Payu Sai (2021)

TL;DR - If you can get past the first 6 eps of this, then the rest of the lakorn won't disappoint. If not, then you're not really missing out on much. It's your standard modern slap/kiss with everything you'd expect. FL at least can fight and talk back when needed.

I started watching this series because it was readily available on YouTube and was easier to access than other lakorns I was watching at the time. The premise was promising and the promotional posters looked pretty good, so I set myself to have a good time and expected a mature, deliciously angsty romance to hook on to. What I got instead was a slap/kiss that was masquerading as a thriller/mystery lakorn and a romance that didn't meet my expectations. This is not to say the lakorn was a lost cause, but rather it did have potential that was bogged down by editing, directing/casting choices and script. 

I will mention some things below that made the lakorn not work out for me (I'm gonna get ranty) and more or less lead me to FF more than I wanted to:
1. The first 6 episodes were very unwatchable (at least to me). What really killed it for me and made me almost drop the lakorn here was the editing; you had bad transitions between scenes, unnatural pauses where you could see the actors wait for others to make the next move and inappropriately played music. The music was the biggest offender for me, as it was not only played at inappropriate times, but it was also used to make the audience feel what the director wanted them to feel. I'll give an example. Sine and Nares were being chased by a gunman with action music playing, then Sine accidentally drops the gun she's carrying; comedic music then comes on with Sine and Nares looking at eo and then the comedic music quickly goes away with the action music coming back and resuming the chase. Why the hell was comedic music played when Sine dropped the gun? Isn't it supposed to be bad that she dropped it cause it'll slow them down and they could die? Why does the director want us to think this is funny? There are many instances where music is used as an indicator of what we're supposed to feel that really insulted my intelligence. This misuse of music was on the same level as Game Rai Game Rak and I really didn't expect to see this in a 2021 lakorn. Luckily this bad editing didn't last the entire lakorn, and editing styles like this should just stay in the early 2000s.

2. I didn't like who they casted for Narin's mom, nor did I like her character. I have nothing against the actress, but previous roles I've seen her in were usually that of the nice, cool mom or a classy lady. That view of her is part of why I didn't think she suited this role. I also think her voice is too soft to make sounding angry convincing, and when she got all bitchy, it just made me imagine a tiny angry chihuahua and not an angry mom. I think Ann Siriam would've suited this role better (step-mom from Hua Jai Sila). Even then, the way this character was written was awful, more so than the usual evil mom character; a complete bitch spewing hateful stuff, hurting people physically and emotionally and even breaking the law all because she feels entitled to do so. Then after she finds out her son is alive, she suddenly gets a character lobotomy and realizes her wrongs. Everyone forgives her in the name of filial piety, which is complete bullshit. Is filial piety gonna make me forget watching 12 x 1hr30min of her being a selfish bitch? Thais may do so, but my Western-minded ass is not. They show no indication of her realizing she's wrong or feeling sorry for hurting others until after she gets the son back and I overall couldn't sympathize nor care less about her.

3. No subtlety and bad villains. Everything is shoved in your face. You can figure out by the 2nd episode who the villain is. Instead of making it so that the audience can figure out what's going on by context clues or dropping hints, the lakorn presents everything to you so you don't have to think too much. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but not what I was expecting from this lakorn. I would've liked to be more interactive as I watch. I can at least admit they did a good job of making me wonder if Narin was still alive or not. As for the villains, they were kind of a joke. All the main villain did was order people around and make evil faces. I wish they could've shown more of his cunning nature, which was showcased once when he was defending himself in front of the police. Otherwise all he did was scheme and make stupid, illogical mistakes. The 2ndry villainess was also one note and just made the same mistakes over and over with a quick, anti-climatic death at the end. 

With all these grievances I had with the lakorn, you may be surprised that I didn't score this lower. That's because everything else, from the story, main leads, and secondary cast, I didn't have a problem with. They were all pretty standard and watchable, especially after getting through the first 6 eps. While I wasn't very invested in this lakorn and did find things to be predictable, the rest of the lakorn played out nicely and on a surface level, I enjoyed watching it. 

Now to discuss the romance; I thought the trope of former lovers reuniting after a long time was interesting and I hadn't seen it before in lakorns I've watched. Unfortunately, I didn't think it was done well here; Sine and Nares were eo's first loves separated by 7 years, and when they reunite they go right into slapping and kissing eo with not much discussion about what they were up to in the past or why they hadn't talked in so long (esp on Sine's part). What really nailed the romance in the coffin for me though, was Nares calling Sine a prostitute after believing the older man she was in a photo with was her lover (and not her father..which would make more logical sense). The truth is revealed, he apologizes and she forgives him. This interaction just completely rubbed me the wrong way. They don't really have stakes in their relationship, and even if one has misgivings about the other, it gets glossed over for the sake of romance. While the romance does get better later, I wasn't invested enough to enjoy it. It's funny because even though I wasn't really into the romance, I did think the leads had good chemistry with eo and played off each other very well. I wish Esther and Film were given a better script to exploit this chemistry more, and can only hope they can work together again to do so.

Overall, the lakorn wasn't terrible per se, but it also didn't offer anything new or refreshing and didn't meet my expectations. I certainly would not rewatch this. I think if you like slap/kiss lakorns like this where you don't have to think too much and you like romance, then this could be for you. If not, then I don't think you're really missing much and you could probably play this in the background while doing something else.

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Epic in the beginning, a bit meh in the end

First of all, you need to be aware that this is a slap-and-kiss lakorn. So if you do not enjoy stories with lots of forced kisses, violence, screaming and intrigant behaviour, this one is not for you.

And gosh, does this lakorn excel at that! I don't remember ever watching another show with people getting slapped that often in the first few episodes. That slap-fest is so crazy that it is simply entertaining. I was amused about how everyone was wasting their time and energy fighting instead of focusing on the problems at hand.
Most often the female lead is the recipient of this behaviour and even though she is a rather nice and gentle person, she does not take shit endlessly. There are some very satisfying scenes where she slaps right back. But the female lead is not the only victim of abuse. The male lead is right there with her, getting treated like trash, even though he is subjected to a more verbal abuse.
The main leads are kindred spirits, past lovers who had to separate but are still drawn to each other now that they are reunited. They both suffer from tragic pasts but are more or less unwilling to talk about it, so some misunderstandings ensue. Film and Ester are delivering a great performance here. Especially Film does the switch between angry, hurt and flirty really well. When he smiles at Ester you can feel the attraction oozing out of every pore. There are some surprisingly steamy kisses in the first half of the show. The more disappointing it is that it later becomes more romantic but very tame.

If there is a weak point in the story, it must be the antagonists. I wish lakorns would learn to use misdirects! If you have not figured out the villain by the second episode, you must be blind. If at least that person was competent in executing their evil plan, they would be a worth-while villain, but both their amateur behaviour and the acting of the person playing that role resulted in me not taking them seriously.
The stepmother of the male lead as well. She was clearly deranged, blaming the male lead and everyone else for everything bad in her life and being a horrible person about it. I could work with that, though. But then she does a complete 180 without an apparent reason. Dear writers, if you want to redeem a villain, do it gradually by letting them realize the errors of their ways or give them a traumatic experience to open their eyes. The traumatic experience is there, but she behaves the same immediately after it, only to suddenly change a few days later. Lazy writing if I ever saw one!

Overall, this lakorn is not surprising. There is nothing new that you haven't seen somewhere else before. It comes complete with all the typical tropes like getting chased in a jungle, people fighting for a company, evil stepmother, comedic sidekicks, slapping-kissing-slapping-kissing-slapping-kissing... (why do people never stop after the first time? ^^), the filial daughter who tries to talk sense into her evil mother instead of reporting her to the police, the bad guys waiting for the leads to escape instead of simply shooting them right away, people using a gun as a close-range weapon, so someone can snatch it away, and more.

But the chemistry between the leads and their bantering are highly entertaining and ergo the strong suit of this lakorn. The mystery about who is the villain and who else is involved and how and why they did it is also quite interesting in the beginning. And there lies the problem: in the last third there are no mysteries left for the viewer to solve, as we always already know more than the leads. The romance and the satisfaction of punishing the villains would have to carry the show, but the romance becomes too tame and looses its sex appeal after the leads get back together. And the villains basically destroy themselves with their downright stupid behaviour.
In conclusion, this lakorn starts out really strong, and I was wondering in the beginning if this was one of the best slap-and-kiss lakorns I have ever seen, but then it fizzles out a bit unsatisfactory in the end. It was still entertaining to watch and if you don't expect your villains to be overly clever, you might still find this amazing.

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