The Crown Princess (2018)

Drama culte pour les fans du duo Nadech / Yaya

Plot assez habituel du duo princesse / bodyguard, mais magnifiquement interprété par le MC Nadech / Yaya.
Tout le drama tient sur leur alchimie et leurs visuels.

En effet, ce drama culte sera insupportable aux non habitués des lakorns :
- Low budget with too much green background !!
- réalisation lente avec beaucoup de ralentis ou arrêts sur images.
- Ton très mélo
- evil characteres too much (et il y en a beaucoup)
- héros "Marie & Peter Sue"
- OST trop trop présentes
etc.

Par contre, les acteurs assument bien leur rôle et le CL est attachant, beau et talentueux.

Pour les fans, donc.

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Great feelings with The Crown Princess!

I’m not a fan of action, but I watched this for NY. And I loved it! 8/10!

Story: The story is an easy one to understand. I loved the LOVE vs. DUTY storyline. Always follow your heart. Love is above duty. I loved how Nadech and Yaya had to cancel their feelings for each other because of duty, but they found their way back at the end. This is mostly an action, not much romance until the end. This drama really makes me feel for the main leads. Every time they love each other, but can’t because of duty. It is a slow burn romance to me though! But I really liked the story towards the end.

Acting / Cast: I liked the cast. I don’t like it to the point where no one can replace them though. My favorite character has to be Yaya, but the NAREE version.

Music: I LOVE the music. It gives nice vibes to the drama! I think it’s a perfect fit for the drama.

Rewatch Value: I’d rewatch this! It’s a pretty easy drama to understand. Gets the feelings working up, too!

Overall: Overall, it’s a great drama worth watching. And NY is a plus! I’d recommend it to anyone that loves action and NY. I give this drama an 8/10!

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The Crown Princess (Thailand) (2018) - it’s just my second Thailand drama after Full House and I must say, “they are spending money”. Portrayal of a monarchial type of drama for me is pretty expensive. I like the outfits of the characters in the drama, and I find them all attractive. Another aspect is that I really like the main leads. There is really chemistry. I find them great together.

Although there is lacking in special effects especially the ‘action’ parts, I find it fine. I like also the sound effects, is appealing as I was watching. Although I already know the culprit even if it was not revealed, I still hope that it would not be her until the end, but sadly she is the one. More likely I’d be happy if the ending wasn’t like that but nevertheless it is justifiable. I will recommend this, especially those who had not encountered thailand dramas.

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The mission-marriage plays the 2nd, if not the 100th fiddle to all the big bang

First off, I watched 'Manee Yard Fah', where young Willie McIntosh looked really hot. What can I say, men don't look the same nowadays. Given that I still rated the older version 6.5, with the cast and chemistry included, story was probably not much. "No wonder" it got remade. Yeah, I only remember that I understood perfectly why the princes was all alright with staying with him as a humble civil servant wife;-)

As for Yaya, the pretty girl with poor taste in men (she dates him in real life, apparently), I only started to respect her as an actress after 'Kleun Cheewit' (partly) and 'Leh Lub Salub Rarng' (fully). Now, was this done before 'Leh Lub Salub Rarng', or after? Let me check... AFTER. That's good, then. So I tried this despite my obvious aversion to both Nadech & princess themes...

Adorable people like Yoghurt Nattasha or Freud Chatphong are in badass roles, which is... cute. Well, if Nadech can, then anyone can:) Also Yaya's princess is badass. Though, this cannot surpass her 'Leh Lub Salub Rarng' role, where her being this badass had a credible reason. LOL. Sara Legge and Cindy Bishop are cast as fellow princesses. They're quite acceptable. Nhing Nirut as king even more so. Yaya somehow actually doesn't look aristocratic at all, something about her, perhaps the full lips. She does make a goodlooking princess though, of course.

Episode runtime is pretty long. Thankfully, there's lot of entertaining action & main girl-main guy interactions, though neither the girly faced main guy nor the manly faced female bodyguard were my eyecandy. Watching this, I started to remember the 'Manee Yard Fah' story... Though princess themed, I didn't dislike it. I moderately enjoyed it here too, except looking at Nadech. But Yaya, besides being attractive, IS perfect in whatever (badass, proud, vulnerable...) she wants to portray. She really owns her acting now.

In the older version, the island part was longer and then I mostly remember them staying in one house. Producers definitely spent more money on this version. Still, it doesn't make up for the main actor to look like... Well, Nadech Kugimiya. I just wanted the princess to ditch him somewhere and then go on another adventure with someone else. Indy Intad looks silly and about as credible as prince as my street's dustman, but this series, with his average looks he's the main male eye candy. This sets the level of this show despite the production values.

As for female eye candy, Yaya has some competition in Yoghurt Nattasha and very, very cute Reindeer Parisaya. I'm enjoying Yaya's acting the most, though. She is the main value of this show:) She's just adorable with the glasses (subtle, inexpensive, and bit geeky). I wouldn't expect that. She's making it way more intriguing than Anne Thongprasom (yeah, she's better than her! wow:) Plus, when we got to the stage when they become "married couple", I reckoned now I will be able to stay mainly with the "housewife" and skip Nadech's separate scenes comfortably:) Either way, his mission is to succesfully convince his surroundings that he suddenly married an ordinary girl. Prying, gossiping army wives dig and suspect a lot at first, but in the end of the day, the most convincing reason IS he just fell madly in love with her. And with Yaya, who wouldn't?:)

But! When we are already settled in the situation where princess plays the common wife, it does not continue as cute rom-com I remember from the older version. We still deal mostly with princess enemies investigating and palace politics. Which proves a mistake (rom-com is at least less stupid than fictional kingdom stuff), again ironically because this time they had bigger budget. We see many naive machinations and feeblemindness of practically all the royal characters. We see no army wives or other funny side-characters for whole episodes 4-5.

No, instead we suffer through more demented action and watch Matthew Dean. Ugh. As for the main two, their romance is nice. Despite his looks, Nadech's character acts very manly, and never ceases to be the white knight for "his" princess, with the right whiff of sadness that she isn't really his. It's the same only reversed for the second couple with Indy Intad (prince is stupid and needs to be protected by girls). Either way, things the main couple deals with are so big it's ridiculous when they discuss them in their humble fake-marriage house. The house looks so very similar to the one in older version, btw. The difference is that one operated on a small scale, where domestic romantic comedy/drama was played most of the screentime. Here, the characters might be standing in the kitchen but are still discussing serious issues that affect international relations.

Though I did not find the older version a very memorable lakorn, I do remember I appreciated it for being able to create a successfull couple rom-com despite being princess themed. Else I would not rate it higher than 5.0 (which I rate any mildly enjoyable romance). This version - full of grand palace events, high officials gatherings, press conferencess and big actions scenes - actually works worse. No matter how adorable Yaya is as the "princess turned army wife", she and her mission-marriage plays the second, if not the hundredth fiddle to all the big bang.

So, the fake husband & wife leave their army provided marriage-house (in which they spent the majority of the old version, as I remember) soon as beginning of episode 6. They share an emotional scene, which is good. She finally shows him weakness and he clearly accepted his mission to protect the princess to the end, no matter the consequences to his life or career. She lost her adorable glasses, though. I would so wish we could go back to the end of episode 3 and continued the domestic fake-marriage rom-com (which barely started). Instead, we go on another road movie... Then stop at mountain village where they stay instead of the military base. Episode 7, she's even on her way back to her fictional country to claim her fictional throne. Not much room for their blooming romance was left...? Then, she's suddenly back in the military house with her glasses... Oh, she just wants to spend there her last day as civilian, before leaving for her kingdom. She starts to reminiscence her first day in there, which is funny because it's like it was almost also her last day, they left the place so fast. Like I mentioned, the military base marriage-house was where almost entire runtime of the original version of this series took place. The couple of Anne Thongprasom & Willie McIntosh sure had many memories there. Not this couple.

That moment pra'ek's mother appears, very suspecting of a new "wife" of her son. She seems to have high position in the military, but probably not much common knowledge to know the face of the princess at least from the internet. Therefore, she reacts just like in the old version, and just says to her that she'll monitor closely whether she really married her son for love:) This would have its place in the story had the princess still plan to remain in the fake marriage and was not just about to leave it. Nevertheless, we see the mother consulting the other army wives. This reminds the old version, only in this version things don't happen organically as the couple's "domestic life" got repeatedly interrupted, with them attending the big stuff or leaving so far it didn't look they are to ever come back. Also both "husband and wife" acted so suspicious that even though the mother did not know immediatelly she is not an ordinary citizen, she suspected it right away. Things were not to last for so long as in the old version... No, here it all soon escalates into yet another action plot.

Just like the two main characters here are unable to act as common husband and wife, the whole show cannot resist the "blockbuster" scenes. So as the result, we just cannot watch the fake-relationship drama in peace.

I watched the 13-episode "master edition", but that didn't change it... Even all the secondary couples had their time mostly cut short by all the action stuff, or leaving abroad. Yuan Nithichai, who was about the only one of the whole cast looking credible as bodyguard, clearly could make a georgeous couple with the other princess, portrayed by Sara Legge. Sadly, she had to spend most of her time with the lame Matthew Dean. Looked tragic when HE was supposed to be the main villain, looked COMICAL when it was supposed to be the fake-bearded Peter Corp Dyrendal. Overall, Kate's character went from interesting to ridiculous.

The only one who does not disappoint in this drama is Yaya, who indeed surpassed Anne Thongprasom, and truly does her character justice. Watching her, you really believe she is a princess and a person worthy of sacrifice, beautiful inside and out. Also, no matter the story, her character's interactions with Nadech's character were very enjoyable, even though I don't like Nadech. Then of course, she shines in the action part of the series, which maybe should be called the majority part... Someone obviously forgot who is supposed to be protected one and who the bodyguard, lol. Still I admit it's Yaya's action fighting scenes (episode 8) that steal anyone's thunder. She looks SO badass, lol. Who cares about it making sense. I remember watching her action scene in 'Leh Lub Salub Rarng' (also episode 8) over and over, and this was something similar.

And in the end, after watching so much of Nadech, I even started to like Indy Intad lol. It was him with Yoghurt Nattasha who made the couple I could enjoy watching, even if there was not much of it.

In conclusion, to compare this with the older version, where the princess theme almost vanished into domestic rom-com, this was very princess-y till the end. It was more majestic and also more tiring to watch. The characters were mostly portrayed exquisitely. But, it WAS ridiculous having psychopatic killer right there in the same house the whole time. I had to laugh in some scenes. It was all stupid from the country name/royals names to the minor details. And I did mention, Nadech Kugimiya is far from my dream guy lol. Because else, if this focused only on the problem of a royal marrying a commoner, I think that is actually a good theme. After all, real life royalty knows such marriages, and their stories are far from boring. Even without psychopatic killers, lol.

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A Critical Review of "The Crown Princess" Thai Drama Starring Nadech and Yaya

Introduction:
"The Crown Princess," led by the popular Thai real-life couple Nadech and Yaya, unfolds a riveting tale of danger, royal intrigue, and romance. In this review, we delve into the drama's plot, performances, music, and characters to explore what sets it apart in other Thai dramas.

Plot:
The drama introduces Princess Alice, a royal in jeopardy, sent to Thailand for safety. While the storyline is not groundbreaking, it proves compelling with unexpected twists. Notably, the revelation of the main villain defies conventions, injecting suspense. However, the narrative's overall depth could benefit from more intricate layers.

Acting:
The real-life chemistry between Nadech and Yaya translates seamlessly on screen, elevating the drama's emotional depth. Their experience in acting shines through, breathing life into their characters. The dynamic performances contribute significantly to the overall success of the drama, making it a standout in the Thai drama landscape.

Music:
While the soundtrack serves its purpose in complementing the emotional tone of the scenes, it lacks the uniqueness that would make it memorable. The music, though decent, fades into the background and may not leave a lasting impression on the audience.

Characters:
Princess Alice breaks the mold of the typical damsel in distress, presenting a refreshing portrayal of a smart, independent, and capable princess. Her character development is a highlight, offering a nuanced and empowered representation. Commander Davin, initially appearing cold, unravels layers of complexity throughout the series, and the portrayal is justified by his role as a commander and his mysterious background.

Conclusion:
"The Crown Princess" stands out as a compelling Thai drama, enriched by the genuine chemistry of its lead couple, a well-executed plot, and strong character portrayals. While the music may not be a standout feature, the drama's overall quality, particularly in acting and character development, makes it a noteworthy addition to the genre. If you're a fan of romance, intrigue, and dynamic characters, "The Crown Princess" is certainly worth the watch.

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This show i felt was so similar to that action lakorn of mik and stephanies i forgot it's name but it has the same story line where the leads are forced to be a couple...
I feel the producers thought since they put yadech in the show they will get amazing numbers so they made a slow burn romance but then when they ddn get the numbers they ruined it all in the last two eps
gosh it was so interesting yaya and nadech's acting has matured so much over the years they both are amazing...
and this show had amazing cinematography i loved how beautiful everything was the costumes the actors etc.... but the last two eps were god damn awful!!!

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visuals everywhere

One thing and just one: Everyone here is raining visuals. Like everyone. From minor to major characters!
One thing and just one: Everyone here is raining visuals. Like everyone. From minor to major characters!
One thing and just one: Everyone here is raining visuals. Like everyone. From minor to major characters!
One thing and just one: Everyone here is raining visuals. Like everyone. From minor to major characters!
One thing and just one: Everyone here is raining visuals. Like everyone. From minor to major characters!
One thing and just one: Everyone here is raining visuals. Like everyone. From minor to major characters!

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Okay i know yaya-nadech shippers are going to kill me but i will still speak my mind. After the 1st ridiculous episode and the stupid gun fight scene at the end of the episode i convinced myself to watch episode 2. I convinced myself to watch episode 2 because I know their chemistry is always off the charts and i know i am missing out dropping this series. I know the onscreen chemistry between the leads can make or break a drama. It can only make a drama provided the story is solid and the directors at least have an idea of what they are doing.
What a waste of talent and the writing is so so. How does a fictitious country in Asia have a royal family with English names? Princess Mona, princess Kate, prince Alan, king Henry, princess Alice? I don't mean to sound racist or anything but its just not making sense to me. Its a fictitious country that trades with Thailand and speaks the same language with them. Couldn't they give some royal members traditional names? Its like watching Black Panther and the royal family in Wakanda has English names. I mean like having T'Challa named prince Harry and Okoye named Margaret. No offense but i just feel the writer could have put in a bit more effort to make the story a bit real.
How on earth did she teleport from the icy mountains to the palace? We last saw her shot in the back and drowning in the dark waters and next P'Win picks her up on shore and they start fighting. Excuse me...what happened to the gunshot wound on her back? We only see Win throwing medicine and saying attend to your wound else it will get infected. Helloooo, the gunshot is on her upper back so how on earth did she clean it up and disinfect it?
The gun fight in the first scene is well choreographed i must admit. Watching that scene i was like well well well not too shabby i can definitely watch this. After that everything went down hill. The scene with the attempted assassination in the snow my word... the gun fight scenes were so pathetic. I mean she was running down the stairs with one gunmen on her tail. Come on it was a straight staircase not a winding one and he didn't even fire a single shot only to be disarmed by the princess who simply stopped in her tracks and pom pom pom he is falling down dead. Like seriously!!!
Okay i will skip everything else inbetween and skip to the last gun fight scene on the beach. They were fighting in the open no obstacles no what and the leads were doing a peacock dance with bullets raining around them. It was just pathetic and sore to watch.
At least i managed to convince myself to watch the 2nd episode and 15 mins into the story i could not take it. I know i am missing out on great chemistry but i will not subject myself to any more torture watching this. I will watch their other dramas to make up for this.
This is a NO for me. I only gave a 5 for the acting/cast because i know they will do a great job and by they i mean Nadech and Yaya. I would say if you a shipper and watching this for the chemistry then yes go ahead. If you are want to just ogle and drool at Nadech then yes go ahead. He is handsome as always and Yaya beautiful as always. Too bad i didn't stick around to see them get together. Buut if you are looking for a good action drama like me right now then i wouldn't recommend this. You will be cursing by the time you finish episode 1 like me.
Should you decide to watch it then good luck and enjoy. Let me know how it is ?

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Okay NY fans don't come at me but I truly believe that this lakorn is overhyped. I have yet to ever finished a NY lakorn, the first one I've started in was the switch, and I wasn't feeling the storyline so obviously I dropped it. There was a lot of great anticipation and from reading people review about this lakorn it finally made me watch it and I don't know how I feel about it.

Quite honestly I see more of their sweet chemistry off screen for example, interview vs in their lakorn. There's something about their characters that just never really developed well when they play together in lakorn. Before you attack me, I have watched Nadech and Yaya lakorn individually with other actors and actresses, and I like their acting, emotions and feelings more.

The storyline wasn't anything new or exciting for me, their characters came off as very "meh". I skip to the last episode and watch the last scene and when they kiss I definitely didn't feel that "omg they finally kiss again" type of feeling. If you watch thai lakorn for a while now then you know we don't get a lot of affectionate or intimate scene and so when we do get it, we obviously FIN super hard. That kiss was eh.

Just because it is not for me doesn't mean it will be the same for you. I've tried picking up this lakorn numerous time and I can say for sure I won't be finishing it.

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