When watching Love Never Dies, one must put aside expectations and focus on the one key factor that the director does so well: pairing real life ex lovers as onscreen beaus. It is daring, risky but ultimately brilliant. The attraction for Love Never Dies lies solely on the chemistry between Traipoom, the 400 yr old blood drinking man and Plaichat, his young fearless employee, whose characters are played by the renowned Dome Pakorn Lum and his former girlfriend Ploy Chermarn Boonyasak. Preferring to think of this drama as a romance drama first, then setting in the backdrop of blood sucking vampires second, my plot-induced mind can make way for my romantic heart. Because trust me, you’ll be able to enjoy it so much more.
Set in modern day Thailand, Traipoom is determined to honor his dead father’s request by finding 117 Ming dynasty antiques and returning them to its original spot, upon which, the 400 yr old curse of immortality and drinking red internal bodily fluid will end. The conflict of the story involves Traipoom’s fellow blood sucking vampires and his extended family members who rather enjoy their immortality, thank you very much, and will do everything in their power to stop him. Traipoom finds help in locating the remaining 7 items with Plaichat, a young and fearless mortal, who specializes in the discovery and preservation of antiques. Unexpectedly on their journey to discover these antique treasures, Traipoom and Plaichat discover something much more dear: love.
The theme of their love is one of selfless, support, and giving, very much in connection to their character’s personality and traits. Traipoom is a strict gentleman; he is wise, generous, confident and sure of himself. He despises drinking blood in order to survive and prefers to keep to himself. But most importantly, he is afraid to love anyone for fear of outliving them. He believes that watching the people he cares about being buried before his eyes is hard enough as it is, but to love and to lose someone would be unbearable. He does not wish his eternal life on anyone. Then comes Plaichat, who is the polar opposite: she is vibrant, lively, and clumsy and wears her heart on her sleeves. She prefers to talk to fill in the void and enjoys spending her time reviving and showcasing antiques. When brought together, they truly supplement each other.
Love Never Dies is a lesson attempted to weave throughout this lakorn. Traipoom learns that the feeling of truly loving someone does not die when the person dies. Plaichat discovers that when in the presence of one she loves, she will live like there’s no tomorrow. All profound themes in theory, however in development, not so astounding. The plot itself does not inspire profound discoveries; we have vampire showdown with fangs baring, lame subplots- with even lamer plot resolution- and some useless characters. I am also thoroughly disappointed by the idea behind the ending, although I am thrilled for their happily ever after. With that being said, what we can take away from their love story is their blind faith in each other, their brief couple’s dispute (as in one), and the readiness to go to bat for each other. To me, that is the most attractive part of the storyline.
And then there’s Dome. It would be stupid to talk about Love Never Dies and not talk about Dome’s hotness. Apparently I’m not alone in fangirling this particularly hot (or J’s term hothothot) male specimen. Dome as Traipoom is buzzing all over Thailand and other parts of the world, especially how fans want him to bite them. It is not possible to watch any one of his scenes and not drool, young, old and gay alike. Which perhaps aid in overlooking the simple fact that this is his debut drama and his acting still requires some work. It is a good thing indeed that he’s portraying a vampire- one that is brooding, emotionless and stiff.
So if you like to ogle the main guy- as well as several handsome vampires (there are hordes of them)- enjoy an almost ideal relationship between the pra’nangs, see their sparks fly, and participate in many screech worthy scenes, then this lakorn is for you. As for me, if Traipoom keeps checking up on Plai to make sure she is alright, looking at her so directly like he wants to have her for breakfast, carrying her in his arms, and being such a gentle, trustworthy pr’ek, I’m going to die. And to reserve the three little words and a delicious hug and kiss for the end. *Swoon*
FAQs regarding Love Never Dies:
- Ch.3 lakorn, aired on March 7, 2011.
- Both “Rak Ter Pai Talod Gal” (Love you forever) and “Ja Pen Ter Dai Reu Plao” (Can it be you?) were written and sung by Dome. He told the producer that he’d like to write songs for the lakorn that he plays in.
- Ploy knew she was going to play in Love Never Dies with Dome but did not tell him. He found out later– it looks like he was thrilled! (Ratree Samosorn)
- They broke up in 2008 (DirtiLaundry)
- Ploy is currently happily dating Navin Tar. I know this doesn’t have anything to do with Love Never Dies, but Navin is not threatened by Ploy in a lakorn with Dome.
- Dome recently broke up with his “friend.” (DirtiLaundry)
Resources and Talks about Love Never Dies:
- I adore J’s articles about LND, you can check out her tags marked “Love Never Dies” on Scribblings of a Fangirl.
- Watch LND special on Ratree Samosorn Eng sub by Padmenu. I cracked up about the 45 degree angle.
- Watch official video of “Rak Ter Pai Talod Gal” Eng sub by Pigbunnyrx.
- Cast and info on Asianfuse Wiki.
- Raw lakorn episodes can be found on Gappkoo’s YT channel. And Eng Sub on Viki.
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Is it just me or does Dome still look at Ploy with that special something in his eyes on Ratree Samosorn? Ah well, it’s too bad the devoted, perfect p’eks seldom exist in real life but at least Dome/Ploy got to live the fairytale romance in LND.
I thought it was a pity that Ram ended up as a cardboard villian and wasn’t better developed into a viable love rival for Tripoom. (not because he’s hot. really.) :p
I did notice that- he keeps looking at her and leaning towards her. Ploy on the other hand seems unaffected by it. I hope they can do another lakorn together 🙂
I thought there were so many opportunities to make this lakorn better- Traipoom and Plaichat are not challenged in the least with each other. The conflict merely revolved around finding the treasures and the bad guys trying to stop them. We don’t have a lot of full dimensional characters.. I was thinking, with the way that it ended, wouldn’t it be nice to have part 2? I was really surprised that it ended with 11 episodes.
I actually finished this one as well and keep on nodding my head while reading your view. Dome’s acting do require some work (perhaps with the ex- is one good excuse), but hey who cares, he is too cute~ However Ploy’s role is a little noisy to me… so why Traipoom would fell for Plaichat is not so well developed… But after all… I still finish it… I guess the story-line is fresh and Dome is cute~
Yeah Ploy tends to overact in the cutesy parts but in her defense she has always played the dramatic, sometimes mean roles so when it comes to being natural and nice, she doesn’t know how to do it. And ends up laying it on a little too thick. Haah.
Maybe it’s because of her lively, carefree attitude that Traipoom finds so attractive- but I guess we’ll never know since the development of their relationship got us scratching our heads.
But like you said, who cares right? Ultimately we finished the lakorn for their chemistry and Dome’s extreme cuteness.
I think Ploy is a great actress but there is really only one role she is really really really good at. All the nang ek roles she protrayed was not ever once convincing especially when she does the innocent, cute, etc. There are certain people that has that a natural ability “to act” cute without even trying, Ploy is not one of them, although at times she “can be” cute looking.
I actually liked her in Pim Mala where she played a man in a woman’s body, she was funny, adorable and silly. She may not pull off the ultra innocent and cute vibe like her younger or more innocent looking counterparts. And I think she is aware of that. But her acting cute in Love Never Dies didn’t bother me, it may have to do with her chemistry with Dome or it may be that I am Ploy biased. She has played many diverse roles and continues to challenge herself- which cannot be said for a lot of nang eks. I guess one cannot win a lot of fans when one has played so many rai roles in the past, lol. But I’ll continue to support her. 🙂
I’m Ploy biased too! heeh. I agree that Ploy overdid the ‘cute’ sometimes in LND and perhaps a cutesy role isn’t the most suitable for her as she has the ‘temptress’ look but I do enjoy watching her as both the nang’ek and nang’rai. She simply has a presence that can’t be ignored when she’s on screen. I thought Ploy did a good job as nang’ek in Poo Yai Lee Gab Nang Ma. That was also the role that sealed my love for Ploy.
Hi ! Long time no see you !
About Ploy, I still think her best acting was in BGST because she didn’t overact or try hard there. Her character was arrogant and conceited but nice and who loves her family at the same time. I have not yet seen her movies -I watch only lakorn so far.
I agree with people who think she tries a little hard as N’ek but in my view not only as N’ek -especially her voice sounds…ahem..fake . As Rai too she sometimes overacts. I watched some of her Rai roles and she always tend to open her eyes biiiiig kind of “I want to eat you” and sometimes she keep this expression from the begining to the end -something I didn’t like about Yui in PLP for example.
lookwise there is something I would like her to stop : she wrings too much her mouth and nowadays it’s getting worse. I don’t remember she did that during her “Roy lay sanee rai” days
@J and @ Lilly That is what I love about lakorn watching.. it is all so subjective. I appreciate the time taken to leave your takes on Ploy!
Maybe it’s her voice that bugs me too. I think that is the one reason I can’t seem to like about Ploy when she acts.
It seems it is a sentiment shared by many people too. I agree her voice can be screechy at times.. but I guess I’m used to it lol.
I’m late to the party, but I’ll still give my two cents. Frankly the whole lakorn rests on: (1). The Hotness of Dome, and (2). The chemistry between Dome – Ploy. If you don’t feel number (1) or (2), then you won’t enjoy it at all coz the rest of the lakorn is just blah. It boggles my mind that they put a Very Young Looking guy as Dome’s love rival. I just couldn’t take him seriously and at the beginning I honestly thought he was playing Ploy’s much younger relative.
I know Dome has legions of fans, but can I say that, at least for the time being, he’s in the same category with Mart Krissada in terms of appearance and acting ability? *put on flamesuit and hide under a rock*. P.S. I’ve checked out 2 lakorns and actually finished 1 whole lakorn just to see Mart K.
Will watch some fan-made MV when I’m missing sweet bits of this lakorn (aka The Hotness of Dome), but definitely no rewatch of the actual lakorn itself.
Omg how did I miss replying to your comment?! I agree with the rewatching their scenes together and not rewatching the whole lakorn =)
I like this story so much……….!! i like Triapoom(Dome)so much…..!! It’s a first story i love so much……and remember it forever…….can’t forget forever………..!! Traipoom is a man…..love his girlfriend…always care…worry…and think about his girlfriend……!!! and nothing separable he from his girlfriend……….! their love will never die……………forever……….!! So,i saved this story in my heart…my feel…my brain….and my life………..!!<3
Yay =) So glad to hear that you’re a fangirl as well!
I like this video and especially Dome. I never seen before like him . He is very handsome.
does anyone know where i can watch this in eng subs besdies viki cause e it doe not work.
Sorry I don’t know..
Did you find a link already to watch this??
Just completed the series last night, this is the second Lakorn that I caught – The first being “Ubathteehet 2012” which I forced myself to sit through if not for Aum. I cringed from episode 8 onwards and thought I would never watch another Lakorn again. I can rant so much more about it but think I should talk about the subject Lakorn instead.
“Ruk Mai Mee Wun Tay” I must say is a pleasant surprise and I am nodding my head as I was reading your review. The main cast pairing is very well executed and the script/plot is more intelligent and precise, not excessively treating the viewers like 3 year olds. Though some of the sequences still seems awkward but I think they still need to retain some essence of the traditional soap operas? Ultimately, I am just glad I did not give up Lakorn because of a “bad start”.
I caught a few pilot episodes of Aum’s works but doesn’t seem to intrigue me (is it because they are from ch7?). Right now I am still in the process of digging for next Thai soap opera to catch…
Always proceed with caution when it comes to ch7 lakorns 🙂
I’m glad to hear that you haven’t given up on lakorns entirely, based on one drama. Ubatheehet made me want to pull my hairs out too, haha.
Absolutely, what worked really well for Love Never Dies lie solely on the hot pairing. Happy lakorn watching, and thanks for your comment!
Hi, I really love your review and I just want to ask some questions because I want to clarify something from the ending… At the ending, Traipoom & Plai are happy together but the day that Plai turns old and die will be the day that Traipoom will end his life… But isn’t in the story about the ‘cave’ that those who were cursed will not die and will not reincarnate?? Hayysst! I want to ask a question but I’m more confused on what to ask… >.<