This fourth story of the Gentlemen Series gave us a funny and cute romantic story of Khun Chai Lek, a civil engineer who flees his marriage prospect in Bangkok to camp in Nong Khai, where he meets a group of Wieng Phu Kam refugees. He develops a bond with the compelling group and befriends (if a bizarre, funny friendship) with Soifah who saved his life. They marry, for her protection and convenience, and the two are tasked with the challenge of finding the missing crown prince so they can save the King and usurp their power in Wieng Phu Kam. Little did Soifah or even Chai Lek know that the missing prince and princess are right under their noses.
Another challenge for the duo is to have the grandmas accept Soifah as their granddaughter in law, which entails Soifah learning wifey duties within a month so the Juthatheps would not be embarrassed by her savage upbringing.
What I liked most about the city scenes is that Soifah doesn’t lose the essence of Soifah. No matter what, she retains her fierce, proud and stubborn self. They couldn’t break her, and watching her character evolve for the remaining three episodes made me love her even more. I’m finding that I’m thinking of her character as the hero role in this drama instead of Chai Lek. It is hard for me to get behind our guy. He’s embarrassed of her half the time, he doesn’t believe in her abilities, and he even had the gall to pull a noble idiocy towards the end- so yeah, I’m going to consider Soifah as my “pr’ek” if you will.
Chatchavee’s character really appealed to me as well, a noble man who grew up lacking in love from his family, and misunderstanding that his own biological mother is some low down whore. Yet come to find out that she is actually the queen of Wieng Phu Kam and that his foster father had to endure endless pain and suffering in order to keep his real identity a secret. He slowly became the King that Wieng Phu Kam people needed, and I can seriously watch him and Soifah hang out at their Wieng Phu Kam palace all day long. Their brother and sister scenes and moments really came so late in the game and I just want to cry at the unfairness of it all.
Ai Joi is quite adorable, really. He’s a hotheaded guy but has his heart in the right place. The near incest part where his own sister agrees to marry him is quite uncomfortable to watch, but he only did it to push his King to admit that he loves Jantha. Everyone needs Joi in their lives, he’s a perfect side kick.
Going back to Soifah- upon achieving what her and her Por Yai set out to do- her biggest character development had more to do with the romantic story arc. Khun Chai Lek runs away to deal with his feelings, to forget her and to try to move on with the fact that she’s a Princess and well, he’s just a nobleman. Despite his brother Chai Ruj advising him that no matter the social class, people are people, and he should focus on their shared feelings instead.
In the forest of Nong Khai, Chai Lek realizes that he misses her too much and that he’s conjuring up images of her everywhere- that he might be going crazy. But he’s not, Soifah has come for her man, so in line and in tune with her fierce, strong character. She had her many ways to express how she feels about him, whether that’s tough love or jumping on his back, but in realizing that he’s leaving her possibly for good, she finally confesses that she loves him.
This alone propels Chai Lek to surrender to her love (and leadership.) So it’s easy to see who’s going to be wearing the pants in this marriage. And you know, I’m ok not falling for the guy. With such an awesome, unwaveringly strong heroine, who needs a hero?
She cleans up quite beautifully too.
Thank you Fia for your last impressions. My feelings were quite similar. I loved Soifah (ok, I always love Taew), Joi, Chat and the stepfather the most. The story was quite appealing with a very strong nangek in character and acting ability. Everyone was convincing and adorable, even the nangrai who was not too annoying and in the end she had her heart in the right place. The only character I could hardly bear was our praek. His character lacked depth and the actor is very stiff. I know he is still a newbee, but for me in this lakorn he was the only weak point. I hope our last newbee James Ma won’t be as stiff.
I still need to catch up all the lakorns as I haven’t been able to watch any in May. This will need some time as there are so many good lakorns to watch at the moment. I will come back later to give my 2 cents on the other lakorns 🙂
The praek lacked the acting skills. But I still watch because Taew is Nangek (she is ranked 5th place in my list).
I agree! I love Soifah and all her courage and love for her father and country and for her people but especially for her love for our not-so- heroic Chai Lek. I think that Chai Lek and Soifah make the perfect couple; his integrity, courage and playfulness compliment her intensity, strength and deep love.
I also agree with you that Soifah seems to be more of the hero.
This is one of those lakorn that did VERY,VERY WELL, and received high ratings from both in the city and rural because of the story line itself and not because of the main characters. To me, I think the story line was more interesting and touching than the pra’nang’s love story that’s why it received good,high rating. The plot concentrated more on Soifah’s country’s matters (i.e looking for the lost prince and fighting to get their country back) more than Khun Chai Lek and Soifah. After watching this part, I am kind of disappointed because I want to see MORE cute,sweet scenes of them. I also felt that this part was so short and have been rush towards the ending. I agree with Off Pongpat, before Khun Chai Lek was going to air, he said he wanted Khun Chai Lek to be an individual lakorn instead of a series lakorn. And I agree with him! I think because this was a series lakorn and not an individual lakorn, there were lack of scenes of them and it was rushed. Anyway, because of the lack of cute,sweet scene and lack of concentration on them, I want another lakorn of them together. In addition, I want them to have the same character traits! Bomb as a flirtatious,kind loving pra’ek and Taew as a tough nang’ek. Even though, those were lacking, I did enjoy Khun Chai Lek’s part. Why? Well, because Khun Chai Lek and Soifah are so CUTE together! Come on, they got me screaming every time they’re together. lol. The last lakorn I screamed for the pra’nang in every episode was probably PCKK. Even though Bomb’s acting was stiff, somehow his friendliness attitude in Khun Chai Lek make me like him a lot that I don’t even notice his stiffness is there. lol. I’m surprise that I ENJOY this part a lot!
Great last impression and glad that it’s not a disappointing impression either. It was a good thing that I didn’t read the novel prior to the start of the lakorn. I waited until the 3rd episode to start reading or else I wouldn’t have been able to picture the actresses and the actors as the characters in the novel. The pros of turning a written imagination into a moving picture is not something that can be easily done, especially if the director imagine something entirely different or focus on one thing and not another. In this case, Off Pongphat wanted to focus on the re-liberation of a country that the relationship development and romance took a back seat. There were so much more romance in the novel, the staring of eyes, the blushing from Soifah. The encouragement he gave her each and every time Ya On picked on her. The cute teasing from Khun Chai Lek to cheer her up. The heart to heart conversation between Junta and Khun Chat in the forest that made them fall in love. Those were all taken out because it probably was looked upon as a waste. Usually it wouldn’t be ok with me but this time it’s not so bad due to the great acting of all the cast. Bomb Tanin was indeed stiff one time or another and you can definitely tell that this is his first lakorn but he wasn’t all that bad. I fell in love with all the cast in this part as I did with all the other characters large or small in the first 4 parts.
This series gave me so much. It gave me a boy such as James Ji to fall in love with, a cute nang’eks such as Mew, Mint Chalida, Taew, Preem, and Bella to keep an eye on. Supporting cast like Mint Nutwara, Diew, Ploy, and Toey to love. Happiness that Pope is finally a pra’ek and boy can that boy cry! I also like Great and Bomb, hope to see them in many more lakorns to come. Last but not least, my faith in a quality Thai lakorn that isn’t all about emotional and physical abuse that somehow magically turn into HEA.
Sorry about my long ranting.
Hi,
I know I am way too late …but just happened to see this “alternate ending” to Khun Chai Rachanon..It looks funny ..but no clue of what they are saying..