Oh dear, I can't believe it has been almost 10 years since my last post on this lakorn! I’m long overdo for a rewatch. I haven’t fully watched JLR in almost 10 years. Being on vacation has put me in a reflective mood. I realizedthat I don’t enjoy lakorns as much as I did as a teen, I think real life caught up with me and I’m unable to be INTO things (thanks a lot adulthood!) JLR is still my favourite lakorn but I think I'm just not as absorbed of it as I was about a decade ago.
Some food for thought…
The year 1990-2010 is arguably the golden era for lakorns. After 2010 we see a significant shift in the quality of lakorns and lakorns have begun to stray from the formulas we have grown to know and love if we grew up in this era. 2008 was a good year for lakorns all around, there were many hits, JLR being one. I always end up comparing JLR with Sawan Biang since they were both slap/kiss lakorns that were hits in the same year. Jam Luey Ruk is better simply because there is an actual love story. Sawan Biang is not a romantic lakorn as Narin never really quite falls in love with Kawee. Even when she accepts him in the very end, it is obvious that it is because they are bound by their child. Kawee is much more abusive than Harit and he’s much more mentally unstable. I mean Kawee has slapped Narin and thrown her off a boat. In comparison, Harit has somewhat more self control. JLR actually has the leads falling in love with one another and Soraya ends up loving Harit as much as he loves her. I actually hated Sawan Biang the first time I watched it and the second time I liked it because I enjoyed watching the growth of Kawee and Ken’s acting is a joy to behold. The romance is still not very good. Harit becomes so romantic after he finds out the truth; when he falls, he falls HARD.
I think Jum Luey Rak is a unicorn of a lakorn; you can’t quite find anything like it. It follows such a stereotypical formula that has been recycled over and over again for years but what Makers Group did in this iteration of a revenge lakorn is unlike anything I’ve experienced before. Everything about this lakorn works from acting, casting, chemistry, plot, and script. It is rare to find success in all these areas. Aum and Aff are quite the impressive pair. Makers Group took a gamble to cast two actors that have only had mediocre success in the entertainment industry so far. Both have won awards for acting before but they’ve never had a big hit on their hands. For the most part even though both have been in the industry for a while, they are relatively unknown actors, especially Aum who had been acting for almost a decade at the time had mostly been cast in lakorns where he takes a backseat to the n’ek. Both have explosive chemistry and it is was what added to the appeal of this lakorn. I love watching their scenes together because they make the scenes enjoyable. Aum and Aff were made for their roles, their acting is incredible. Aum is probably one of his generation’s best actors. Aum, Ken, and Captain are my top three best in from the 00's. Harit is a difficult character to portray. Yes, you dislike him at times but he’s also incredibly pitiful and vulnerable despite his tough outer shell. He has experienced so much loss in his life from his parents to his brother and he couldn’t handle being alone. His brother’s death was a major trigger for him. He’s also so used to having his way as you can see from the way he acts at the pearl farm with his workers and Bai, he can’t accept anything not going his way and he needed to be always be in control. Harit is actually a very thoughtful and tender person and you can see the way he treats Soraya after finding out the truth that he’s quite the romantic. Gosh, Aum’s acting is phenomenal when he finds out the truth, his look of pure pain and agony when seeing Soraya in pain and wanting to go home is heartbreaking. Watch Aum’s eyes during important scenes, he has very expressive eyes. Then the way he suddenly changes the emotion in his face when he sees or talks to Sunsanee is incredible to watch. Aff was able to be the yin to Aum’s yang. She balances so perfectly with Aum’s acting. Soraya is a spunky character. She folds to Sunsanee out of gratitude but with Harit she never backs down and holds her own with him. The other thing that is so great about JLR is that we have a lot of comedic relief scenes between the leads. Soraya always has a witty response to Harit and Harit’s mocking behaviour is hilarious. The plot is very well thought out, it’s all a series of blunders and miscommunication but it WORKS. My favourite part about this lakorn is the script. I don’t think I’ve fully appreciated the script until this time around. Every line is perfectly written. How do you not melt when Harit tells Soraya that she’s his flawless pearl and when he tells you that you’re important to him and he will save you even if he has to risk his life? When Harit is romantic, you swoon. The best lines in this lakorn is in the part where Soraya is tied up to the tree and she gives the speech about how Harit needs to shift the blame to others and he will end up dying all alone, and where she falls apart after Harit confronts her about not being Sunsanee in front of Harin's grave.
We’ll probably not see a remake for JLR or Sawan Biang, if we do it will be toned down substantially. Think of what Lakorn Thai did to Kluen Cheewit, the old version was DARK. While I liked Mark and Yaya’s version, it was child’s play in comparison to the old version. This is due to the shift in attitude for lakorn viewers nowadays. The METOO movement and feminism have forced perspective on issues that arise in lakorns such as rape and stockholm syndrome. I come from a generation of lakorn watching that is okay with this purely because it is fiction, lakorn world is not real and I don't condone it in the real world. The three R’s (rape, revenge, romance) is more looked down upon nowadays; people are definitely NOT okay with it. IF this was on Netflix and they put the unedited version too, believe that Buzzfeed will write an article criticizing Thai television! I think slap and kiss lakorns are a dying breed at this point. I think it's best to leave this lakorn alone, I don't want to watch a toned down version nor do I think there is a good enough actor who is both talented and sexyyyy as Aum to play Harit.
I don’t think I’m going to ever find a lakorn nowadays that I would love as much as this one. Times have changed too much and well, I’m not a fan of change. They don’t make lakorns like this anymore and they never will. I mean scripts nowadays are nowhere as good as this. Makers Group can’t even make a really good lakorn anymore either. Can another lakorn bring me as much happiness as this lakorn and can I find a pairing that I like as much as Aum and Aff? I highly doubt it. At this point I just want Aum and Aff in a rom-com about two older people finding love, heck I wouldn’t mind if they played the parent generation in a lakorn. Can somebody please pair these two up again?
