Mongkut Saeng Jun (2009)

Get Your Younger Andrew Gregson Here!

If you like Andrew Gregson and are trying to watch as many of his lakorns as possible, you may want to see this one. However, you may want to skip some of the repetition when he's not around.

But first, “Thank You!” to whoever subbed and made this available. I appreciate all the people who spend their time and money to make lakorns/dramas available.

I'm laughing in my head right now, because I'm thinking this isn't the worst lakorn I've watched, but it's okay and that doesn't sound like a great way to entice anyone to read further! HOWEVER, a younger Andrew Gregson, even with poor digital quality, is still nice to look at and it's interesting to see him developing as an actor.

Things I liked:
1. Teetayu's (Andrew Gregson) sweet moments with Princess Sisira (Rita Sirita Jenson).
2. The chemistry between the leads was mostly pretty good, but I would have liked more. (However, it's Channel 3 2009).
3. Sisira finally getting a bit stronger towards the end, but she still needed to be more so.
4. Elephant polo and interactions with the elephants in the first half of the lakorn. (First time to see it.)
5. Beautiful gardens and flowers. It was some of the best I've seen even with poor pixels.
6. Karma caught up to Konjanat and Kanyapak.

Things I have come to expect from most lakorns:
1. Soldiers who can't make the shot when it really counts.
2. Miscommunication between the main couple to create misunderstandings.
3. Main characters, especially male leads, who allow the Evil Witch Second Lead Female to act horribly without being held accountable.
4. Out-of-character stupid actions screen writers use to make me crazy.
5. Girl slap fights.
6. Sure, treat me bad and hurt my heart! I'll still love only you.
7. The urge to make me want to slap someone myself.

Things I didn't like:
1. Evil Witch Second Lead Female character Kanyapak (Joy Rinlanee Sripen)– meaning the actress did a great job of making me hate her.
2. The number of times the “good” Palace people and the “evil” Konjanat's people were captured, imprisoned, then let go or escaped. Seriously, I lost count and expected someone to stop in the middle of a fight and ask “Wait, who's turn to be captured now?”
3. Inconsistencies in characters.
4. Teetayu allowed Kanyapak to come between him and Sisira especially when Kanya slept with him. While he does challenge her about the drugging when it's just the two of them, he should have done more and been much more clear about it with Sisira. Then, on the flip side, his character was made to protect Kanyapak after their childhood together. But, wrong is still wrong. And we have to drag out the adversities with the main couple.
5. Allowing typical miscommunications to drive the plot.
6. Allowing too many repetitious events to drive the plot and fill in time.
7. Not telling the boy king about the evilness of Konjanat because he was young. Isn't he supposed to be the ruling king someday? Don't you want him to be a strong leader? Shouldn't he know this guy killed his parents?
8. Sisira doesn't talk and basically hides from her responsibilities at a critical time. Then I try to understand the character and think that she's still a young and mostly naive girl thrust into this situation. Plus, as a woman, she has been cast into a specific gender role for this historical period. Follow up comment under spoilers.
9. Teetayu saying mean things to dishonour Sisira and hurt her. Some of this is jealousy and some of it was to distance himself from the daughter of the man who he believed to have killed his own father. And some was actually to protect her from Konjanat.
10. Evil witch seemed to have had more screen time than our naive princess female lead.


Spoilers Below:




















1. I really hated Evil Witch staying in the princess's room and Teetayu and Manasing not kicking her out. Like, there's only ONE bedroom in the whole palace? This was such a violation of personal space and I really wanted the princess to stand up for herself.
2. The princess isn't scared mute. She chooses not to speak because she thinks since Teetayu won't listen to her words there is no reason for her to speak. So she basically abandons her brother to Konjanat during this time.
3. I really didn't care for the scenes related to the only time the main couple slept together as being in the brothel. I understand how they got there with Teetayu being shot and Sisira's concern for him, but really? The first time, well for her, and it's going to be on a brothel bed? And then, he follows up with very mean words and allows Evil Witch to say horrible things. But, then again, he's under pressure to make a baby with her to save her life. And, to make Konjanat and Kanyapak believe he doesn't care for Sisira.
4. The “happy ending” is okay, but could have been stronger for a better finish. Yes, the moral is power and greed aren't as great as being honest and good. Also, you should put your Motherland before said power and greed and protect it against dishonest people. I still want my peeps to have a longer happy ending after all the hour of problems.

Well, it's a typical Thai Lakorn and I still love them even when they drive me to drink.

Story -5 – could have been stronger and less repetitive. Main couple needed more screen time.
Acting/cast 8 – mains/seconds did a great job with their characters, lots of veterans here (even if they were younger then)
Music 4 – seemed to fit mostly, but not my cuppa
Rewatch - 1 for me because of poor digital quality and repetition, but I would skip just to see Andrew

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"Everytime i look at the Moonlight throne, I see the person who ordered to kill my father sitting there.But he is the same person who made this whole land peaceful.For me, the matter of the country must be more important than the torment,the revenge and even the matter of the heart." -Teetayu

***

OH MY GOD! I never expected this lakhorn to wring out so many emotions from me."Mongkut Saeng Jun" (which means:"The Moonlight Crown") is a epic action romantic drama that revolves around the Moonlight Crown of Panjarat where the recent regent of the crown Konjanat will kill off both the queen and king to steal the throne for himself. He uses his fatherless nephew, the wild-hearted Teetayu (played by Andrew Gregson) and already from the start planned with him that he would make princess Sisira Sojirat Thisanamawadee (played by Rita Jensen) fall in love with him to secure the throne.Teetayu hates the royal family,especially the late king for killing his father and has no regrets over deceiving Sisira,but it becomes his own downfall when he realizes that he has sincerely loved Sisira all along.In all this chaos of betrayals,murder and greed we have the battle of wills between princess Sisira and Teetayu-learning to overcome their demons,surrendering to their love for each other and finally coming to terms with where their loyalty lies. It is a saga of honor,duty and love...every decision bad or good has its consequences.

This lakhorn starts out very strong and ended with a more clearer and strong message. Every 14 episodes of the lakhorn was worth it,and the magic between Andrew and Rita on-screen was so fiery that i longed for their every moment together.Rita`s portrayal of Princess Sisira is well done.She made me sympathisize with the character despite her not standing up for herself half of the time.I am more used to FL´s fighting their own battles,but Sisira`s trauma is simply to much to bear for her fragile mind.She lost both parents,her country is in turmoil and there are enemies everywhere.Then she has the love of her life Teetayu tormenting her in every way he can by forcefully marrying her because of his stubborness,revenge,pride and jealousy.Andrew Gregson is one of the best actors i have ever seen and he did such a darn good job portraying the wild and bitter Teetayu.He could be barbaric,rude and so illmannered that you just wanted to slap him.He had the countries absolute worst reputation and it didn`t get better when he was woking for the villain all along.But he has the soul and heart of a warrior deep rooted inside him.In there lay a honorable man.He couldn`t stand watching his uncle destroy the country and realized early on that loyalty and gratefullness for your country is more important than any other emotion.He is a fearless tiger ready to fight against his own blood for rightness.He is a hard man that gets slayed by his love for Sisira,even in the moments of hatred for her he still loved her desperately.The same goes for Sisira.Teetayu and Sisira met in the most wondrous circumstances and they manage to overcome all the obstacles between them in this hard journey.Every moment was worth it,and i got to cry and swoon and laugh together with them.

Then we have Teetayu`s three loyal musketeers.Damn how these guys were funny and how they stood by Teetayu`s side the whole time.We have the courtesan Jataree who loves Teetayu unhappily,but places his happiness above all else.I loved this badass woman!Then we have the cute elephants Teetayu used to talk with ,LOL.Those moments were so wonderful!Not Vorarit portrays Sisira`s bodyguard Manasing who gets his own character developement.He is the bodyguard who have loved the princess all his life,and it turns into a sick obsession that becomes his destruction.We have also the cold-blooded solder/killer Mayadin played by Big Sarut who will come to love Kanyapak until his last breath.I absolutely loved his character!He was so fascinating and merciless as a killer!Then we have the cause of much heartbreak, the evil selfish nang rai Kanyapak played by Joy Rinlanee who tried everything to possess Teetayu.This woman really scared me since she was capable of even murder for him.She is evil..but such a tragic character. We get high load of political intrigue,action,angst and romance to pleasure our eyes.Andrew and Rita did incredible job as a on-screen couple and with their portrayals of their characters.I will say that i have completely fallen for this drama and have no idea how to get over it.

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