Lakorn

 

Lakorn are unlike western soaps don't usually last that long, perhaps only two weeks or so. However they do occupy the peak time viewing spots, one soap could be from 8pm - 10.30pm, and run 7 days per week for 3 weeks, 53.5 hours of programming.

 

Lakorn have their origin in Thai romantic literature and street theatre of these stories that used to be performed in past. Originally Lakorn dealt with the lives of the poorer people whom the street theatre played to.

 

Since the transition to television the Lakorn have increasingly moved up market, resetting the tales in the lives of the rich.

 

The setting may have changed but Lakorn still conform largely to the rules of Thai Romantic Fiction. Thai Romantic Fiction has a series of set plots and characters and a fiction is largely reorganisng the charactors and plot  slightly for each novel.

 

Thai Romantic Fiction is largely a coming of age tale of a young Thai girl who has a natural soulmate, a clean cut Thai boy, but must go through trials and tribulations before she sees this. The there problems must always include a charming, handsome, rich but secretly villainous guy who tries to charm her. An evil older sister and/or stepmother plotting her downfall. The plot must always end with the girl getting together with the nice guy and the baddies getting their cumuppance.

 

I was going to write a long list of charactors but found this excellent webpage which does it better than me, and with humour to boot.

 

 

 

1. (statutory) A milky-bar-coloured seemingly-innocent leading actress. Please be assured that even if she is as thick as your copy of the yellow pages and has the acting qualities of an ostrich, that is not the point � but looks are.

2. (statutory) A squeaky-clean leading actor. This is Thailand and if you, as a foreign girl, think one of the dread-locked beach-bums you�ve dated recently on Koh Samui fits the type of �macho-man� then you are definetly mis-judged. Thai TV prefers actors with skin as smooth and white as a baby�s bottom.

3. (statutory) A jealous elder sister. Again, looks are vitally important and a right bitchie look is essential. Advised to also have previous real-life experience in beating up her friends, family and former lovers.

4. (statutory) Extremely dangerous ex-boyfriend/admirer. Unlike the leading actor this guy is squeeky bad, even richer, a filthy womanizer, addicted-gambler, drunkard and a complete delinquent.

5. (statutory) Totally nasty ex-girlfriend/admirer. Siding with the leading actress� elder sister she is also an entirely loathesome type. Spends here time spreading gossip about the leading actress, stealing money from her parents and getting stupidly-drunk every time she�s upset

6. (opitional) A powerful and possessive father-in-law. Will not be doing much acting besides shoving one of his big-guns in the leading actor�s face and swearing to the likes of �Just you stay away from me daughter or I�ll be cutting off yer thingy-a-jig and chucking it to the ducks, and that�s before I kill ya�

7. (opitional) A not-so-smart ladyboy. Not much is required to fill this part, as the writer, just keep in mind that the ladyboy casted will be one of the dumbest, ugliest and most foolish around, moreover she will have looks that would frighten even yer neighbour�s blind cat.

8. (opitional) An uneducated Isarn maid. Again, acting qualities are not highly sought after but hilarious features are. It is recommended that you write her in as having a really corny country-bumpkin sounding accent, be as horribly dark-skinned as possible, have big goofy buck-teeth, big rubber lips and two holes for a nose. She need only spend her time waltzing around and whistling while wearing one of those kinky-looking French chambermaid outfits.

9. (optional) A ghost. Should you wish to stick in a ghost, do bear in mind that the visual effects on Thai Soap Operas are not of the highest international standards. Any green monster thingy that you have envisaged will probably end up with a striking resemblance to Kermit The Frog. Feel no fear however, just have it say �boo� and half the viewers will be dumb-struck with fear.

10. (statutory) Extras. Of course, every production needs extras, but it is normal in Thailand to find �freebie� extras. Any street scene you have proposed in writing is great for finding a few street urchins to strutt their stuff for only the price of a bowl of rice. As for any restaurant scenes � well, darned having to pay for any hired extras the director will soon be filming in front of a couple of tables of �real� diners while shouting over �Pls do not look into the camera�

PLOT ONE:

Our leading actress, on having lost her father is subsequently beaten and abused relentlessy by her mom�s new lover, the �scarfaced-all-powerful-stepfather�. Meanwhile, the leading actor has become the MD of his own company at the tender age of 24 and soon falls out of love with his former �nasty� girlfriend and �in-love� with the leading actress who happens to live just down the road. At the same time, the deplorable step-father is trying to set the leading actress up with some right vagabound who has promised dad-in-law a fancy under the table pay-back check if he wins his daughter�s hand in marriage. In the end however, the step-father and obnoxious admirer are arrested and charged for some unexplainable darned reason and given lengthy jail sentences. The leading actress and actor get married and live happily ever married.

PLOT TWO:

Our pitiful leading actress is a Chiang Mai beauty, a true damsel in distress with a cute sounding slow Northern-Thai accent (unlike the horrible sounding Isarn one) and comes from a relatively poor background. Our poor leading actress has come to the big city to sow her fortune but is soon befriended by dozens of abnoxious folk trying to take advantage of the unfortunate little girl. In the meantime, the leading actor is falling in love with the Chiang Mai damsel but his mother is going absolutely �off-her-trosh� at the thought of her beloved son marrying into a family of uneducated uncivilzed buffalo-herders. Mother instead, sides by his former girlfriend an alcoholic American educated Bangkokian girl with a super-rich daddie. Family feuds erupt. But eventually, after his mother has a heart-attack and drops down dead the leading actor and actress get married and live happily ever after.