My final review (SPOILER ALERT):
Plot
The lakorn started off promising. It gave us a great first two episodes, introducing us to our leads, our main problem and our villains. I was sold after two episodes wanting more. However things began to fall apart when they stopped focusing on Kla and instead on politics and patriotism, which of course is fine except they proceeded to develop the story around the villains and not our hero. This inconsistency sort of ruined things for me. I personally felt there wasn't enough Kla, and that's a bit of an issue because he's our main lead and he's kind of where our plot stems from. The scriptwriters did poorly in incorporating him. Compared to Ka Badin (since they're both historical and deal with the underdog rising to the top kind of thing), Ka Badin writers did a much better job writing the story around its male lead, Hem. They incorporated politics and at the same time were able to focus on Hem and his journey to redemption. Plus what's up with the romance? There was no romantic development at all between Kla and Ploy. Things were a bit abrupt with the two's story line, which is even more disappointing because I like romance. These little holes/inconsistency with the plot yields a 5/10 for me.
Cast
I personally loved the cast, the entire cast. Everyone played their respective parts and did just right. Let me start off with our main villain Peter, who got one heck of an intro. He's amazing. This is my first time seeing him and he makes a very convincing bad guy. He looks scary and he's smart, that's very frightening. I still don't know what his occupation was in the lakorn other than he was a soldier and was not a loyal subject. The interesting thing is he's a foreigner, but he was fighting against the foreigners. And I find it funny that no one can ever kill him. Even our Tuck couldn't carry out that task. I loved his special appearance in here. He's so darn good looking. He looks better now than he ever has. Anyway, on his acting part, he was absolutely mesmerizing. Best cameo ever. I'm a little disappointed that he's not Kla's father. I was so certain! Oh well. Nok and Nok's roles were very neutral and they both did what they had to. Noj S. is still sooo beautiful at her age, 'nuff said. Now as for our cute hoodlum Got J., I must say he's the best supporting actor in here. His acting was point on and his character was very well written. You can say he was my favorite character in here. It's a bit unfortunate that we didn't get much of him and his amazing~ness. Can't stress enough how deserving he is of a lead role. Just look at that chemistry he had with his love interesting. They were hawt together. Am I mad they killed off his character? Yes, very much indeed. He didn't need to die, as well as half the cast that died. CH7 deja vu? The newcomer who played Ah Wun was cute at first sight, but later became uncute. Perhaps it's his character? Perhaps it's the horrific wig. I found him more annoying than cute after a few encounters. He's alright of a newbie, but eh, he's too tall and awkward. The actress playing Bua gets best supporting actress in my opinion. Her character wasn't all that good, but who else was there for her to compete with? It didn't help that they showed more of her than Ploy. Mew did great as the prim and proper Ploy and her crying scenes were very good, got me teary multiple times, but there's just something that's lacking. She's too passive, not aggressive enough in capturing all of Ploy's traits. It could also very well be that she's our main lead yet she rarely appeared in the lakorn! What was her purpose then? I'm still sad that we didn't get enough of her and Kla. Finally our hero, Kla. For being the first time that I'm watching Top, I think he too did an amazing job. Of course relative to others. His acting was a bit inconsistent, and I'm going to blame our director, but overall he did great. The camera peeps did a great job in capturing his best sides, so during some scenes he looked gorgeous! I don't mind seeing another one of his lakorns, but anyway, on Kla. The writers did not give him a proper development at all. Like I've mentioned before we see more villains than him, that's not good. I would love to see him grow more into someone who's revered and respected since that was his life goal to keep his honor and esteem high despite being branded as a slave and being ridiculed. Overall casting choice and acting was awesome, I'd give it an 8.5/10.
Production
Can't stress how much I love their cinematography. Everything's filmed so nicely. The editing team is amazing as well. The only downfall is the music editing. It'll play and then stop abruptly. Other than that I give the production team 9/10.
Soundtrack
I love the soundtrack. Enough said. They cue right at the moment, except when they're about to seguay into another scene that's when you get that awkward transition. Anyways. I especially love the slow romantic soundtrack from Jennifer and that one guy. 10/10
Overall
A part of me felt like this was a great lakorn, but because of my limited Thai I didn't get to fully experience it like Thai audiences. Because I didn't completely understand the language the lakorn felt meh~. That aside though, based on my understanding of the whole lakorn, I do personally feel this lakorn had so much potential to be GREAT! The production was great, it's just there were many shortcomings ie script, directing that eventually led to its downfall. My final rating will have to be 6/10.
Sadly I don't recommend this lakorn. But if you're like me and you enjoy good music and good picture quality go ahead and watch it. Haha.