Kularp Tud Petch – Rose Cuts Diamond

The newest weekend installment is Kularp Tud Petch, starring Top Jaron and Wawwa. It’s an action lakorn, with an edgy and sleek feel to it. Before we could get into the who and why of this show, we are immediately introduced to two badasses called the White Rose Bandit and the Cat Diamond (hence, rose cuts diamond). They are not friends or are they affiliates, but they have a strong eye for sharp and shiny things, namely gems and diamonds. Before any expo could launch their valuable showcase, either the White Rose Bandit or the Cat Diamond has already gotten their quick fingers on it. People speak of these two in reverence because the local police could not, for the life of them, unveil who these two famous villains are.

By day however, White Rose Bandit is actually part owner of a jewelry company, he is our hero named Pope (Top Jaron). He’s wily, conniving, and a bit of a flirt. We don’t know why he plays White Rose at night when he clearly could survive off jewelry sales, but we know he’s a bit of a sensitive artist, leaving behind a single white rose in his thievery wake. His biggest rival is Cat Diamond because that bandit is sticking its toes on White Rose’s turf. And it is only about to get messier.

Cat Diamond, as you’ve guessed it, is our heroine, Kanyika (Wawwa). She’s basically talented in everything she puts her mind to, whether it is drawing, singing, fighting, or flirting. She has the art of flirting and skirting people’s attention down pat. By day she runs a restaurant called Darika with her aunt Da (Tanya Tanyaret) and is seemingly a normal, sassy woman. During a rare gem unveiling event at a hi-so’s home, Cat Diamond – in her day form Kanyika – meets the White Rose – in his day form – Pope. The air sizzles and Pope could not help himself but judge her on the three C’s, like he would judge a fine piece of diamond. Little did they know that they have become interested in the same showpiece jewelry called “La-Ong Talay” which is a large blue gem.

That night White Rose sets out to steal the blue gem first, knocking down security guards skillfully. He even manages to create a replica gem to replace the one he has stolen. Two black figured baddies block him from leaving the premises and manage to steal that gem away, though they didn’t know they got the fake gem. But unfortunately for the White Rose, Cat Diamond had been watching him from the treetop and immediately pounced when the two black figures disappear. White Rose and Cat Diamond duke it out until Cat Diamond wins and pockets the fine gem – but not until White Rose learned that THE Cat Diamond is actually a woman, by way of accidental boob grabbing. Haha.

But losing to another foe, especially a “girl” is the bane of his current existence. To make matters worse, he (white rose) gets blamed for the missing gem. Nothing like getting wronged for what you actually didn’t do. Now the true villain wants to uncover who this White Rose is so that they could get their hands on the gem. The Big Bad is named Thaewan (Dom Hentrakul) who desperately needs the blue gem in order to extract its power to make him youthful. Apparently he’s a wrinkly old man with is two kids doing his bidding. They’ve acquired a red gem years back to help sustain his youth, but without the blue gem, old man could not keep his brain going.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of mind you. Pope’s best friend is Aekalat, a cop whose current case is investigating White Rose and Cat Diamond. Handy to have a friend who’s a cop, and not a very good one at that, since he’s willing to share the progress he is making on the case. The funny part about it though, is that he too thinks White Rose is responsible for the missing gem, which bothers Pope to no end. They seem to have a healthy friendship on face value, but poor cop doesn’t even know that he’s staring at the White Rose Bandit in the face. Aekalat is also in contention with the outspoken reporter who is ready to divulge how incompetent he is since bandits are still on the loose. The bickering between these two is clearly an indicator that they’re meant to be, they just don’t know it yet.

But we do get more backstory about Cat Diamond. Kanyika, which isn’t her real name, has been hiding her real identity with her aunt Da in an effort to seek revenge for their past. Some villain murdered her parents when she was young, and she had witnessed their death with the villain’s dagger, causing her and Aunt Da to flee their home and hide. She vowed to exact revenge by finding that villain, even though she doesn’t know what he looks like, but she knows that he’s in possession of a rare red gem. That is why she’s obsessed about stealing rare gems, hoping they would lead her back to the murderer. And well, getting rich in the process is just occupational benefit. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Although the introduction of White Rose has made things more difficult for Cat Diamond, the introduction of Pope (who is suspicious of her every move) has made things frustratingly worse. She figures it doesn’t hurt to get close to a cop so that she could get more information about the gem thieving case, but the cop in question turns out to be Pope’s best friend, and he witnessed that Kanyika isn’t all that sincere about her intentions and he made himself clear that he has his eyes on her. (In more ways than one that is..) And now she also has a jealous girlfriend of Pope to contend with.

My favorite character so far is actually Aunt Da (Tanya) who is both warm and strong. She’s the pillar to hold Cat Diamond together, she’s loving and kind and totally understanding. Tanya is doing a great job portraying Aunt Da, who’s trying to keep the peace between her two nieces who fight all the time. She reminds Kanyika to play nice with Pim because Pim’s dad had been the one to risk his life to save them, which made Pim an orphan. But she also understands that Cat Diamond has worked very hard to seek their revenge and tells her niece that she could give this up. Cat Diamond is in too deep and getting too close to quit. She sets out to get close to Thaewan since he’s a gem guru, and to find out who is in possession of the most valuable gem on earth. She just doesn’t know that she’s staring at her own enemy’s eyes. And it seems we have a supernatural element at play as well because Thaewan has managed to crack the secret to the fountain of youth. I just need a rare red gem to empower me, why didn’t I think of that? *frantically throwing away anti wrinkle creams.*

I like that Show doesn’t give us all of the pieces to the puzzle right away, they dole out different backstories to keep us going, and but not enough to answer all of our questions right away. That’s suspenseful. Though I’m not sure if I see the chemistry between Top Jaron and Wawwa’s characters yet. They just met their match in rose versus diamond, but I’m still waiting for the chemistry to sizzle – as much as show tries to make it sexy – I’m just not sold about these two. Yet. But isn’t there something about whether you’re hot together or not?

This lakorn is a remake from 2006 (Margie Rasri’s version) but it certainly doesn’t feel like one. Instead, this show feels fresh and new, which is a credit to Cholumpi’s skilled directing.