WHO ARE YOU (2020)

thailand surprising me once again! yes, i am surprised about this drama remake. i am a big fan of school 2015, but this version won my heart, like most thai versions of korean dramas. this version had strong points unlike the original, which was lost and was not good for both sides. in this version we have a great ending and a good story to follow, where everyone has a great ending

the story for being remastered was better. the producers of this version knew how to change what was right and ended up leaving it better. they knew how to put emotions, relevant parts and without the school 2015 reel. the subject about bullying and the scenes were more dramatic, heavy and well portrayed. in the korean version it was too dramatic, it is as if we were to feel the pain of the protagonist, not what they want to pass with that. in the thai version we can feel everything, we don’t see it as just a dramatic scene where we should feel sorry for the protagonist. no, we feel in the place of the protagonist, and this also goes for the actress who knew how to play the character well, especially in the difficult scenes of much crying and depression. the bullying was portrayed in a very heavy way in this one, but as i say, this is good for people to put themselves in the place of a person who suffers with this on a daily basis, which the Korean version didn’t know how to do and only thought of a dramatic scene. about the subject of suicide, it was also portrayed very well, different from the korean one. here there is a much stronger reason instead of just the bullying, you can feel all the pains of the character for her life throughout this time without parents and living in an orphanage. all her pains were sought and not left aside, it was not just about a girl who tried to kill herself because of bullying, but about a girl who gave up her life for problems beyond this, that were sadder and heavier

scenes/stories that were not sought in school 2015, were here. fight scenes with a great plot, nothing childish and always keeping the essence they want to pass of the other. in a scene from school 2015 (i don’t remember the name of the characters in this scene) they went after the possible death caused by one of the sisters, of a friend who ended up dying in the room. i don’t remember (again, lol) if in the korean version it was in the room, but in the thai version yes. in the korean version they treated this of the friend and the sister who decided to disappear for a while to help her sister, as a nothing. they didn’t know how to explain it and that scene with no sense and emotion where the revenge only arrests the sister in the classroom. here we had a story being explored and well explained, with details and had a concrete reason for the woman arresting her sister in the classroom. it wasn’t 100% picked up because there wasn’t this complete story in the original, which would be hard to make a new story from what is/is being remastered in another country and language. anyway, the fight and the sentences were remarkable and you could see the sister’s pain, even though she was the wrong one and not the one who “killed” feeling that pain for real, in her eyes. she tried to apologize for her own sister, but it was never the fault of either one. they knew how to justify the pain of the girl who lost her sister to an illness in a painful and good way, without many holes and with great acting. they didn’t leave it on the back of the sister who was reported missing and “dead”. they took a lot of weight off the person who had these doubts in school 2015, which was incredibly satisfying and relevant. it helped the story a lot, leaving it with fewer holes and lighter. no weight on the conscience of the viewer and the character

well, in the korean version, i hoped the main character would be with the swimmer, so i was right, but in this version i wanted her with the second main character. yes, i was right. but it didn’t hurt me a bit, because the second main character got someone else and had a happy ending, he wasn’t just a rejected boy who wasn’t respected and listened to by his own parents. he becomes somebody and with a nice person by his side. that’s why i say that both parts were good. neither side had a bad ending and not deserved. the second protagonist has a sad story, and they also went a lot with his story. they put this rejection of the father in a way that was sad to see, where you could also see the pain of this character, as well as the others. even the temporary characters’ ones were well done and portrayed, so i keep praising them for that. the villain didn’t have such a bad ending, she repented and suffered a lot! she had a deserved ending, but not too painful. she surely found her way and the protagonist who suffered all this time had the consideration to help her, which was a beautiful scene to see. i love how the protagonist that is portrayed in the drama here is strong (in the korean version too, but here it’s more). she has a great development in her personality and in maturing, she knew how to make her own choices and had more attitude than the protagonist of school 2015. it went all the way, and the actress helped a lot with her great expression for scenes of anger and crying. i admired this version a lot, it was certainly better than the original itself, masterpiece!

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Better than the kdrama

Mid of the serie i realised that the plot seems to be a bit familiar. Then i understood that this is the adpataion of a kdrama. ( which quite good). I usually don't like to rewatch a serie but this adaptation was worth it .

The acting is good. The main actress is convincing as the twin sisters with different personalities, Meen and Mind. It is not always easy to have a contrast between two charactere.

As for the story, i still need to give credits to the original Korean scriptwriters. This series succeeded in depetcing a contemporary issues that teenagers face. It digs up problem from school as well as family issues.
However the last two episode are developping too quickly compare to the rest of the plot. The same goes for Gun backstory.

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I’ll start by mentioning I’ve seen the original Korean version of this show so there’ll be comparisons here and there, but this review will primarily focus on the Thai version as its own thing.

I will say as a remake it follows the original plot pretty closely, but the writers did a top-notch job adapting the script. They managed to improve an already solid story by fleshing things out a bit more, making the characters and events feel more grounded and believable.

The plot deals with some heavy issues, including bullying, attempted suicide, and the enormous pressure parents can pile on their children’s shoulders, and doesn’t shy away from showing how damaging they can be. Despite that, it balances the darker moments with a hopeful tone, exploring themes of finding yourself and the bonds of friendship and family, and how those things can make you a stronger person. It also touches on the courage needed to admit your mistakes.

The script has a lot of meat to it, and the cast, main and supporting alike, rose to the occasion. It was interesting to watch the dynamics unfold between all the characters, which in some cases had the added wrench of a sometimes-unknown identical twin thrown in to complicate matters.

As far as the main cast goes, the actress for Mind/Meen was downright phenomenal in her dual roles and successfully made each twin a distinctive character through her expressions, mannerisms, and the way she carried herself. Tida’s actress also thoroughly embodied her character of a cruel bully who doggedly clings to the belief that she’s blameless. I feel like both actresses outperformed their male co-stars, but even so the actors for Na and Gun did well in their respective roles as each character goes through their own emotional highs and lows. In particular, I love how convincing the strong friendship between Na and Meen seems.

The supporting characters are also well-developed, with each one coming across as a unique individual facing their own challenges. A few standouts to me are the stoic class president Pete, his single-minded mother, and Lyla, the sweet but less outgoing of Meen’s friends. My favorite supporting character is probably Na’s dad though, because I simply adore how supportive he is of his son without ever pressuring him. He’s the epitome of a good parent.

The music compliments the show quite well, though there are only about three or four main songs including the instrumental piece in the opening. Nevertheless, each one is excellent and I never once skipped the opening or ending credits because I enjoyed the music so much.

The closest thing I have to a critique is actually more like wishful thinking, but it feels like the romance is actually unnecessary to this story. It’s done well, yes, it’s just that the other themes are so compelling I think they could carry the show by themselves. Had it stuck with only platonic relationships and exploring the idea of what makes a person uniquely them it could’ve stood out even further in the “high school drama” genre.

On the whole, I enjoyed this show and despite the improbable premise, most aspects felt real with characters behaving in believable manners. The ending was generally satisfying and even impressed me with how it handled certain relationships. It allowed sufficient time to resolve all its plot threads and show how each character is doing.

There’s something about this story that keeps me coming back to it (in one version or another) so I definitely expect to rewatch this at some point.

And lastly, here’s a quick comparison of this version and the original for those who might want an idea of how they stack up. As mentioned earlier, there are mostly minor changes, like this version dropping the short “video interviews” at the beginning of the first few episodes and instead going into more detail on other things, particularly the early bullying scenes which seem more vicious and unrelenting here. The affluent twin also feels like she has a little more depth in this version. Finally, there’s a plot thread that relates to the female lead’s actions way back in the beginning that’s ignored in the original version but actually gets acknowledged here. Overall I consider both versions worthwhile with great acting in each, but I enjoy the story slightly more in this one, while the music in the Korean version manages to edge out its counterparts here.

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Since the advent of 2gether the Series, I was already a fan of Thai series but specific only to BL series. But when I saw its trailer on YouTube last month it got me interested to see what it can really give from the original Korean series. I expected this to be another so-so since it is an adapted series, it got me wrong! From the first episode until the recent one (episode 12), I opted myself to follow every episode since it showcased even more than the original series. From the portrayal of Namtarn's character as Meenara/Manita, Krist as Natee, Kay as Gunkan, down to the last character, their acting and presentation are highly remarkable and on-point!

The only thing that I cannot accept is Mind's character to be such a weakling that is very different from Eunbi. I think almost all episode is that she showcased never-ending tear-flowing scenes and almost every time a helpless individual (if not for Gun's intervening side and Natee's protective demeanor). And of course, the main antagonist of this series, Jan's as Tida's character she made a deal with her own actions to level with the original So-young. She really did get into my nerves even until now! RAWR.

The series, as based on the original, showed how BULLYING can really affect one's person and individuality as a whole. It must be quashed at all costs to protect everybody from doing such cruelty on oneself later on. It also showed all the realistic portrayals of what really happens to individuals even now in this generation.

A MUST WATCH SERIES! YOU WILL NEVER REGRET ON. I SWEAR.

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Started bad, ended up decent

The start left me quite frustrated. The first episode in horribly confusing. The main characters don't get a proper introduction, they're just thrown there doing their things as if we already knew them. The fact that they're twins makes things even more confusing, because you also have to differentiate Meen's scenes and Mind's.
After a pitiful beginning, we get two or three episodes dedicated solely to explain what the heck happened in the first episode. This not only slowed down the pace, but left me horribly underwhelmed.
Also, can we please speak about the suicide scene? It was the worst I've probably ever seen. A broken person would never jump to a river with deep and calm waters. How could she even think she could die that way? I find it unrealistic that she even got amnesia from it, but I just pretended that never happened, since she quickly gets her memory back.

Luckily from this point on the actual story takes off and things get more interesting.
Speaking of the story, it's crazy how articulated it was. At the beginning everything revolves around Mind, but then different characters start taking the spotlight, revealing more sides to the story that we could ever think.

If I had to mention a character, I have to say I could kinda relate to Gun. He's a broken guy that puts up a childish façade to handle his pain. It's a good representation of a typical teenage boy and brought me back to my teenage years (in a good way).

Even though the story is excellent, I think the downsides were too big to be ignored. I say you could watch this if you're bored, but don't expect much.

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I feel like I had the wrong idea while starting this drama. I thought it would a mystery /thriller but it was mostly just high school students doing high school stuff with a little bit of mystery plot thrown as an afterthought.

Episodes were dedicated to trivial stuff like stealing best friends and the students doing English Project. Like if I wanted to watch a bunch of students doing their project I would focus on my own studies instead of watching a drama.

Even the characters were not that great. Mind was so weak and constantly depended on others to save her. I get that she was supposed to be gentle and sweet but if she can stand up for her friend then why couldn't she stand up for herself, make it make sense. Also it would have been fine if they showed some character development and her growing and speaking for herself but even till the last episode she depended on her sister.
Gun is the only well done main character. I also liked Lyla's struggle of figuring herself out.

I didn't really get SLS as I didn't care about the characters that much but even I can see that Gun and Mind made way more sense. They literally had two better ships and went with that endgame.

The acting was definitely top notch. Namtan is one of my favourite Thai actress for a reason, she never disappoints. She was able to portray both characters so differently that there was never any confusion who was who despite them looking too similar (I know they are twins and portrayed by the same actor but they should have given them different hairstyles or wardrobes. With a less skilled actor I could see this being a problem).
Seeing as this was Gun's first role he did a great job. All the supporting actors were very good.Happy that finally Sing got a role that was not just a comic relief.

My favourite thing was the relationship between Meen, Mind and their mother. Their were many emotional and beautiful scenes in the show but the mother daughter scenes were the only one that had any impact. The music was definitely a plus as well.

My main issue with this is the mystery or the lack of it. They were building up the mystery for 14 episodes and in the end it was such a small thing. It was laughable. Could have easily finished the drama way earlier, it didn't need that many episodes as it became quite draggy in the middle.

I haven't seen the Korean version but I feel like the source material wasn't that great to begin with. A remake should be able to improve upon the mistakes of the original which I don't think this did.

If I had watched this as a high school drama then maybe I would have liked it better as it really dealt with many important themes but it was marketed as a thriller and so my expectations were different.

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