Love Beyond Frontier (2019)

First of all, I have not seen the original movie and my main motivation to watch this drama were Krist and New.

Let's start with what I did not like about Love Beyond Frontier (and sadly, there is quite a lot):
- The chemistry of the main couple just did not work for me. Maybe I am too invested in Krist from SOTUS, but that whole love story (even with the final proposal in Hong Kong) did not convince me at all.
- There was too much comedy (and probably it was not even intentional). It's okay to throw in some silly characters for comic relief, but here we had way too many of them, like the landlord, Pat's father, Ple's coworker, the totally unnecessary "secret agent" in Hong Kong ... More importantly, even the main characters often were laughing stock (mainly Win), which ruined the dramatic moments.
- Overall, the actors were not convincing. To some extent that was certainly the fault of the screenwriting and directing, but the actors did little to save it. Krist's naivety was cute in the beginning, but when things got more dramatic he was just not up to the task.
- Just looking for and finding one person in a big city like Bangkok or Hong Kong seems highly unlikely to me, but okay, it's a melodrama.

However, I found enough positive aspects to save this drama for me.
- Some of the actors did a decent job. Among the four mains that was certainly Namtan, even though in the last couple of episodes her role was getting more and more passive. Also the mother was very convincing most of the time, her inner conflict seemed very realistic. Even New was getting better towards the end.
- It was interesting to see how the lives of the main characters got more and more interwoven, even through their parents.
- The comedic sidekicks were fun (but mostly out of place).
- I liked the melodramatic plot very much. The whole love square got boring quickly, but the mother-sons relationship and the really long tease and foreshadowing of the final revelations successfully kept me watching.
- The locations were really nice; the guest house is beautiful and their trips (including the one to Hong Kong) provided enough variety.
- While the music was over the top in certain scenes (when the actors can't convey the right emotions, let's just steamroll everything with music), the motives and songs were beautiful and fitting. I heard some Lion King references, not sure if that was intentional.

In summary, the negative and the positive aspects are well-balanced. The story and the actors had much more potential, so the final result is disappointing, but it was still a good watch for me (preferred it to Boy for Rent). Re-watch: not so much, there is much better material out there. But maybe I will check the original movie out.

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