The male lead (Pha) is kidnapped when he is a child and forced to live as a bandit. When he tries to be different and educate himself, he is punished and one of the people closest to him is violently killed. From that point on, he doesn’t really go against his evil stepfather (Seua Phan, the head bandit) anymore. In fact, his kidnapping of the female lead (Nampeung) is basically him carrying out orders. Pha is a pretty good fighter and even has superpowers…but unfortunately, he cannot, and does not go against the established power hierarchy in his ‘bandit village’; he doesn’t go against or speak against his evil stepfather until the very end of the series. Seua Phan is the most powerful character here because he dabbles in dark magic…it’s what he uses to keep the village hidden from the police, to teleport and to even to win a fight. I’m not sure why, for all his powers, he couldn’t have the bullet wound in his leg cured, but I let that slide.

I get that a traumatic experience can affect one for life, but it’s normal to hope that that the main heroes and heroines of these stories can somehow overcome and conquer them. At some point much later, Pha indicates that he wants to work with the police, but he doesn’t really do much to bring it about. Despite the fact that Nampeung is forced to be there against her will, she still falls in love with him, but she doesn’t have much choice- he is after all, one of the few good men left in that place and doesn’t touch her or force her to do anything even though he pretends (has to pretend) to. It is disturbing that, if a woman in that village is unmarried/unclaimed, she is sold off to rival gangs and treated like an object.

The hero and heroine do get along and like each other for the most part, but there were times they had these frustrating conflicts because once Nampeung realized that Pha was the same as her (meaning, forced into the same situation as her) she would try to convince him that they could escape, but he simply wouldn't hear of it.

He took care of the people under him but his delusion of being a caring Robin Hood protecting his people forever and ever, was a false one. The people under him may have been safe, but the ones under his evil stepbrother and stepfather certainly weren’t. It took a lot of convincing from his dumbest, most annoying underling that he couldn't live like that forever that finally made him relent, reunite the heroine with her parents and try to work with the police and surrender.

There were things that I liked in this drama. The main couple were brought together in an objectionable way, but they got along and had a good relationship for the most part. The actors playing them (Mike and Mookda) had a good and natural chemistry. Mike does well in these physical, macho roles whereas Mookda is very charismatic, spirited and reminded me a lot of a Disney princess. There was a lot of good sismance, too. I like Nampeung’s friendship’s with Namking and Phikun.

This is one of the few dramas were I grew to like the female antagonist. The only thing I didn’t like about Grachao was how she tried to attack Nampeung…but other than that, I really felt sorry for her. She suffered a lot and had no one to protect her. It’s actually a little unbelievable that she didn’t die after all that happened, but I’m glad the story developed her further and gave her a happy ending.

The special effects and fight choreography weren’t much (think early 1990s standards) but they were entertaining and fast paced. I like how they incorporated powers and a bit of Thai folklore here and there. The forest ‘monsters/zombies’ were well rendered and they reminded me of the mythical creatures in a lot of SouthEast Asian tales.

The second male lead (Lieutenant Praothep) started out as very useless but turned out to be a strong character.

The story had a lot of potential. If I were to rewrite it, I would make it so that both Pha and Nampung were undercover and worked together instead of Pha trying to do everything by himself and being very uncommunicative and untrusting of everyone.