Manee Morana (2023)

meh

Let's get the negatives out first.

One of the main gripes I have with this drama is the fact that it was just so predictable and repetitive. I don’t know how many times they’ve gone into that cave, start something half-way, leave just to give the evil girl more time to store up her chakra, she attacks them outside of the cave, gets hurt, goes back into the cave, stores up her chakra again, rinse and repeat. Like damn, just KILL her already.

In addition, all the dumbass people who keep dying in that damn cave to give blood to the evil girl. You'd think after the first few they'd just be forced to lock up the damn place for good due to hazards. That way, at the very least, regular people won't end up just wandering in searching for the treasures.

But plot convenience is convenient, I guess.

Final episode flashback exposition dump. Now this is funny. We have all the main characters standing around, having conversations about the past, then having flashbacks to reveal the TRUTH about everything. You know why this isn’t ideal, right? It’s cheap. Having it all be dumped on the final episode to 180 change the evil girl, is a cheap way. What they should have done is slowly reveal bits of the truth throughout the entire drama, let it cook with the evil girl, so by the end when she does repent, that is earned. Let her on her own accord, start realizing the truth herself, THEN revealing one last truth will be the final blow to crumble her hatred.

Because if it is THIS easy to change her around when she was 100% hatred the entire time, then why tf didn’t they just do this cheap reveal in the beginning and stop wasting people’s time. If the conflict can be solved this easily, then what was the point? You get what I’m saying? For the drama to be 15 eps 1 hr+ each, it should be justified why. Not this cheap result.

The monk is supposed to be the good guy but after the ending, he was so wrong. He's an instigator. Like he literally was responsible for all this yet he let the evil girl go around hunting the main leads. Going to why revealing the truth in the final episode sucks. Cuz this monk had the truth the whole time and just let them run around in circles. Dude has a kink or something, I'm sure.

One other gripe I have is that they make the evil girl delusional. She is doing bad things because she is delusional that the main guy loved her. Look, it would have been so much better if you removed the delusion part and just let her realize he does not love her but she doesn’t give a shit anyway. Now THAT is evil. Someone who knows they aren’t even considered and STILL wanna be the shit stain. She stops being delusional half way but I’m telling you this should’ve been the standard since day one.

Because I grew so tired of hearing her say “He loves me! He loves me!” like bro, did you forget you literally hypnotized him. Stupid ass. That "he loves me! So I hate you!" story only works if she hadn't done black magic on him.



Onto other thoughts and opinions.

I got nothing major. The opening song grew on me, I guess. It’s a decent song.

The story itself could've been good but they couldn't execute it well. As mentioned it's repetitive. Therefore predictable. It's as if they've run out of new ideas to include in the show. I wonder if this is due to the fact that the show itself is a simple one and could've been handled in 10 episodes or less, but they keep dragging with the repetition.

Bua’s probably the strongest actress here, imo. Ben comes second. Didn’t really care for the rest. They all sort of just become a mixture of background characters. Even New despite being the main lead. His acting was a little stiff.

The side couple is cute, I guess. But I wasn't really into their bickering and comedy. Fon's character is just loud and noisy.

Overall I'd say this was meh. I wouldn't rewatch unless someone paid me.

Leia Mais

Nothing new or original

Honestly ? This script has been done over and over again and offers nothing new or original
The powerful ghost of a jealous woman who decides to go after the reincarnations of the man she loved and her rival in love, blaming them for her tragic ending, even though she’s actually the one who caused it because of her misdeeds in her past life ; and the leads who fell in love and had a bad ending in the past life and reunite in this lifetime.
i can quote many Thai dramas like that. The ghost of the woman who somehow keeps talking like she’s the one who’s been wronged hurt even though it was actually the result of her actions is a particularly annoying trope.
Moreover, the cgi, special effects and ghost stuff have nothing impressive. I don’t know, if you have to make a ghost story, could you at least be subtle and original in all the magic stuff ? Even if it’s fantasy !
Also, the characters show no depth or real essence. They meet, hate, fall in love, get jealous, greedy but they don’t show any personality. I just hate when Thai ghost stories get so focused on the ghost aspect that they forget to give essence to their characters.
And, compared to what is happening, it’s way too long. It goes uselessly around in circles, with no real twist or event.
I’d say, the only real asset of this series is Benz’ acting, the actress who plays the vengeful ghost.
And the ending : wow, they really didn’t break their hand on writing this. I mean, seriously ? Just like that, she suddenly understands that she did wrong ? Out of nowhere?
You can watch to see her offer a stellar performance but there’s really nothing more to this lakorn

Leia Mais

Unfortunately, I'm dropping this after 2 episodes. Such a superb generational female cast in this drama. It's what One31 does best. Gather some of the best actresses and putting them in a drama together. I love them for it but this time around, they put these ladies in an outdated storyline. I can't even force myself to finish this for them.

If you watched one of these types of storylines, they're mostly the same with very little variation. Two women in love with the same man. Of course, he loves only one of them, and the ghost is the one who has held a grudge against the couple over LIFETIMES. If she was genuinely wronged and cursed to be a ghost for it, this would be a whole lot more watchable. Or genuinely and selflessly loves the person and is a ghost to watch over them, I would absolutely love that. Why can't we have these types of ghost storylines instead? But this is just an obsessed woman who can't accept that the person she "loves" is in love with someone else. Did the whole voodoo thing to make him "love" her instead and hate the other. Yea... you know, THAT story arc that most of us who have seen this type of story, abhor.

Song sounds really good. It's sung by New Jiew afterall, but it's about a woman in love and pining over a taken man who doesn't love her. Ladies or gentlemen, please no. If this was about a male ghost pining and obsessing over a taken woman, I'd feel the same way.

I love Ben, but this character and storyline is beneath her. I'll watch her and the rest of the cast, in hopefully, a better story.

Leia Mais