
Friday could not come soon enough. The highly anticipated episode 3 of Plerng Tornanong is here and let the family drama ensue!
Plerng and his mom arrived at the Chatiyotin’s household and his mom began to ponder why his father would ever leave this house in the first place. I would second her on that because the mansion is beautiful; tasteful wooden staircase and high ceiling decorates the open floor plan. But Plerng assures his mom that his father gave everything up because he loved her. But Boot has plans to make Plerng’s life miserable so she relegated them to stay at a small cabin in the garden. She claims that since they don’t have Kon Ying’s permission, they have no right to stay in Pipat’s old bedroom. And everyone concede.
Boot and her children’s goal is to get grandma to hate Plerng from the onset, but little did they know that Plerng had already met her. Nat schemes to poison a soup that Phong (Plerng’s mom) made and have them feed it to grandma. Nat is convinced that nothing bad will happen to her since doctors are readily available (what a considerate grandson). However when they were at the hospital, Numfon and her sister (Sita) were also there to visit Kon Ying. It seems every time Numfon sees Plerng, she addresses him as “Nai!” (which is almost like saying you! In an accusing way.) After asking him what he was doing there, she notices the soup bowl in his hands and immediately assumes he was up to no good. Boot and Nari keeps pushing Kon Ying to drink it. However, Numfon knocks the bowl out of Plerng’s hands. I have to keep reminding myself that her reason for hating him is because she thinks he is a bad person. Numfon approaches him and says, “I know what you’re up to,” (Or, I know your plan) and says that his intentions will reveal itself. Sita apologizes for her sister profusely and scolds her. Numfon continues to act like a spoiled child. It always irks me that someone should judge a person without even knowing them personally. It doesn’t help when that person doesn’t like to explain themselves, for instance Plerng. Don’t get me wrong, I love with it when the main characters spat, it brings on chemistry, but not when it’s one sided. I’m hoping that Plerng gives her a taste of her own medicine, and soon.
I would think that from episode 2, when Kon Ying was upset over the phone about Pipat’s death and that he has taught his son to hate her too, that she would be happy to see Plerng. Wrong. Twenty years of pain (according to her) cannot be eliminated over a meeting. Plerng and his mom went to apologize to Kon Ying at the house and asked for her forgiveness. He said he was willing to do anything to get his grandma to forgive his parents. But Kon Ying is still hurt from her son’s abandonment so she gets up from where she was sitting and said “a broken glass will never be the same.” Plerng walks towards his grandma and agrees with her, which surprises her. He compares a family’s relationship to that of water, and no matter how the water is split up, it can always come back together. What a wise kid! But unfortunately that didn’t win over her heart, it certainly did mine – that and his beautiful, flawless skin.
Kon Ying decides to allot Plerng and his mom what they deserve: Pipat’s 20% share in the company which values at 100 lahn baht. She assumes they would go back to Ranong and be able to live a happy life. But little did she know that Plerng is a very proud and determined person. He decided that because his dad has shares in the company, he would use that to demand his right to stay and help with the family business. So in a new suit and hair that is brushed out of his face, Plerng asks his grandma if she would give him the opportunity to do what his dad had wanted to do and make it up to her. Kon Ying says this is not an easy feat but Plerng insists that he was willing to learn. And so she is willing to give him a chance, but with a clause. In 3 months, Plerng needed to produce more profit than his father did when he was working at the family jewelry business otherwise he will have to relinquish everything. Crazy and impossible as it sounds, Plerng agrees because he was willing to grab on to any opportunity that will change his grandma’s views on his parents and to prove himself.
But like Boot says, how can you have a country boy who sold fish come and sell diamond? We shall find out. The challenges are insurmountable, including the new problem that the company is facing. Someone is stealing diamonds and putting fake ones in its place. Plerng told his uncle that he could help and with that, thus he will be learning the diamond business from the ground up- starting in the factory itself.
In the meantime, Numfon plays matchmaker to her sister Sita and Non (Plerng’s cousin, the nice one.) She thinks that Sita is attracted to Plerng and that will not do. Her sister deserves only the best (her words) and she is determined to pair Sita up with Non. I think she just can’t admit that she is attracted to Plerng too.
Case in point, the elevator scene! As Plerng is heading to the factory in his jumpsuit, Numfon tells him to hold the elevator, but gets pissed off when he was in it (Nai! She shouts again.) And says that the more you hate someone the more you will see them. Plerng replies with¸ “Did you ask if that person wants to see you?” She assumes he is playing a small role in the company based on his jumpsuit and Plerng doesn’t care enough to explain except for “it’s whatever you think.” Numfon smiles because he didn’t argue with her and said that she knows that he is acting so grandma would feel sorry for him and see the goodness in him. Then as if to spite her, the elevator shakes and blinks and Numfon finds herself next to him. It is as if no matter how much she tries to tell herself he is a bad person and that she hates him, they have chemistry. It was a cute scene but left me wanting more.. When they got out of the elevator, Numfon shows her high handedness: she said he should remember that she will never be in the same lift as him again. If I were Plerng, I’d roll my eyes. Day one of Plerng working at Thai Diamond commences.
The final scene of the episode shows Boot calling an early meeting to tell the board members that while her mother is healing, she will be taking over for the interim. Root tries to intervene but his attempts are futile, like a boat running out of steam.
I can see that Plerng’s character is very proud, he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what others think (especially miss bad attitude) and is very determined to reach his lofty goals. What challenges will he face in the next episode? Do tune in!
FYI, I will not have access to Ch.3 for a week so episode recaps will be lagging at least a day since I have to wait for others to upload it to youtube J
Tagged: Mario Maurer
Thank you so much. It help me to understand what going on each episode. I don’t understand even one word in Thai. Have a wonderful weekend.
You are welcome, it is my pleasure and glad to be of service. You have a great weekend also!
You make it easier for other nationalities to understand what is shown in the lakorn. I sincerely appreciate your efforts of faithfully tuning in to the show and making a synopsis for other viewers not familiar with the Thai language to understand the soap opera better. I guess, with my observation, these plays can be comparable to what is shown here in the Philippines, except perhaps for a few differences. The themes of the story are the same, except that Thai lakorns do have simpler storylines and have only a few characters. Filipino telenovelas/soap operas, on the other hand tend to have longer stories, a weird plot, too many characters and so many unbelievable sequences (eg. The evil character in the person gets killed through a car explosion, then suddenly, reincarnates again to seek revenge.) I hope you continue this work and I’ll be eagerly anticipating what you’re going to write next in this blog. Have a nice day! 🙂
Welcome to the Thai lakorn world. There are so many reasons why I enjoy tuning in, perhaps I should dedicate a post for it 🙂 but being able to witness the main characters love develop from the beginning and see them have such a profound, satisfying ending is one of the main reasons why I watch. Do you have a favorite telenovella from the Philippines that you can recommend? Hopefully with English subtitles? I enjoy Indian soaps too 🙂 Thank you for stopping by.
I agree with you. Regarding Philippine telenovelas, there are a few, which I can suggest. The 2 major TV networks here-ABSCBN2 and GMA7, perpetually engaged in the ratings war, thankfully have managed to produce soap operas with higher quality compared in the 1990s-early 2000s.Before, the soap operas produced lasted from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 3, depending on its popularity. Now, producers have come to their right senses that it should be aired for a period of 3 months and the maximum is up to 1 year. However, as what I have read in Wikipedia, the schedules of telenovelas/soap operas here are different from yours. I have read that in Thailand, most soap operas are scheduled on a MTW, Th-F or Fri-Sun basis and 2 hours per episode. Here, the news start at around 6:30-7PM, the time when most people come from work.Telenovelas here, commence after the news at 8 PM. Around 3 locally produced teleseryes/novelas are shown, ranging from 30-45 minutes each including the commercials and are aired on weeknights, Mon-Fri. With the popularity of Korean soap operas, it has been the mainstay and aired the last from 10:30-11PM, after the 3 locally produced soap operas. Soap operas which have religious/supernatural themes catapulted to the top of the TV ratings in the past 2 years, namely -May Bukas Pa (There’s Still Tomorrow) adapted from the Spanish Marcelino Pan y Vino and the other tv soap opera 100 Days to Heaven which chronicles the story of a middle aged business executive, who was killed in a car explosion and sent back to earth by St. Peter/the Guardian of Heavens, as a child to correct her misdeeds specifically to all persons whom she had hurt while she was alive. Probably, other blogs can sum it up/narrate better than my version 🙂 . Usually, children friendly and values oriented TV soap operas are shown after the news, as they target the school/youth audience. I guess Thais and Filipinos always crave for soap operas which conventionally, should always have happy endings. 🙂 This year, the most popular soap opera was-“Mara Clara” and “imortal” ,with the former, a remake of a similar soap opera in the 1990s. It was actually a surprise hit considering that the original soap opera ran to almost 3 or 4 years as I can remember(I was still at elementary/grade school level at that time). The story is about 2 young female leads who were switched to different families-of 2 opposing backgrounds,one rich and poor. The only thing that can reverse the situation is a diary that gets passed around with the evil characters, the family members themselves conniving to hide the truth! That is why I have said earlier that supposedly, the soap operas here tend to start good in the beginning but you will scratch your head because of the unbelievability of the succeeding episodes. Of course, there are a few exceptions. However, if the storyline is great but if the TV ratings is poor, some TV networks decide to cut the story short. At this point, I am not aware if there are several Philippine telenovelas which have been translated to English. Probably, Malay, as the soap opera “Pangako Sa’yo” (My Promise To You) of one Phil. actor Jericho Rosales, became popular in malaysia and singapore. The local TV networks release DVDs of the series after its airing, but I havent purchased those yet so I wasnt able to check out whether there is English translation.
To be honest, I also became hooked to watching Thai films recently after watching Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Love of Siam (though, I believe that the latter film can be appreciated with a philosophical and mature point of view) . I wasn’t interested before even if Ong Bak was shown locally. Going back to our main topic, presently, i only rely on youtube for the repeat episodes of Plerng Toranong and read your blog afterwards or vice versa. 🙂 Anyway, I think you might already get bored reading my long reply at this time. 🙂 Even if I am not able to understand Thai, culturally and educationally, for me I can somehow rationalize and observe the similarities and differences of Thai and Filipino life perspectives through the TV series/lakorn. Hopefully and God willing, I can visit Thailand, when there’s an opportunity in the near future. I know that what has been presented in the movie Hangover 2 regarding Bangkok, in general was overrated and in one way, inaccurate. For now,I hope you’ll can still religiously follow the lakorn, as I really enjoy reading your blog and watching the show as well. Magandang gabi and Ingat (Good night and take Care)! 🙂
How interesting, thank you for explaining Philippines soap opera, which to me sounds similar to American soaps but trust me much shorter. We used to tease that if you watched the young and the restless ten years ago, you can still pick it up today because not much has changed. Thai lakorns can be compared to Korean/Chinese/Japanese as well due to the duration and sequence. I think it is amazing to extend a soap opera for more than 3-4 months. Although I lose interest quickly if a series is too long. I prefer mine to be about 10-30 episodes (which are usually 1.5 hrs in length per episodes.) Lakorns are very addicting, sometimes they’re worthwhile and other times I want to throw the remote at the tv. 🙂
PS. And I also fervently hope and pray, that politically, Thailand will finally become more stable, with a new woman prime minister! 🙂
thank you so much for all your recaps. I’m highly interested in Plerng Toranong but can’t speak Thai, but you’ve made it so that I can enjoy the lakorn thoroughly. thank you for your hard work, it’s much appreciated that you take the time to share this entertainment with everyone!
You’re welcome! I enjoy writing reviews because it allows me to relive my favorite moments in the lakorns. Thanks for stopping by!