Two Ploys for One

I've been watching a Thai remake of the Korean drama series Another Miss Oh, and for several reasons I liked this version even more. Unlucky Ploy tells the story of office manager Ploy (Ausadaporn Siriwattanakul), whose wedding is sabotaged and life is basically ruined by sound engineer Naii (Anusorn Maneeted), who believes Ploy is his ex, another, prettier woman with the same name who dumped him at the altar.

This disaster caused by the coincidence is not the first, as the two women came from the same village and went to school together. The unlucky Ploy has also been made miserable most of her life by the pretty Ploy, so the sabotage and ruin turns her into a drunk, at which point she's set up on a blind date with -- yes, you guessed it, Naii. And promptly falls in love with him. And when her parents kick her out, rents a room adjoining his house.

This is one of those "And then it starts to rain" romances, where just as you think it can't get worse, it does. One bit of naming trivia here: Thai people have such long names because a law in their country prevents people from using the same surname as another family, so they have to create unique surnames (in the series the two Ploys have slightly different surnames.)

I'd say my one major complaint is that the lead female mostly acts like a little girl and/or cries once she falls in love with Naii, basically through the last two-thirds of the series, which became tedious. I think in this aspect the Korean version was better.

I did like Anusorn Maneeted very much in his role, as he projected Naii's guilt and self-torture well, and convinced me with his unsmiling grim persona. That had to be hard to maintain for sixteen episodes (when he finally smiles a couple of episodes into the series, it's almost like a lightning strike.) There's also an interesting subplot in that Naii keeps having visions of Ploy in the future, which makes you feel a little sympathy for him (not much though; the guy really went overboard with his revenge.) A fine supporting cast did great thinks with their roles, and the secondary romance of Naii's sister and one of his friends is almost worth watching the whole series. Available to watch on Netflix.