Ruk Fun Thalop: Will You Make Room For This Funny Series?

One HD’s new Saturday lakorn, Ruk Fun Thalop, will make you want to go on a road trip. Even if the journey is fraught with what seems to be impossible conditions, the destination is tantamount to your future livelihood. What if by NOT going on this road trip, you will continue to live the same, single life you so desperately want to change?

This is the conundrum that Gypsy’s character, Risa faces. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.

When we first open this show, she’s picking up a wedding dress and smiling ear to ear. Every passersby gives her a congratulations. But it turns out, the dress is for her best friend, Priew (Vill Wannarot), who’s getting married tomorrow. As Priew tries it on for a final fitting, Risa questions whether Priew is certain she wants to go through with the wedding, since she hasn’t dated the groom for a year yet and Risa feels like Priew isn’t really all that elated about the wedding.

 

Priew steps out of her room in the white dress and states that she loves him (her groom). Risa is too touched by her best friend’s magnificent look than to argue, she tears up as Priew spins in a circle. They embrace, it’s her best friend’s last night as a bachelorette. This prospect of everything changing really dampens Risa’s mood, as many women whose best friend ties the knot first could relate to. She will be alone FOREVER, it seems.

Risa downs several shots that night at a local bar, and her gay friend questions whether she’s sad because she’ll be alone or she’s sad because her best friend will marry Pap, a man she used to like. But Risa argues that she’s well over that, it’s just a man, she can give it up to a friend. Her gay friend reminds her that it’s been four or five men that she has given to her friend, actually, SHE just couldn’t win a man over faster than her friend could. Ouch. Friend says she needs to act quick and not hide her feelings anymore otherwise she’ll end up losing every man, to her friend no less.

Risa relents that she and Priew made a promise to stay single together if they both don’t get married by 30, and they’ll turn 30 in two weeks. Now Priew will marry the man she loves, while Risa will be alone.. friendless and loverless. Her friend orders a round of 3 shots upon hearing this, what an awesome friend. Risa switches gear and smiles widely that she’s chosen to be happy for her friend, and we see that she means it. Aw. Bottoms up for the bride to be.

Speaking of the bride to be, Priew lies to her fiancé that she will be out tonight with Risa, but in actuality she wants to surprise him in her wedding dress. So Pap, thinking he’ll have the night alone, brings an office fling home. He’s heavily making out with the fling and doesn’t see that Priew is standing right in the living room, catching him red handed. She smashes their wedding canvas over his head.

Back at the bar, gay friend tells Risa that she spies a man who might be interested in her. But Risa takes too long to figure out her strategy that another woman comes in and swoops him. Her friend surmises that girls are so quick these days. Lol. Suddenly, someone calls out that this song is for all of the bad fellas out there, and she starts bellowing out a song and crying. It’s Priew, in her wedding dress.

The trio sit on the ground outside, it looks like it just rained. Priew tells them what recently happened with Pap, and Risa yells at her friend that she told her so – she had told Priew about Pap being a player and yet Priew still wants to marry him. Risa yells some more that Priew is stupid and it serves her right. Gay friend says that she should be consoling her friend. Risa intends on criticizing first and consoling after. Ha. Risa asks what happened after she found out he’s been cheating on her, and we flash back to that moment before she smashes his head with the wedding canvas.

Pap warns her not to ruin the canvas otherwise they wouldn’t have anything to use for the wedding. Priew spats that there will be no wedding and wonders how long he has been cheating on her. The fling tells Priew to take it easy because she’s just a fling, which to Priew, is even worse. And that’s when she smashes his head and throws away her wedding ring.

Risa adds that Priew should have hit the fling too. But seeing that Priew is really hurt by the betrayal, Risa tells her not to be saddened by a cheater. We see that Priew had intended on surprising him the night before the wedding, she cleaned the condo, made dinner, and even practiced saying “surprise” in her wedding dress. But instead, she saw him canoodling with another woman right before her eyes. It wasn’t the type where you happen to walk by and see someone kissing which can be a misunderstanding, but it’s the kind where you see them enter the space, make out heavily and start to take each other’s clothes off. No questions about that. Priew was deeply hurt by it.

Priew seems to be throwing the question out into the void: why is it that whenever she’s serious about someone, it always ends up like this? She thought she chose well this time around, she thought she was being careful. But it’s always like a good friend who knocks you beside your head and open your eyes, Risa argues that Priew did not choose well, because she dated Pap less than a year and proclaimed that his player days are over. Apparently he only stopped being a player in front of Priew’s eyes, but everyone around them can tell he hasn’t stopped.

Risa cheers her friend up, at least she didn’t find out after the wedding. Gay friend says she’s pretty and she could find another husband. Risa promises that she won’t let her friend’s tears ruin her shoes, because she would be the one to wipe those tears away. Aw.

As the two ladies search for their car, they stumble into a man who accurately guesses the state of their beings. He has Risa hanging on to his words because he guesses everything that is inside her head – such as she has given her friend everything and keeps that secret from her friend. While Priew doesn’t believe anything he says, thinking he’s a scam artist. He even guesses that they have the same birthday and have a lot of similarities – food, drinks and men (although he doesn’t say the last part in case a fight breaks out, ha.) Priew is not susceptible to fortune tellers so Risa tells her friend to head to the car first.

Risa then chats with the fortune teller, and what she learns may just change her life.

The man seems like a mindreader too, which makes for a funny conversation, because he’s making all of these accurate statements and she’s responding with comments in her head. He tells her that it’s not a coincident that she and Priew always like the same men. In fact, it is due to the bad karma that SHE created lifetimes ago. In every lifetime, we learn that Risa keeps stealing Priew’s man by separating, coercing, and being evil. Therefore in this lifetime, every man Risa likes gets taken by Priew. Oh karma, she’s such a bitch. Risa argues that her friend didn’t “steal” the men, Priew never knew that Risa liked them. The fortuneteller argues that those are semantics. At the end of the day, doesn’t it feel like those men were stolen from her?

The man says that in order to change her fate, she needs to fix the bad karma that she created. IF she doesn’t fix the bad karma, then her love life will never come to fruition. Talk about a bad omen. Destined to be alone FOREVER? At first it may feel like that is the case, but knowing that it can be real, that’s like seeing your life flashing before your eyes. Gah.

The next day Risa approaches her best friend with the map of Thailand. Haha. She spreads the map out and decides they are going on a road trip. They are to visit 19 temples! Priew is like the devil’s advocate, and every time she presents a question, we get a flash back from the fortune teller:

Why 19 temples? You must bring THAT friend to 19 temples and pray to Buddha.

Don’t tell me that the fortuneteller told you to do this? Priew questions. Risa lies, No, no of course not. I wanted to go. Priew reminds Risa that she never wanted to go to ONE temple that Priew has suggested in the past. Lol.

Why do you want to go? You must go to those 19 temples and ask for forgiveness from your friend, and at the end of the road, your love life will come to fruition.

Risa lies that she just wants to do merit and they should wash away the bad luck from Pap.

Why don’t we go to a temple in BKK, why go to the provinces? The fortuneteller instructs that her curse would only be amended if she goes to temples at the provinces only, and those temples must meet certain requirements.

Risa says she just wants to take her friend on a road trip! Priew tells her to wait another time, after their birthday. But we find out that the road trip must be completed before their birthday (in 10 days) otherwise Risa will be single for the rest of her life. Dun dun dun.

Risa does her best to try to convince her friend, but Priew won’t budge, she’s a hard nut to crack. So this leaves Risa with no choice… but to kidnap her.

Priew does not share in the humor when she wakes up in a moving car. She tells Risa to pull over but learns that Risa had been very detailed in the kidnapping, she even asked for time off from work for her friend. The excuse was that Priew needed time to recover from a broken heart.  Risa is surprised that her friend is mad and apologizes, and the two get into an argument – which is so similar to arguments you can have with your girlfriend. One that goes from 0 to 80 real fast.

“I want to go on a road trip and it’ll make me sad to leave you” -Risa
“If you’re forcing me like this, you should have just left me alone” -Priew
“Ever since we met have I ever abandoned you?” -Risa
“Did I ask you to stay?” -Priew
In tears, “Fine, I’m sorry my method was rough” -Risa. She hands over the car keys to Priew and tells her she can sojourn on her own then. Which of course she says this thinking that Priew wouldn’t leave her, but Priew takes off. Ha.

Risa walks along the rural streets, grumbling that her friend is so heartless. Minutes go by and we see Priew bringing the car around. Lisa tries to play hard to get and not get into the car right away, but that only makes Priew tease her even more by speeding by. So hilarious. Priew makes Risa lose her breath by catching up to her, but nicely offers a bottle of water. BUT that water knocks her out cold until they reach their destination. Haha. They are now even.

They tour their first temple and as they kneel down to pray to Buddha, Risa takes out her script. She is to read this every time they kneel before Buddha. It goes something like this “please Buddha forgive me for all of the bad karma that I’ve done towards Priewyaporn in the past- whether they are intentional or not.” After chanting this, Risa would need to have Priew say “I forgive you” as part of the rule instructed by the fortuneteller. Priew asks to see the prayer that Risa wrote down, but Risa says it won’t come true if she shares it.

We see this happen again at the second temple. And Risa is just elated every time her friend says “I forgive you.”

They get their fortune at the temple, but both draw the same number, and it just so happens only one sheet is left.. ah, story of their lives? They split the paper in two and read each other’s fortune, Risa’s half of the fortune says that she will successfully get what she wants and her sadness will become good. While Priew’s fortune speaks to her love life and that she will meet her soul mate. Risa wonders if that means they’ll meet their soulmates on this trip?  Priew says she’s still not ready so Risa could meet her soulmate all on her own, but Risa knows her friend too well and basically says they’ll see how long Priew can hold out. Ha.

The night draws near and the two drive to their resort, however it’s pitch black and the path is covered with trees. Suddenly a figure jump in front of their car. He’s a backpacker (Kangsom) and is asking for a ride to the resort – turns out it’s the same one the girls are heading to.

Risa is immediately smitten at first glance. She thinks to herself, “We’ve only prayed to two temples and I’ve met my soulmate already!” Lol.

And that closes out the first episode. Laugh out loud funny and witty. This is exactly the show I need right now. It’s only 45 minutes long, so not even a long commitment – and this will end in about 8 episodes. Since each episodes will air once a week, it’s a long wait for the end of the road, but I’m not complaining. It will be a journey filled with laughs and realizations.

I like both Risa and Priew, but as an intro, Risa is the most sympathetic. It happens this way because we are seeing the issue from her eyes, she loves her friend, but her weakness is the inability to speak up when it matters. That is why she keeps losing men to her friend, even though Show is saying that it’s due to the bad karma linking the two, but I think Risa’s personality is half of her problem. Even now, she hasn’t told her friend the real reason why they’re on a road trip – because if she confesses – she would need to tell her that she liked ALL of the same men Priew likes, and well, that will just make Priew upset that Risa couldn’t be honest with her from the beginning.

Risa may think that she’s being a good friend and giving up those men, but like her gay friend said, she couldn’t gather up the nerves to make her own move. She thinks she gave them up, only because they didn’t show the same interest in her. What if it’s a guy she really likes, who she thinks may like her back, will she still give him up to her friend? That’s going to be interesting to see, since now they’ve met this new man, and she already thinks that he’s her soulmate. That’s like ASKING for heartbreak. Perhaps that is why I feel for Risa more (right now) because she’s an underdog.

But Priew has her mysterious nuances too, on the surface, she may seem like she’s not in 100% with any man, but deep down she wants to make sure she has made the right decision. Her problem is overthinking things and not going in head first. But I like that she’s forward and strong.

The best part of this show to me is not their journey to find love, but it’s the love that exists between their friendship. These two are genuinely good friends – not frenemies who pretend to be friends but deep down are jealous bitches. They compete and fight as any normal friends do, but they also know when to make up and give in. What I find interesting is that they are friends for a long time, but there are things they still don’t know about each other. People keep secrets even from their closest friends, and I have a feeling that this will get unraveled along the 10 day road trip. I am here for the sisterhood.

I find the scriptwriting to be funny and quirky, but it’s the directing touches that win it for me. I am so going on this road trip, there’s plenty of space in my SUV if you want to join me!

Note: I won’t have live recaps, since weekends are for my little guy, but recaps will be available Sunday night or the wee hours of Monday morning (which technically is still a very late Sunday night.) Apologies for any spelling/grammar errors, my old eyes are blurry after staring at the screen at such a late hour.. and for so long. Hugs! ~Fia