Rissaya (2016)

So this lakorn is, I think, underrated.
Why I started it ? I had seen extracts from Tuptim and Thanwa’s hate-love relationship and their chemistry, charisma and talent impressed me. So I looked for this drama.
What I love ? Many things. First, this story is a bit like Cinderella. A poor orphan girl mistreated by her evil stepmother who ends up getting away from her misery due to love and perseverance. That’s the story of Wansika, female lead. Those Cinderella stories can be REAL annoying when they’re cliche but I like them when these are well made and original. What’s original here ? I’d say, the Cinderella herself, Wansika. Here, Tuptim gives us a great performance, full of grace, charisma and emotion, something pretty hard because her character is sometimes made to be motionless (she’s even nicknamed « the zombie » at some point by the male lead). Nevertheless, Tuptim succeeds in giving us feels during those scenes. Wansika is an illegitimate child who lives with the wife of her dead father and therefore endures insults and TERRIBLE physical abuse (I swear, sometimes you feel her physical pain) from her bitter and cruel stepmother, Mae Chulee, a woman of royal birth, and her cousin, Opsawat. However, she never shows emotion when it happens. Not because she doesn’t hurt : but because she’s used to pain, and she holds on to that piece of strength and dignity that her poor mother taught her before dying (« never show them your tears »). Wansika knows she’s pitiful but she chooses not to lament over it because that’s useless. Even if she pitied over her sad fate, her life won’t change so she rather tries to survive through her pain. She can seem weak but I wouldn’t say she is : she is much stronger than many female leads because even though she doesn’t magically kick her enemies, she realistically does her best with what she has.
And then comes the not-so-charming prince who will save her, Chanok, her stepmother’s nephew. Chanok never met his aunt before due to old conflicts between his mother and his aunt (initiated by his aunt) and because his aunt and his mother are very different, he was not raised in cruelty like the people of the palace of Mae Chulee. So when he meets Wansika, he’s stunned to see the life she’s living and how she’s resigned to it.
Our charming prince is far from being perfect : Chanok is fast to judge, impulsive, a bit of a brute and sometimes pretty slow to understand some things (like, it took him time to understand his feelings for Wansika even though it was obvious that he was attracted to her from the beginning). But he is good-hearted and once he loves someone, he is entirely devoted to that person. Many misunderstandings come between him and Wansika (for example, about his younger sister Chonanee) and this adds an angsty side to their relationship but that’s not entirely disagreeable (I think). Moreover, the angst between doesn’t go very far (Chanok can be slow for some things but he is quick to understand his mistakes and to repent). Besides, the misunderstanding are not entirely his fault (like, you want to scream at Wansika « DAMN IT, WHY DON’T YOU TELL HIM WHY YOU DON’T WANT HIS SISTER TO MARRY YOUR BROTHER). And Chanok helps Wansika to understand than she’s allowed to hope for a life of happiness, not just of survival (like, he really tells her that she can get angry) and also helps her to escape Mae Chulee’s tyranny . And when they’re finally together, they’re just so cute that you can’t help but ship them and their awesome chemistry.
Here, you have to thank the actors who did 50% of the job by making their characters great (I think Wansika could have been boring if they had chose an improper actress but Tuptim is awesome here).
And you’re so glad to see their happy ending.
But let’s go now the the secondary couple, Chonanee, sister of Chanok, and Harit, older brother of Wansika and legitimate child. However, you’ll feel much less attachment to them than to Wansika and Chanok. Later, after watching the lakorn, I took interest in the novel that was the origin. I was then very surprised to learn that originally, Chonanee and Harit are the main couple of the novel while Chanok and Wansika are only secondary characters. I have then come to realize that the producers had made great changes to the story for the lakorn and I can totally see why.

First of all, I have to say that this is rather the story of a secondary love triangle than a couple. Harit is not like his mother : he is sweet, generous and well mannered. He has a secret relationship with his cousin, Opsawat. This is secret because he knows his mother wouldn’t approve, probably because Opsawat is of lower birth. Opsawat is a distant relative who lives with them, probably because she has no one else. In apparence, she’s submitted to her aunt, Mae Chulee. But, she actually lies through her teeth : her aunt treats her no better than a servant and she’s very bitter about this but silently plans for the day when she’ll have her revenge and be the mistress of the house. However, when it comes to help her aunt mistreat Wansika, she’s more than glad to do her share, not only because she likes it but because it allows her to vent her frustration of being loathed by her aunt. So she she vents her anger on someone who is even lower than her in the house.
So she is cruel, bitter, ambitious and hypocrite and you just don’t understand how Harit ended up liking her.
So when Harit is asked by his mother to marry his cousin (eeew), sweet Chonanee who’s in love with him, there comes the disaster. What Harit and Chonanee don’t know is that Mae Chulee feel no attachment to Chonanee, she even despises her : but she wants her as her daughter-in-law to torture her as she wants and take revenge on her own sister (wow, Mae Chulee really has nothing to do of her days). But what did Chulee’s sister do do terrible, you ask : basically, she got married, that’s it. Okay, with someone of lower birth that Chulee didn’t approve of, but still, you’re like, « wait, so you’re plotting against the next generation just because of THIS ?! ». Yeah, a bit ridiculous. But let’s get back to our love triangle. Opsawat is of course enraged to see her rival marrying her lover so quickly while she has been waiting for him during years (understandably) so she takes part in the plot. The only one who knows about this is Wansika and that’s why she doesn’t want this marriage, as she appreciates Chonanee and doesn’t want to see her suffer (but that creates misunderstandings between her and Chanok).
So basically, Harit starts to live between his wife and previous mistress and can’t decide himself.
So it’s hard to feel any interest for this love triangle that only seems to serve the main couple’s intrigue. First, the actors who play the couple, Harit and Chonanee, are pretty mediocre. They have no charisma, no chemistry and although Chattapol (Harit) is not really bad at acting, he’s not really awesome either. Hana Lewis (Chonanee) is even more inferior. Those two clearly lack natural in their acting. Moreover, it’s hard to feel attachment to their characters : Harit is presented at first as the perfect man (boring) but is indecisive, easy to manipulate and a mama-boy (like, how can he not see Opsawat and Mae Chulee’s evilness). Chonanee is a boring goody-two-shoes and you don’t understand what she sees in Harit.

So, clearly, the intrigue between those three was made secondary for a reason. You can easily skip their scenes.

However, they’re not completely useless to the intrigue : they help to this beautiful that is karma.

Here, the heroes get their happy endings and the villains get their rightful punishments. While Wansika gets out of hell and joins Chanok, Chonanee and the rest in their happiness, Opsawat and Mae Chulee slowly plunge into hell and don’t even realize it before it’s too late and this is only the result of their own actions (I could explain more specifically but that would be spoilers).
So the writers didn’t only change the place of the couples in the story : they added many storylines to give more punch and action to the intrigue and although these may seem ridiculous to some, I like it.

So, to be short, because I just wrote a novel, I’d say the lakorn is original, that their main actor are talented and have great chemistry, that the story is full of rebounds, surprises and that you LOVE to see everyone getting their karma.

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