Bpoop Phaeh Saniwaat (2018)

Overall production value of a thai lakorn cannot suffice convincing historical drama anyways

When this was first released in 2018, it was only 1 year after I just discovered thai lakorns. I started watching the old ones, first... Now almost 5 years later, I've gone through most of the previous roles of Pope Tanawat (a type of guy who's more attractive on second glance, often a side-role guy who's more decent acting/looking than the lead) Bella Vanita (this model-like pretty girl has proven more than average comedy talent and managed to deliver quite versatile roles) Louis Scott (usually a side-guy looking dreamy-good despite ANY haircut, rather versatile in acting and looks) or Susie Susira Nanna (exceptionally beautiful and untypical lead lady for thai lakorns... also she rather scarcely does them). Since 2017, I did affirm I do not like historical lakorns, also any kind of supernatural lakorns, so by now I pretty much avoid those. But, the very much praised 'Bhuppae Sanniwat' I always planned to watch no matter what... Despite me looking forward to it, I failed to see what's so special about this show. I started this review as Ongoing with all ratings set to 5.0, and in the end those got to the level you can see now. Let's start from the beginning.

I obtained 'Bhuppae Sanniwat' (I go with the original title, 'Love Destiny' sounds ordinary to me, stupid even) in best quality possible (more than 5 GB each episode, lol) despite the genre being NOT my favorite. I even had 40 episodes of uncut version ready, in case really I fell in love with the show (already deleted, by reaching 2/3 of this version). Sadly that did not happen and this series joined the others proving the same rule: that overall production value of a thai lakorn cannot suffice a really convincing historical drama (no matter how "dramatic" music they try to use) so every time a thai lakorn strays from romance-comedy it only shows weakness of thai tv production. In my opinion they should not attempt certain genres at all. Historical being one of them.

So, watching the 1st episode's opening credits with the silly looking "historical" masks, hairdos and get-ups did not thrill me, but I said to myself I did bear with it in 2011 'Tawipob', which I did not rate badly. But it WAS bordering on the line of being watchable.

I didn't like first 1hr 20 min. But, then the main heroine realizes what happened to her. And she literally says: "It's like in Tawipob", LOL. And, she doesn't need to concern herself as to how she should explain her behavior to others: as they all figured she has gone completely mad, LOL.

Epi 2: We do have flashbacks with the "bad girl", first. What I did like about her was she a) acknowledged Pope's pra'ek was hot b) let the whole hell break loose just because she was hurt he prefered another over her. Now, while the "bad girl" was an action girl who didn't care about making herself likeable to others and gain their good opinion, it's fair to say that the "good girl" actually resembled her in this. She also acts wild no matter what others think of her. Had she really studied history, or been at least moderately intelligent, she would have waited and listened before speaking, for her to find out which style she should address who. In moments when she lets herself go with contemporary words and GESTURES, I was afraid people around her HAD to believe she was possessed by devil or smth, LOL. Or she could drag her whole community into diplomatic disaster. Had this been not comedy, even good people would probably had her killed. Either way, the similarity of behavior gets sealed when she finds herself equally rivalrous with Prang Kannarun's perfectly mannered beauty and as jealous as her predecessor.

LOL at first appearance of Louis Scott and his HAIR, this must be a crown piece in his collection:-) Nevertheless, looking in his dreamy eyes one kinda forgets Pope alltogether. Good that there comes Susie Susira Nanna to claim his attention soon;)

Episode 3: It already kinda drags for me and I don't care much about what the main heroine will do. She was sent there to behave better than the original lady and atone for her a bit. At arrival, everyone around hates her. Either she'll make them to like her a bit, make Pope's pra'ek like her, or she won't. Probably yes else what's the point. What was good about third episode it was mentioned the main heroine (the real one) had a family, someone who probably missed her and she should come back to. I for one definitely wished for her to be able to come back, as it's not very moral to let her family mourning her and also personally I would not mind to get back to the present day, instead of this charade with "historical" get-ups that looks so "convincing" I kept expecting someone carelessly draw out a cellphone any second. The most hilarious is each time the camera shows the river, which looks like the environmental pollution was sadly already bad in the past lol.

The heroine keeps talking loud instead of just missing her home in her thoughts though, leaving her two servants gobsmacked. That is if she's lucky that no one else is listening. One scene, there was a romantic moment Pope & Susie. I didn't find it a great idea. I mean to have someone hundred times more beautiful than the lead actress thrown in. That's the problem with Susie Susira Nanna, lol. She's too beautiful. She should have been kept away from pra'ek's path, else now how convincing pursuing the actual leading lady he's going to be?:) But that's still yet to come. So far, the loooong time drags with a few time-travel jokes I'm already tired of (perhaps I already watched too much time-travel stuff) and the main heroine saying contemporary things or singing commercials or doing yoga to shock the poor oldtime people, alternating with her being at awe from seeing the historical architecture and people "in the flesh": excitement I didn't share. I am not interested in history and haven't discovered any magic to keep me watching despite the genre I don't like, yet...

Epi 4: The main heroine wanders into a site where she watches men practicing fight half-naked. She gets all excited, saying to herself: that's a 6-pack, 7-pack, 8-pack, lol. Granted men in the past definitely had quite different looking muscles. Pitty in that scene she could only see the contemporary actors and their computer-age-built bodies, lol. Today's people have shoulders set way more frontward and that's something which cannot be changed even with most vigorous training prior drama shooting. AMONG other things.

Louis Scott has another scene with Susie Susira Nanna (and also her father, who wears full eye makeup) in which his character acts like he's buying a horse from a market, nevertheless he makes a good looking onscreen couple with her.

Epi 5: There is something in me that is TIRED with the time-travel genre. True I watched many dramas/movies with that theme. Many of them excellent. Still, in the end some kind of frustration from it prevails in me. It's so useless being sent in the past. Despite all your knowledge of the future. What can you do? Change the past? Amaze everyone around with your knowledge? It's all so stupid. Other thing is I really, honestly don't like historical genre. And this is both. Watching 'Tawipob' was enough for me, it was cute for a little while then it annoyed me in the end, here I'm reaching it in 5th episode already. Just each and every time I have to watch this theme it's getting worse for me. I wish to avoid this entire genre now.

Also I could not help but being disappointed in the main heroine. After all, this is not what I expected from her. Wasn't she supposed to appease people around her? What was the reason for her unorthodox and/or childish behavior? She knew what era she landed in. She wasn't stupid, was she?

So far, Pope's pra'ek seems to have his eyes set on Prang Kannarun's second lead, more attractive in both looks & behavior. It looks very natural. On the other hand, the only "tension" he got with the leading lady were the couple isolated moments where she tripped and fell onto his lap, which looked rather forced. He looked more engaged even with Susie's secondary character. So, am I missing something here? Why does this pra'ek have more chemistry with both support ladies? Is it because the main girl acts like desperate weirdo?

Perhaps it was supposed to be the personality of the chubby girl, used to being just an awkward fangirl of any guy she liked. Still, I wished Bella Vanita should update her acting style a bit. I did praise her in the past for not being scared to go for comical but she is 30 already and it shows (she does look older than both the other actresses). She looks silly making childish faces now.

Either way, after she uses (or, rather abuses?:) some of her knowledge to make herself look more smart, she starts "flirting" with her pra'ek a bit. I couldn't help wondering how is she able to enjoy a relationship with a man who is not able to even COMPREHEND when she is sarcastic with him, when she is teasing him and when she's playing a word-fight. I would guess he's not getting what she's trying to say as he doesn't get why is a woman talking in the first place. He's way too different era, really... Then there's the guy who looks exactly like her present life friend (despite the fact MEN look completely different today), so she behaves such way with him she's practically jumping around his neck (by the era's standards). That looked dangerous, too. But, I cheered the heroine's improving her relationship with pra'ek's mother.

Epi 6: I'm afraid I'm still not having the kind of fun I'm supposed to have according to all the reviews... Perhaps I am watching different show, or am still too early an episode (VERY VERY long episode, though!). By the way, I hate that hairpiece they placed on the top of Bella Vanita's real hair, for her to keep having perfect-middle parting top bangs. I'm annoyed with it.

Epi 7: I'm at stage where I'm not excited to see new episode. I made a happy decision this is my last historical lakorn/drama (I promised myself I'll try with all my might to at least watch this to the end, in exchange). I'm no longer commenting on main heroine's behavior, she simply acts a way which is so alien to the era she's in that it inadvertedly underlines that she doesn't really belong in the story of Pope's pra'ek, and just presents a strange element blocking him from woman he would naturally be with.

Also, portion of the screentime is now devoted to the main girl introducing a new invention to people around her. First, she was just cooking. Then, it was a new pan, now a water filter. There are whole scenes devoted to this in detail. Precisely what I find annoying about time travel shows... The only interesting thing about the episode are more flashbacks of the original "badgirl". It turns out, she was just bored with the housework, tedious women life, nagging mother-in-law and sneering servants. One can understand that. The way she was letting it shown was nevertheless so wild, I found her character even less believable than the main one. In a way she was just as sci-fi as like our time-traveled heroine.

SHE lives now within the same settings, except that she amuses herself with it, as it's "famous history" for her. Whenever there's something exciting though, she finds that as a woman, she's not allowed to do it (I found that believable, at least), nevertheless she's able to make pra'ek allow her (I found that a bit less believable, I'm afraid) and also learns her two personal servants really love her and would even die for her AFTER she treated them like dirt in the past. So, she didn't have to change to win them over. AND pra'ek's mother doesn't warm up to her no matter how much she tries to appease her. So all her efforts are kind of pointless. There's a scene of her getting whipped instead of/along with her servants, but besides the fact it already happened in one earlier episode, I didn't really connect to it. Whether the main girl beat up men with her judo or cried like a baby, I found both scenes equally stupid.

Btw, I'm positively tired with the music. It would be the first rating I'll adjust, now:)

Epi 8: At this point, all in this lakorn is nicely settled in and the lakorn is overall way more watchable. The more I realize I am not really interested in it... I kinda watch it out of politeness, so to speak. I DO try to finish this as my last historical lakorn/drama ever but I DO struggle with the episode runtime being longer than most movies.

Susi Susira's character line gets weird & weirder. Being a common girl of buddhist Thailand, with a father who dresses like arab, she attends catholic church. Her suitor portrayed by Louis Scott wearing amazing blonde curls joins the church, just to appease her, because he "truly loves her", having met her 2-3 times. It was more believable when he was aggresively trying to immediatelly get her just because she's beautiful. Either way, she marries him, which instantly filled me with apprehension. I realized I really do not wish to watch this marriage progress...

Epi 9: The episode begins with some dead bodies from malaria infections. Bella Vanita's main girl instantly appears and starts giving advice. Apparently, she's going to play a medical savior now. Ugh. Then the episode is mostly filled with politics... Many "farang" are involved in this. I do NOT enjoy that in thai lakorns. I promised myself I would not drop this lakorn but it's hard. I'm just still not enjoying this, the genre is really not my thing. By the way, if Louis Scott is really supposed to be this show's main antagonist, then it's lame due to his ridiculous looks & acting skills.

Epi 10: If I didn't mention it before, I must praise both the actors portraying Por Date's parents, Meaw Chamaiporn and Nhing Nirut are precious in every scene they are in, and I say it as someone who doesn't really care for most of the scenes in this show. Pope's pra'ek gets jealous this episode, and then treats his servants badly. Same like the old Karaked!:) This episode, there are some cute & funny moments, too. But then Karaked spirit line gets more nonsensical and I no longer get it. Didn't she "cross over"? Or if she was still hanging around, repented, received merit, couldn't she come back? Nothing prevented her from being nice to everyone and eventually marry her guy. It was stated several times he had to marry Karaked no matter what. The main heroine might fallen for the guy too, but she understood Karaked loved him first, and she needed to get back to her family, to her time. As an audience, I had no problem with that, this was LONG already...

Opened episode 11... It has its goofy & playful moments, else it's not actually different from all the stupid ghost lakorns with historical fantasy I've previously watched. Whenever this tried to be really majestical with the history, it did not work on me. The visuals of this combine low cost tv production with obvious looking computer imaginery.

12: Thinking about the story, the stuff we are watching in episode 12 is something we might as well watched in episode 2. It would take only a small adjustment. Btw, first HALF AN HOUR of this episode is about the characters spending a long evening. I inadvertently had to think about how boring it would be for a contemporary person to be stuck there those long evenings with no internet, LOL. Pra'ek is leaving abroad for a year (gee, are there now going to be episodes with him not even present?), so nang'ek gives him her pillow (I had to smirk).

Episode 13: Is it the last one? It's not, STILL... With pra'ek now gone, first half an hour of this episode is IRONICALLY enjoyable after a long time. Nang'ek is helping her "friend", whom she so obviously associates with her other friend (both portrayed by Panjan Kawin), and her former rival, Prang Kannarun's ladylike girl, who in the meantime went through some suffering, and so the main girl would like to save her from unhappy future. I enjoyed this storyline and would like to keep watching it. I cringed when Susie returned with Louis Scott's mascot "antagonist", though otherwise I like Susira Naenna. Luckilly, her scenes are short. Then, pra'ek is back with nang'ek (sooner than I expected) and this time, I must say I liked their scenes. Finally the two seemed believable. Nang'ek finally seemed to have earned her place with the parents and the house servants. It was all suddenly enjoyable to watch yet still another spell is cast later in this episode, as if someone was determined that not a single one can pass in peace.

Episode 14: Yet more fantasy element gets introduced... I had quite enough of that by now, though pra'ek & nang'ek romance finally was to my liking. There is also their wedding, with which they waited for 4 years, which is unrealistic but it's romantic.

Epi 15: Now that I like the main couple together, it's the last episode lol. Runtime was still killing me with all the other scenes... My annoyance grew the same like every episode... Then, the romantic conclusion in the end is cute & sweet.

Overall, this series I first opened with great anticipation, then my interest dropped to almost zero, then I almost hated it, suffered for the length of it and when I finally started to partially like it, it ended. LOL. My happy resolution to wrap this up as my last historical genre show ever was the most satisfying about the whole affair.

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