Mai Muang (2000)

"Mai Muang" is a old thai drama from 1999 which stars Andrew Gregson and Benz Pornchita in their younger years.It can`t be found anywhere with english subtitles so i watched it raw on Youtube. It was worth it. The production clearly didn`t rely on ratings making this lakhorn but really wanted to show the reality in humanity through the social classes,especially when it came to male modelling business where famous model Boo Rajit (played by Lek Aisoon) gets into an affair with a much older rich lady who has a grand daughter named Mai (played by Benz) who hates him with her every being,knowing he is a gold-digger and using her grandmother for her money.It doesn`t get better when Boo Rajit`s only son,the handsome and golden-hearted Charan (played by Andrew) also moves in after his mother dies in a car accident.Mai tries to figure out a way to kick the father and son out while Boo Rajit tries to use Charan for his own benefits and always manipulates him to do what he wants.

I have to say,this is not a love-story and barely has any romance.In fact both main-leads spend much more time with other people on-screen which could be frustrating at times because things got so much more interesting in their every interaction.There was so much hatred and disgust oozing out of Mai already from the start towards Charan that there is this huge wall between them that never got broken until the end.Andrew brought out a charm in the character of Charan who is a person that despite suffering from loneliness and despair always tried to find positive things in life.Benz is such a terrific actress and conveyed the emotions of such a complex heroine as Mai so well.Living rich but being a orphan and having a grandmother only obsessed with younger men was a strain for Mai who found it easier to get hot-tempered and illogical instead.She has the best character developement where life keeps throwing obstacles in her path for her to find her true self.

Watching this lakhorn i could feel how sad it went along the second half because in this story both Charan and Mai are victims of such terrible deceit that it almost destroyed them.In many ways this must be one of the most angsty lakhorns i have ever watched since it explore so many topics like abortion,prostitution,exploitation,trauma,abandonement and the whole cast managed to act out all those emotions of sadness,heartbreak and torment so well.A lakhorn of the slice of life genre,it brought many tears out of me.

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