Dream (2024)

it had potential and can't deliver until too late

i was so stoked when i heard about the premise and saw some teaser or trailer for the show. i am 5 episodes in at the writing of this review.
waste of time. i have started scrubbing through the episodes so the 50 minute ordeal takes maybe 10. after all time is the most precious resource any of us have. why am i even still watching? i wanna be kind and give it a chance. a generous one cause some GL are just cursed and can't find their footing until later. here's the list of problems: wooden acting, no chemistry, no story progression, no cohesion, the mother traumas so far don't add anything but slow things down, the main characters have no compelling motivation. shouldn't halfway through be any love established between the leads?

UPDATE: somehow for some reason i watched more episodes. overall not much better but there were a total of 3 out 10 episodes where i didn't fast forward most of it. so i increased the rating. the main character actress has good acting moments later in the show

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Earlier this year I decided that I'm going to watch every major Thai GL because, thanks to the unexpected success of GAP, wlw dramas have been popping up from every corner of Thai entertainment industry and I want to support it as much as I can. But damn, this one was a struggle to go through.

As soon as I've read the synopsis this drama piqued my attention because the premise sounds...well, dreamy. Like some oneiric fairytale. And you can do so much with dreams as the recurring motif of the romance story. After all, dreams are messages from the unconscious, they are signaling things that are hidden deep withing ourselves, feelings that are not fully realized. Unfortunately, this drama turns this concept into some gimmick that is shown a couple of times and doesn't really mean anything. Allegedly, the main characters have been meeting each other in their dreams since they were little kids but we never see any of that. Later they meet in real life and there is absolutely no reaction from both of them. I mean, you met this person who you thought was just a product of your imagination and you don't have any kind of emotional response to that? Then they fall in love but cannot be together, yet they still meet in their dreams, which seems important plot-wise, as enhancement of yearning and angst. We see this maybe twice, as most of the time the girls have petty fight due to pent up frustration because they are stuck in the most brain rotting cycle of misunderstandings that could have been easily resolved with one honest reaction between the friends that they are suposedly are.
What's the point?

And then we have a huge pacing issue because for some reason the director decided that jumping straight into angst without any build up is a good idea. The thing is, you can't make me care about emotional turmoil these girls are going through without giving any context for the character's feelings or motivations. For the good 5 episodes (of 12 episodes long drama!) it was just a constant rehash of the same vague confilct. It wasn't until halfway through the show when the characters finally started to make sense. However, the reasoning for their behaviour was often rather weak or rather not satisfying. Mental health issues are used as an explanation for some character's actions and attitude and while I appreciate unprejudiced approach to this topic, it is still very simplified. The severity of depression that one of the characters was going throught was never talked about in more depth, while in fact it affected literally everyone in this drama. Once that character stopped being emotionally stunted, most issues disappeared. As everything, it needed a little more build up to make it more believeable.

One thing I actually found good was the chemistry. Not like the main couple had a lot of chances to show it off because most of the time they were separated or put into dumbass conflict, but in more relaxed or intimate scenes they shined. The highschool flashback was easilly good, my favourite episode. Fay and May deserved a better show.

Overall, I'm not recommending it to anyone. It's a prime example of wasted potential, bizarre direction and awful writing. 12 hours of boredom mixed with exhausting frustration. It doesn't make sense, right? Exactly.

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Not the best in what I call the "Planoy's Verse" but not as bad as the ratings might make seem

I just finished the drama and whan can I say....

In terms of story, and I mean just the premise of the drama, is better that GAP or Blank (at least for me), the two mains romance only truly starts on episdoe starts on the 1st part of the 9th episode. Now compare it with the other two Planoy works we watched...
I know we shoulodn't compare on this but, being a part of the "Planoy's Verse" and with two other works already adapted is normal that we do...

This drama has it's flaws, of course, the acting of the two mains is a bit shaky at times, some plot points would have benefited from a better and calmer resolution and they should have had a clearer way to differentiate between the dreams and reallity, a a blurred halo around the scene or something like that as it gets confusing at times for us, the watcher, to know which is which.

Other than that is a pretty decent drama with some rewatchable value, mostly for when you are in a drama draught, have nothing to watch and want to pass some time...

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Not that really dreamish

Well.. This is really rare that I'm writing a rather negative review and I'm quite sad it's a GL one as there's no many and I support all the work related to LGBTQIA community but this one, sadly failed to deliver a great serie.

I think I'm going to talk about what I disliked, the problem is the plot, it was quite messy and the slow-burn that I usually like becomes so frustrating. In addition, it was a bit hard to connect with the characters and when it comes to even main characters (Dawan), it's not that great! It's really a pity!

Honestly, they did have some interesting ideas but it was not that very engaging to me...And the acting has definitely a room for improvement although I'm not that harsh like others, I would say it was ok but the girls could do better, especially Fay who played Dawan and I was already prepared as her support role in The Sign was..Worse than this?

But the cinematography, the production and the OST were really nice. it's such a huge contrast.

I would also add that, despite the flaws, I low key liked it a bit and I was even entertaining and cute but it failed to be one of my favorite and I would not rewatch it.

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Dream took away the reality!

The novel was a difficult one to read and this drama adaption was no exception at all. Well IDF did some changes but that couldn’t save the drama from such a lower rating. Now, when the story itself is all about miscommunication and then some, drama would reflect it rightly, wouldn’t it? So, Wan and Kimhan's characters have been well portrayed. The background music and songs are amazing, no doubts at all. So, where did it break apart?
1. Some characters' portrayal weren’t well showcased.
2. Some dialogues didn’t even make any sense.
3. Frung portrayed Jessie well but she wasn’t given enough screentime.
4. Flashback and dream scenes are too dramatic.
5. Fay's acting skill needs a lot more improvement.
6. Wan's mom's portrayal was too boring.
7. Wan is an actress but the way she was dressed up was less fashionable than Kimhan's. Doesn't make sense.

Likeable stuff:
Wan and Kim go through a lot of miscommunication and jealousy in the novel and this part was well conveyed by the leads.
May is an amazing actress, She will nail any character. And Looknam is such a cool actress even as a supporting character. Heng is a great actor too, although he never gets his partner in any IDF drama LOL, I hope he gets outta this slump.

The ending, I don't know if the wedding happened in dream or not, might be possible!And so many things from novel were not shown in the drama so it was really hard to sympathize with the leads when they were facing troubles. I'm glad this drama ended but 12 episodes seemed too lengthy.

Anyways, I hope Fay and May get a good script soon, better than this messy one.

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Hard to watch but still ended up loving them

It started bad, I hated Dawan at first. Kim was nice, I felt bad for her. I was trying too hard to keep watching this and I remember starting to like it at the sixth episode, when they show us flashbacks and they were so much cuter in school times. But when it was back to the present I remembered I was dealing with a super weird and possessive relationship again. They were so bad for each other that I lowkey wanted them to be with the MEN who hit on them. They were nicer. (this is extreme for me, because I never want that)
As time flew by, Dawan got a lot better and I started realizing she wasn't to blame for everything. Kim would be so passive waiting for Wan to do everything and confess her feelings as if she wasn't able to that herself. She would marry a guy she didn't love just because "Dawan didn't tell her not to". The whole time their friends were throwing all the relationship responsibility over Wan.
The whole thing with the moms were a bit weird 'cause like 10 years had passed and they still hadn't gotten over with the gay dads thing. Like, I know it was traumatic and shit, you may need a lot of time to recover but Wan's mom would literally spend 10 years of her life without even contacting her ex-husband and be drinking, crying and drowning in a tub almost everyday. Isn't that a bit too much? And it's crazy how they meet after a long time, he apologizes and she quickly forgives him and moves on. She only needed an apology, I guess... lol
At the end of the day I didn't quite like what they did to Marwin. He wasn't a bad guy, he really loved Kim and would never hurt her. They turned him into a villain, maybe because he was a man trying to "steal" a girl from another girl. But I don't think he or Pat were bad. They just were nice guys who were into girls who were lesbians. Marwin did a lot of terrible things at the end but I think it was very random in the script.

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an interesting story lost in the wreckage of terrible writing

I'm back from IdolFactory's ever-confusing two week break, trying to remember what the experience of this story was, and think my final answer is: it's fine. In comparison to GAP, I think Dream GL does a better job of crafting meaningful conflict and motivations... but that's about all the improvement I can give IdolFactory here. The actors are charming with good chemistry, but stilted by fumbled pacing that drags. The story is complex and mature, but the magic of the dream world is fairly scarce which diminishes the girls bond. Production quality is about equal to GAP, with perhaps some more interesting cinematography to match the dreamy setting (as opposed to an office romance). I didn't hate watching this, but IdolFactory will have to make some changes if they want to continue to stand out.

-The Full Review-
STORY:
For the positives, I genuinely enjoyed the story of Kim and Wan and their families. I liked how their relationship to their father's complicated their way to falling in love without relying on (as egregious of) miscommunication tropes. Their bond with their school friends was quite cute and brought a very lively energy to an otherwise sad story. While I really could use a break from lesbian-bride Heng, I don't think the marriage plot was awful... though the resolution was fairly melodramatic and rushed.
Unfortunately, the rest of the story was all over the place. So much time is invested into the acting competition plot-line, only to dissolve without fanfare. Likewise the couple-pair plot creates a huge mess before melting away into nothing. The mother's illness overlapped oddly, denying each of them a true moment to shine and bogging down the second half of the show with too much trauma... and so on. It badly needed another edit to restructure the story for this episode count/timeline.
Additionally, I think IdolFactory has gotten a little carried away with their episode lengths. The extra runtime allowed for frequent slow-mo and dead air as well as so many scenes of people traveling places (with no real reason to include the trip). Cutting back to a true 45 or 1 hour runtime would vastly improve the drag on some of these episode and force the screenwriters to cut some of their darlings.

ACTING:
I've seen some pretty harsh commentary, but I didn't find the acting all that grating. Fay, rather held back by the poor pacing of her character arc, did quite well once Dawan was allowed to grow and show all the sides of her character. I enjoyed the stubborn ferocity of her character and the more playful side that only Kim gets to see. I think she did well navigating the realities of depression, especially for a character who has been navigating these struggles for quite some time.
May, likewise, delivered a very competent performance. Her character was quite subdued, held back by the frustrations of so many things in her life going wrong, and I think she portrayed that exhaustion quite well. While some of the crying scenes were not the most natural, she truly started to shine while navigating Marwin, her mother's illness, and Dawan's tempestuous nature. I really enjoy her as an actress and look forward to seeing her grow.
I wish the female ensemble would have... swapped. I loved Frung, Pear, and Ploy and would have loved to see more of them. They're characters were charming and brought out interesting new sides of the leads. I found Looknam and Songjet.... quite overwhelming. I enjoyed their characters, but wish the director would have pulled them back more often. The friendships were very, very sweet but rarely allowed to develop any kind of emotion.

PRODUCTION:
In general, I think Marvellous Dream was a pretty standard IdolFactory production. Competent production choices informing a quality product with very few technical glitches. Like most IdolFactory shows, the OST was pretty limited and repetitive (I really wish the would expand their music), but the lighting was quite beautiful. Unfortunately, with a fashion-plot show, I have to say the costumes kind of... fell apart. While the actual clothing was quite quirky and enjoyable, Kim's designs were completely heinous. I wish the costumes had taken more of an opportunity to be informed by the story, rather than feeling like a child's Lisa Frank Fashion Design game.

INTIMACY:
I genuinely applaud IdolFactory for continuing to insist on allowing women to be sexual in shows. That said, some of the choreography here was... pretty awkward. I don't quite think we're there yet. Obviously, as they post to YouTube, there is no intention of any upper nudity. But the shots over backs and strategic pillow/blanket placement was not always the most natural. I think this director needs to study some GL to get new ideas on how to keep everyone covered while still delivering a good performance. That said, Fay and May did a wonderful job bringing chemistry and believable passion to the scenes! I hope to see this pair again soon, hopefully with better writing!

In all, I don't think Chao Planoy is for me, nor adaptations of her work. While I enjoyed my time with Marvellous Dream... I started watching several better GLs in the two-week break. I could be convinced to watch it again, but I probably won't do so on my own. Baby steps... baby steps... we're getting there...

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Alright, at best.

To keep it short, this show had some potential but wasn't the best executed. There were a few plot lines that I didn't like and could've been better if written differently. Also, I'm never one to like slow burns, which turned me off, too.

I liked Wan's character and how she did what she wanted. I also loved Mali and Sam! Their comedic timing was perfect; always making me laugh. I loved the whole storyline of the fours' friendship, it was heartwarming.

It wasn't anything crazy and not something I'd watch again, but it was still enjoyable. I wouldn't recommend anyone to watch this drama though.

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This deserves to be watched and not just to be dropped so casually!

With a resounding 9.0 rating, the drama series "My Marvelous Dream is You" is a spellbinding exploration of the extraordinary bond between Dawan and Khimhan, two individuals whose lives become intertwined through a shared, intimate dream world.

Despite the series featuring a relatively young and inexperienced cast, their performances are nothing short of exceptional. The lead actors effortlessly capture the nuanced emotional complexities of their characters, drawing the audience into the delicate tapestry of their story with raw authenticity. And of course, it is also thanks to the amazing performances and guidance of their senior co-stars that made this drama more exciting.

The original soundtrack, is a true revelation. The hauntingly beautiful melodies and soulful harmonies seamlessly weave through the narrative, amplifying the series' introspective nature and the characters' emotional journeys.

Visually, "My Marvelous Dream is You" is a triumph. The stunning cinematography and production design transport the viewer into a realm where the mundane and the fantastical coexist, creating a sense of immersive enchantment. The visual effects, when employed, are seamlessly integrated, elevating the series' sense of scale and the otherworldly nature of the shared dream world.

In every aspect, "My Marvelous Dream is You" is a captivating and emotionally resonant drama series that delves into the depths of the human experience. The series challenges the audience's perceptions, exploring the complexities of the human heart with nuance and sensitivity. This is a must-watch production that will linger in the minds of viewers long after the final credits have rolled.

Hi everyone, I am now on episode 7 and still can't wait for the release of the awaited episode 8. I hope that you can finish this drama and like it as much as I do. Thank you for reading my review.😊

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