Project S: Skate Our Souls (2017)

Skate Our Souls Will “ Save” Your Soul From Typical Idol Dramas...

There’s no denying that Project ; Skate Our Souls does have a certain “idol” teen quality within casting a fairly “ good looking” and a “ young” actor such as Teeradon Supapunpinyo ( renowned for his roles in Hormones 2 and 3) to play our main character, a depressed high school student referred to as Boo throughout the series.

Yet rather than playing upon his looks alone, Supapunpinyo’s appearance is fairly unrecognisable ; from clothes chosen by the stylist to hang loosely upon his frame to a buzz cut hairstyle accompanying his fatigued appearance, Supapunpinyo truly seems to step into his role throughout the series as a teen struggling with depression.

Yet contrary to the the unassuming appearance of Supapunpinyo as Boo, Toni Rakkaen skates onto screen impressively as Boo’s senior and a pro- skater, Simon with a vivid array of wardrobe choices and hair which seems to channel his inner G- Dragon ( particularly from BIGBANG’s music video Fxxk it).

It is made evident for viewers that from his appearance alone during their first meeting , Simon is seemingly everything that Boo is not; confident, cocky and certainly a vivacious flirt with Boo’s kind-hearted and worried doctor and psychologist Bell( Chayanit Charnsangarvej).


This would seem to naturally draw the conclusion that the show will take the cliche route of trying to enforce
a strange and sudden “ fraternal” friendship between Boo and Simon over the course of the series , with the former suddenly trying to help Boo to overcome his depressive thoughts, get together with his younger sister Fern ( Narupornkamol Chaisang)and for everything in the end to become hunky dory.

Yet refreshingly unlike a lot of idol dramas which would take this route , Boo and Simon’s relationship is complicated between a mixture of teasing and later revelations which plays a greater role in later episodes. This was a surprisingly intriguing development between the characters as individuals (including Fern), rather than just mere plot devices to get the story to advance.

On the other hand, perhaps the one compliant which should be noted about this series,is that the film quality isn’t brilliant. Whilst this does add a sense of realism at times to being like a fly-on- the- wall documentary of a fictional character ( Boo) ‘s experiences , this sometimes did not help with portraying the emotion or depth of some scenes ( sometimes this often didn’t help with actually portraying the problems for Boo during his moments of “spiralling “ in the show). Additionally there’s no sugarcoating as well that whilst our cast is fairly good, there are a couple of lacklustre moments of acting also ( even from Supapunpinyo during some scenes of his interpreted role upon “ depression” ).

On a more positive note, however, one aspect of the show which must be praised is the portrayal of a complicated and progressive relationship between Boo and his father ( Tom Phollawat Manuprasert) . In several early episodes of the series, Boo’s father is shown to realistically not be able to quite grasp what’s “ wrong” with his son’s sudden slipping grades and weariness at home . Whilst most idol dramas would write this off as Boo’s father being “uncaring “ and a “ villainous” character, he’s actually revealed to love and care about his son over the course of the drama . This relationship is dedicatedly presented as complicated and surprisingly heartwarming even in the final episodes.

Overall Skate Our Souls was a surprisingly more realistic and refreshing portrayal of teenagers and youths in Asian dramas with an intriguing plot premise of friendship, development and genuinely likeable characters. Certainly worth dedicating time towards and watching if you want a break from typical “ sugarcoated” idol teen dramas.

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