Marn Bang Jai (2020)

Nothingburger to eat.

STORY:
A middle aged widow has to marry a teen to protect her. They have to live together and the drama is telling how feelings will blossom between the two. But it failed to do so. There is nothing happening in this drama. Everything is about saying things, explaining them or not saying things not explaining them. Throughout the drama, there is only misunderstandings and understanding because someone else finally said something. The best friend says "yes you love him", The older brother says "yes you love her". The younger brother says " yes they love each other"... but there is actually no demonstration of love on screen for 15 episodes. There is no cuteness, no meaningful dialogues, no binding despite the adversity, no love craziness, no foolish or epic moment of affection, no demonstration of feelings... no great chemistry between the leads or the secondary couple. Everything is just boring.

CAST/CHARACTERS:
- Mookda: She was perfect in this role. Her portrayal of a young teen who had to marry a guy she doesn't love was pretty convincing. She was immature, pouty and sulky most of the time, asking advices from her friend because she did not know what to think.
- Weir: he was great in portraying this 35yo vidow with a daughter. I found he was perfectly ugly and boring with his glasses and his demeanor of a grand father. He looked so boring I don't even see how a teen girl would fall in love with that quiet old man. But he is very rich. I guess it helps.
- Ganda: funny to see her as the best friend as she was already her friend in Massaya. I thought she was cute and a great friend. Too bad they did not develop her character.
- The step mother: She was unbearable and her ending was grotesque.
- Tai: he is a complete idiot unable to see the truth about his gf. He treated Soun badly and in the end someone had to serve him the solution on a plate. A very poor character.
- Soun: She was a nice person but she did many wrong things because she wanted to spare others. Her good intentions mostly led to complications and misunderstandings. She really lacked courage and could not stand for herself and take responsibility of her feelings.
- The daughter. She was cute at first and the kid actress was good. But in the end she was annoying because she mainly was used as a pretext foor Lada to get closer to the father.
- The two servants: super annoying nosy persons who are just here to make you believe this is love and family.

MUSIC: I found the music very repetitive and finally became annoying especially in the last episode full of flashbacks and moments of spleen. I had to skip the scenes.

REWATCH: Surely not

OVERALL: This drama has a great cast with Mookda and Weir who are two of my favourite thai actors. Sadly the drama is super disappointing. Mostly because there is nothing romantic in this so called romance. The drama is just a promotion of nice and kind rich middle age men marrying teens in a "love" forced by the situation, the people around you... I never thought their love bloomed in a natural way and was genuine. There is no moment or event which tells that she started to like him sincerely. Yes she acknowledged he is nice, helpful and respectful. But that's not love. Same for him. Sure he cares for her and he enjoys seeing her take care of his daughter but that's not love.

The drama is watchable for fans of the main actors but overall it is not entertaining. It's a boring old cow eat young grass tale.

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Daddy Issues done wrong

I pretty much binged this. It was overall interesting, but it wasn't actually good.
I started this already thinking that the premise was rather problematic. Therefore, understandably, my biggest concern was their age gap, and I was curious to see how they would try to convince the audience that yes, they are perfect for each other despite their age. However, they didn't convince. Not at all. In fact, it just proved me right. All my concerns about big age gap relationships where one of them is just barely legal were proven.

This guy (36) could've been her father, and I would've cared less if she (18) wasn't considered a minor in Thailand (adulthood at 20), and if she hadn't so often commented on his gestures that reminded her of her late father. Also, if he hadn't continuously referred to her as a kid/child and a good/bad girl. How was I supposed to not see how she only fell for him because she was young, innocent, naive and vulnerable, and that she literally projected her untargeted/floating love for her late father onto him???

Why he fell for her is a mystery in itself. She literally did nothing but be nice to his daughter and bring him coffee sometimes. How and why did his feelings of guilt for accidentally killing her father suddenly turn into love? Nobody knows.

Since there was no room for their relationship to really grow and blossom without making it problematic (because there is really almost no skinship - thank god), this is very slow. Like slow slow. The actual plot description only starts in about ep 5/6 and their one problem is left unresolved until it's finally addressed at the very end.

The lack of plot is a result of just bad character drafting. Both of them have nothing going on in their life.
She could finish school or rather start studying, or continue her internship at the kindergarten, but she doesn't. However, she stays at home and just plays babysitter-mom for his daughter.
He has no real work schedule, does he work from home or not? No ambition at work or in his private life.
They both don't have any goals, nothing that they aim to achieve.

This is what I find worrisome: In a storyline like this, where she's still underage and supposed to fall for a mature guy, they didn't even try to make her a strong character with her own thoughts, dreams and judgement. You'll think she's a strong character in the beginning, because she comes across as really feisty, but then they just left that part of her personality evaporate. So instead, they made her so vulnerable, so easy to manipulate, a mere pushover with big words: just very tamed and shy. I didn't dislike her, she had so little going on, there was nothing to like or dislike about her. She doesn't have a personality, but Moodka does a great job with her expressions, so it almost seems like she does have one sometimes.

Weir is handsome I guess, but with the glasses and old fashion compared to her very stylish and modern outfits ... it made him look so much more like a dad, that they just looked very off with each other as a couple. But most importantly, he acted like a dad. So much, that he sometimes talked to her like he did to his own daughter. It felt like incest to me sometimes, even though there technically was none.
The only moments I remember where he supposedly fell in love with her were when she didn't act up, when she showed "maturity" by being obedient - that's when he called her a good girl. She's only 18, but she shouldn't act like it, I guess.

I did like the side couple, they were cute, even if the 2nd male lead was very dumb, especially considering that they kept praising his amazing instincts that were supposed to make him a great police officer. I like their story until the second to last ep, when she had to be pregnant. It didn't even progress the story in any way.

The evil characters were good at being evil. There was off-screen rape, multiple rape attempts, attempted murder, attempted(?) sex trafficking, and it was all just left open. No real consequences. I guess it's not worth mentioning since all of it was just attempted.
Quote: "The guilt you'll have to live with for the rest of your life should be enough punishment."
and yes, you're allowed near the clueless victim. (????)

Conclusion: The storyline only worked because the FML was innocent and underage, that's why it's not good.
If they had aged her up, there would not have been any reason at all for them to get married. And since they both have no personality, there could've never been any chance for them to feel any kind of attraction towards each other. That's very sad considering I was supposed to root for them.

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