Phrao Thoe Khue Rak Raek (2024)

A Love NOT So Beautiful

First of all is it even a remake of A Love So Beautiful drama because it doesn't seem like it at all. Well little changes are definitely fine but they literally changed the whole story. The original drama and also the Korean remake starts with the female lead confessing her love to the male lead and when she gets rejected instead of being heartbroken she decides to win him over. This scene shows that the female lead wants the male lead to know that she loves him right? In this drama I never once felt that Som-O loves Chadjen. Som-O didn't want Chadjen to know that she likes him. Like she was screaming at him for no reason, getting mad, behaving as if she's his best friend. And blah blah blah

They messed up the original characters so much like bruh you won't even believe it. Jiang Chen is a cold male lead and in my opinion one of the best cold male lead in dramaland but is Jiang Chen a emotionally unavailable when you need him. The answer is no. Yes he doesn't express his feelings that much. But he still cares about Xiao Xi, his friends and sibling a lot. He is a kind hearted person, he is smart, he is mature. On the other hand they first showed that Chadjen as a clumsy person in his early childhood, then a famous student in his teenage years and an emotionally unavailable person in his adulthood. Yes the male lead is a smart guy, he is a topper but in the original he was a normal student NOT A CELEBRITY. Chadjen was like a celebrity, like a real one. Many girls were approaching to him and he didn't know how to say no, Jiang Chen knew how to say no. Also Chadjen was a really good swimmer in the first two to three episodes but after that the swimmer Chadjen just disappeared. Why did they even had to add this swimming Chadjen thing. Was the male lead a swimmer in the original drama? No, he wasn't, only the second male lead was a swimmer. I bet they didn't do any kind of research before making this drama. There were so many things wrong with the character of male lead.

Xiao Xi is a bit childish but she's responsible enough about most of the things. In the original the female lead becomes an independent woman. And watching her character development, felt like a beautiful journey. Xiao Xi made so many efforts for Jiang Chen, like waking up early, cooking for him, trying to be a better student, trying to get his attention and so on. Som-O is not Xiao Xi at all, she cooked for him once and then nothing else. She is so stupid but then she wanted to be a doctor like seriously!!!! Then when she failed her admission examination and she wanted Chadjen to tutor her. Why he should help you? Don't you have any self respect? Som-O is the most annoying character ever. I didn't like her at all.

Neo did justice to Wu Bo Song's character as Tao but still something was missing. Neo is a good actor and that's why Tao was likable. But the writing kinda messed up lots of things. Lin Jing Xiao was tough and cool but she was cute and kind at the same time. Emma was the right choice for this role but she wasn't anything like Lin Jing Xiao, she tried to act tough and cool but failed miserably. Lu Yang our chinese Nobita was so cute and funny but New was kinda annoying.

Xiao Xi's father supported her in everything, this father daughter duo was on same team in their little family. But in this version what's wrong with the father? He's so irritating, controlling his daughter, being overprotective for nothing. Your daughter Som-O isn't even that pretty or smart. I don't know why but I didn't like Som-O's mother too.


They messed up the main plots, this 5 students are friends, they like and care for each other a lot. They had bonding and their those chaotic, sad or cute moments was everything but we got nothing. In this version they just met up became friends instantly, no development at all. The poem Jiang Chen had written for his father literally made me cry but what the hell Chadjen wrote? Jiang Chen had a reason, strong desire to be a doctor but it was never shown in Chadjen's character. After admission examination failure Xiao Xi became mature, she made herself better in terms of many things. Don't let me get started on that stage play thing.

AND why the hell they turned the School Doctor to a senior student? I wanted to see the doctor student cute interactions again T_T

Every single thing about this drama is nonsense to me. I hate this drama a looooooooooooooot.

Dew is a horrible actor. Prim is below average. Some people were saying that she is a good actress but she acts good only in thriller dramas. I mean does that even make any sense. If she was a good actor, she would have acted well in every genre.


GMMTV used to be a company who used to make good adaptions or at least watchable one's. I don't know what happened to them after F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, they started doing a poor job adapting new remake dramas. In GMMTV 2023 they announced 6 remakes project and all of them failed miserably when it comes to storyline. I knew the same was gonna happen to this one too after watching Faceless Love, Cherry Magic, Find Yourself and Beauty Newbie, still these dramas were watchable for the first half but A Love So Beautiful was a NIGHTMARE. I am so glad my nightmare finally ended!

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Over long, repetitive, improbable, terrible acting by leads

This series has 18 episodes. When you remember that excellent Thai series with strong plots, attractive actors and full of action like Dangerous Romance, 10 Years Ticket, Blacklist, The Gifted, etc. had only 12 episodes, you think that A Love So Beautiful must be packed with events. In fact, nothing happens. The heterosexual love story goes from Year 10 in high school to past university graduation. The girl is attracted to the unrelated boy who lives in her parents' house because his mother is overseas. She spends her time alternately swooning over him and being exasperated with him. He has no idea about this and stands around like a block of wood with a puzzled expression. He is very tall and looms over her. She wears a black pudding-bowl wig and looks awful as well as being an annoying person. It goes on episode after episode with no advancement. Even when they are adults and she invites him to live in her apartment, she is shocked to see a man's bare chest when he comes out of the bathroom with a towel round his waist. It is pathetic and unbelievable. I had to skim the supernumerary epsiodes from 10 onward and then gave up altogether. Weak acting by the leads, especially the male (Dew), repetitive, long drawn out, padded out, totally unworthy of more than one episode, and even that would have been a waste of time.

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The romance was terrible but I had fun

You know those dramas where the ML acts like he does not care about the FL at all but, secretly, he is helping her and protecting her. We know how much he cares for her and loves her while the FL has no clue. Well, I think this is what the writers were going for and they failed. Miserably.
I don't think that even those who are rooting for the main couple to be together see genuine love, from the ML's side, anywhere in their story.
There is love in the secondary couple but it doesn't feel satisfactory either. It feels like scenes put together without feeling. The words were said but they didn't transmit anything.
Now, the only one who shined: Tao, played by Neo. Everything that the ML needed to be, he was (I hope they finally give Neo the ML role he deserves)
That being said, between watching Neo without a shirt and the crazy nonsense of the plot, I have to admit that I had fun.

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A remake that should never have seen the light of day.

I'm not going to lie to you, watching this was like Chinese torture. Many times I wanted to drop it but given my personality of finishing something when I start it, I couldn't do it, even though my eyes almost bled from the bad performance.

We started from the beginning, I know they wanted to give Som a more "independent" character, instead of chasing the ML, but she was always angry and her screaming almost broke my eardrums. I'm not saying that you should go after the person you like, almost crawling, but come on! It is assumed that Som liked ML since she was little, why do you show her as if he were her enemy number one. (Besides, they bought that wig at a second-hand store or what. Come on, it doesn't cost anything to get a more realistic wig, please god).

Suddenly Som, without showing any interest in grades or medicine, magically decides to become a doctor! Obviously this fails and although she throws a big tantrum about not being able to get in, this later becomes an event that never happened. Why? I don't know, the writers were writing random nonsense, and this continued throughout the whole damn series. Prim usually she acts decently (not extraordinarily, just decent) but here her acting was terrible. She clearly doesn't work for romantic dramas, but for darker dramas.

Now let's talk about Dew (Chadjen) I don't know when this guy is going to take a moment and think "I really need acting classes" because he acts so badly. If he thinks that his appearance will always keep him in the acting industry, he is very wrong. He didn't even try, you know. When he cried he looked like he was shitting himself. When (this is the end) he asks Som if he loves him too, his face must have been... I don't know maybe worried But he smiled like a damn madman. It gave me chills just looking at it. He can't even smile properly. Chandje as a character is a complete disaster, firstly why do you compete with a professional swimmer and win lol oh I know! to end up having a kind of battle to see who would get Som, as if she were a trophy! He is literally so damn selfish, that when she starts dating Som he only cares about for him and him and only for him. He doesn't care if Som is okay or worried or depressed, even though he is the one to blame for Som's father getting so angry with her, he just shakes her hand like: "well it's your problem and not mine, you'll see how you solve it for yourself". I really wanted to hit him when I saw that scene.. Most of the time he doesn't talk, neither Som nor I'm are fortune tellers to know what the hell he was thinking. And I don't even want to talk about the last chapter... how you start talking about yourself at your friends' wedding? You even know that that's damn awkward and not an appropriate place?for God's sake. When Som tells him "tell me clearly how you feel about me" he doesn't respond and when he turns around and kisses her (holy shit! what the hell is wrong with giving a decent kiss, it's like when you're a kid and you just give an innocent kiss , even when they are in the same bed, they are supposed to kiss, but it seems like their lips were hitting a damn wall) he tells her "I love you."

I liked the original line that was also kept in the Korean version, you know ML admits that he is a disaster as a boyfriend and a person, the original line was: "I lost confidence in myself, I didn't even know if I was the right man for her to love, but I love her and I can't live without her." Here it was a single "I love you" and magically all the shit you made with Som magically disappears. The small intimate moments are... garbage. Because Dew doesn't have chemistry with Prim, in this case I won't be so hard on Prim because I've seen her have chemistry with Win, but it's impossible for Dew to have chemistry with any girl. Then everything becomes too forced and unnatural. They can't even kiss each other decently (It wasn't extraordinary and at times the secondary couple was boring but at least they tried).

The marriage? Well, thank you for nothing director and screenwriter . It only shows them as young people and Som shouting again "I love you Chandje", horrible. Everything horrible.

If he could give him a 0, I would give it to him because he deserves it well. But maybe I'm would give it a 1 for the friends and Tao's performances , who were the only ones who acted decent.

If you think the Korean remake is shit, it's because you haven't seen this. After watching this I think the Korean version is decent and that leaves a lot to be desired.

I really didn't laugh at any point or was moved, I was simply desperate that this hell will end.

I recommend it? Absolutely not. Unless you can't sleep and you want to watch a drama with such random, absurd situations, where absolutely nothing happens in any episode and believe me this drama will make you sleep because of how bad it is.

p.s: The reason Dew was able to act decently in F4 Thailand was because the director was very strict with him. He was the weakest of the group in terms of performance, so during his breaks the director made him practice a lot so that he was at least decent. Rui (the original version) is a very complex character that only, in my opinion, Oguri Shun, could show those complex facets. Since Dew was a mess, he couldn't present that complexity so they made him a little simpler. Yes, he was able to create a chemistry between the other actors, I repeat, it was thanks to the director because before recording, he made them become close, living together and playing. But you will almost never find a director like that, who guides you and tells you "this is wrong, try again."

Dew's decline in acting grew even more and I don't think he's going to improve, because he doesn't even have any intention of improving. I don't know what the hell happened to GMMTV after F4 Thailand. He made heterosexual remakes that were one failure after another, until he reached this one, which was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. I think GMMTV should stop at this point. They can't even make decent straight dramas.

Thailand has a big problem when they make heterosexual dramas or see this shit or you see super toxic lakorn, there is no middle ground. It's a shame because I see that there are decent actors (not super outstanding) who could make good heterosexual dramas (well, I think the only good heterosexual drama I've seen is F4 Thailand).

But I will never see this again in my life. I mean, while I was doing this review I focused a lot on remembering each episode, but there was nothing memorable because in the drama only random things happen but they are very forgettable. I probably quickly forgot about it all, but what I will remember is Dew's terrible performance and Prim's annoying screams, which almost made me deaf.

And let's be objective, although you can be a fan of some "actor" (I'm sorry I can't even consider Dew as an actor) you have to know how to disagree and say "he acted very badly, he did a terrible job." And I mean, I personally like Prim, but I know she's only good in dramas with darker themes, not romance dramas.

side note: I've read that people believe that we are very hard on this adaptation because we wanted it to be the same as the Chinese version. Big mistake. Whenever I watch a remake of a drama I like, I like to see the changes that are made, for example Itazura na Kiss, Hana Yori Dango, etc. I don't like everything to be exactly the same.

I could even say that there is only one scene, of the whole damn drama, that I think far surpassed the Chinese and Korean version and that is the breakup scene. When Chandje comes home, carrying a bouquet of shit, and he sits down, she moves away from him to create distance between them. She behaves maturely and starts talking to him about how tired she is of feeling alone, when she further begs him to say something to change her mind, he just replies "I'm tired" (I really don't know how Som could control himself and not slap him) but she answers him with some irony "That's what I should say, you know? I think I made a mistake in giving up everything to pursue you" (come on you piece of shit, what are you tired of? You didn't do anything for the relationship or for she, it was she who abandoned everything for you and gave 100% of her to make the relationship work, not you) and she leaves with a cold face, she doesn't see her crying, although she feels like bursting into tears. She leaves as an adult and mature woman, without giving him the pleasure of seeing her destroyed. She doesn't scream or make a scene, she walks away calmly. And that's something I really liked about this scene in particular.

What's annoying is the lack of chemistry, that Dew doesn't even make an effort to act well, but rather makes her performance even worse and that they put in meaningless things and then magically forget them ?. and that in 18 episodes she ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS, that you say "oh my god".

That's why many people consider this drama to be the worst of the worst. They have absolutely nothing to do with why it was not the same as the Chinese version.

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An Abomination remake of the Chinese

I want to keep this review short and simple. Like I'll not even explain the actors' acting and characters in this cause that's how confused and stupid this show was through these 18 episodes.

First off, this series doesn't even deserve a 5.5 overall rating. Even this much was given only for Neo Trai Nimtawat's acting. In my opinion, Tao's character was the only watchable and likeable character because, at some times, I felt he related to the Chinese version.

I don't think I even need to rant on Chadjen's character[more like Dew's acting], but I did not like it.

The second couple was also okay, the ending for them was cute.

Som-o should just open her eyes and go for Tao instead of Chadjen because Chadjen doesn't deserve her love.

That's all.

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A Love So Questionable

In all honesty, I'm surprised I watched the whole thing. I mostly finished it for Neo, and the visuals. I was excited for this, especially since I love Prim, and would love to see her with a different on screen partner, but my expectations must've been too high. I'm not going to compare this to any of the other adaptations. Why? Because I haven't seen any of them. Therefore, this is a honest review from someone that didn't know how the story went, and just watched it without any knowledge. That being said, I may not have the best opinion because I haven't seen any of the other adaptations, therefore, I can't compare them on how good any of them are.

The cast was great mostly, but it's just the fact that the storytelling wasn't great. I love Prim, whether it's for her acting or just for the actor, and I'd love to see her in a lot more, especially Romance, but this.. this was not it. Dew just has a stiff face with his acting. I doubt that's just how the character is. I've only seen Dew in one other thing, and that was F4 Thailand. He seemed to have pretty good expressions, although I don't remember it too much since I watched it last June, but it seems that in his more recent dramas, it hasn't been too well. I don't want to criticize his acting too much, but honestly he needs some acting classes to fix those expressions.

I'm not going to get too in depth with the story, for the fact that I have not seen how it is in other adaptations so the story could just be like that. But, I just want to say it didn't feel hooking. About half the series, 9 episodes I'm pretty sure, it takes place of Som-o in high school, and the rest of it is her in college and the adult life. I don't know if it's just the chemistry or the way the last few episodes were, but I just felt bored.

I felt little chemistry. I don't know if it's because I've seen Prim and Dew with a different pairing that I didn't feel the chemistry like the other pairings, but I just felt like they were awkward. Aren't they like childhood friends? So why would they be awkward with each other? Maybe that's just how the story is, but that's doubtful.

In all, this felt dragging. I didn't feel any fun with it during the last 4-6 episodes. The relationship was confusing to me, especially with the proposal with the second lead, like, I didn't even know they were together. I really wanted to finish it to see who would be end game, but in the end, I wish I wouldve dropped it.

The only thing good in this show is the high school life and Khao & News relationship. Wouldn't recommend to someone with high expectations.

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It’s cute so far!

I have only watched the two first episodes but it seems to be doing decently for me. I think this do will just end up being one of those “hey I have free time” shows, but the main characters are fun to watch and there isn’t anything that super annoying about it so far. I think I should also mention the other versions and how the Thai version will place for perspective so personally I think it’s so far better than the Korean version, but not too much better than the Chinese version. I’m not sure why maybe it’s because it’s only been two episodes ?but give it a shot if you have the time!

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It was frustrating to watch

I was super excited to watch this series because I love Dew. Its basically a friends to lovers trope, Chadjen and Som-O have been friends for over 10 years and in high school, they became friends with Khao, New and Tao. Together they navigate the ups and downs of life. So let's get on with the review:

Rating- 6.5/10

I know it had high viewership in Thailand during its airing but hear me out. Khao and New's relationship was my favorite in the whole drama because there was understanding and communication. Khao was with New through both of his recoveries. Khao supported New to pursue his dreams of being a game developer. New proposed in the best way possible and the wedding was the cutest. Tao liked Som-O amd he showed it through his actions. He traded medals for her banners(the cutest istg) and was there for her whenever she was at her lowest. I get that Som-O and Chadjen liked each other but Chadjen put 0 efforts in the relationship. He never really had any time for her. He didn't fight for their relationship. He made New and Khao's wedding all about himself, I hated that. I was disappointed I only watched till the end to support Dew, nothing more. Hope Dew has a better series next time.

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