Synopsis of 1st 2 episodes: Kodnipa, our nang’ek, is used to cleaning up after Jirapat, a spoiled rich guy who always gives her money in return for her doing, well, just about anything and everything for him, including doing his schoolwork, feeding him, etc. Jirapat goes overseas and Kodnipa is glad, but soon after he returns, he drops a big problem on her lap, namely his illegitimate baby, Moichi. Jirapat gets Kodnipa to act as Moichi’s mom the same way he gets her to do a lot of things, with money. Two years past in this fashion.

Then Kodnipa meets Kirakorn on a number of occasions, and Kirakorn gets to know about Moichi’s deadbeat dad and Kodnipa’s troubles as a single mom, and seems to sympathize with her. One day, he meets the deadbeat dad, whom, you might have guessed, is none other then his little brother Jirapat! Kirakorn rails at Jirapat and tries to find a way to solve the problem, as Jirapat has a fiancee.

I’m on episode 3, and really enjoying this so far. We have a typical hardworking nang’ek, who so far seems of average intelligence, a playboy 2nd lead? (Jirapat), and a caring nice pra’ek who lives in the same building as the nang’ek and knows her daughter Moichi well (kinda eh, but we’ll go with it). This is a love triangle, so I’m already hoping she ends up with Kirakorn. Who’s nice and responsible. Wait, that really isn’t a good thing in dramas usually, right? Oh, who am I kidding. He doesn’t stand a chance, does he? 😢 Please no spoilers! Watch it here with English subtitles.

Credits: mydramalist.com, asianfuse.net, asianfuse.wiki

First Impression: My Love From Another Star

Posted on by Jazmin AK

My first impression of the new remake of a kdrama, My Love From Another Star. It comes out every Monday and Tuesday, raws are on Channel 3 youtube channel and it’s being subbed by Muse now. I just watched the 1st episode. What did I think?

The mothership

So we start off with a quick overview of when our hero comes to Earth with a rather laughable computer generated shots of a ship. Immediately, he saves a girl called Bua from falling over a cliff in her runaway carriage, with his freezing time skills and and then we see him in modern-day time, where he talks about how he’s been here for 333 years and how his skills and senses are superior to humans. In 3 months, he will finally have a chance to go back to his home, his star.  (I am totally getting Spock-like flashbacks from Nadech’s styling and demeanor. )

Then we have our heroine, Falada, a famous actress, who is also being heavily criticized as ignorant and stupid for her lack of knowledge of the Thai language. Our heroine is also moving into a new apartment today, right next door to our hero Professor Archira. Later on, she starts taking classes to combat the criticism she’s been receiving and guess who is her teacher? Professor Archira, that’s who.

Falada, our plucky heroine

We meet lots of the characters in the 1st episode, Falada’s mom, her friends, staff, rivals in acting, her boyfriend? Mork, and so on, while we also meet Archira’s one friend, an older man named Arun who knows he’s long lived. We also get flashbacks to the past, as Archira talks about wanting to see Bua again. She died 300 years ago, but 12 years ago, he saved someone from being ran over and she looked exactly like Bua. Meanwhile, our heroine Falada also wants to meet someone, whom she never forgot, who saved her life 12 years again. No surprise who that is, right?

  • Arun, Archira’s friend
  • Falada’s brother
  • Falada’s mom
  • Falada’s staff
  • Bad guy, Mork’s father
  • Mork, Falada’s bf
  • Mork’s brother
  • Mina, Falada’s rival
  • Falada’s friend???
  • Bua

Overall, I enjoyed the first episode. I think Matt is perfect for the role, but I have to see more of Nadech to see if he’s right for this. Not sure either of how much chemistry between the two, but I didn’t think the original stars had that much chemistry either. I don’t see any big changes here, this looks like it’s very similar to the original drama. While the computer generated parts aren’t impressive, the production seems to have placed a lot of effort elsewhere to get the look right. Some of the scene transitions seemed abrupt, but I liked it and want to see more.

Credits: mydramalist.com, channel3thailand.com,startrek.com