Remember 15 (2022)

Forever REMEMBER [ED]

Revenge in a court without justice, is it possible?
Suspense-horror series with an intriguing twist and message.

Viewer description is STRONGLY advised because "Remember 15" is indeed VERY GORY AND INTENSE, it´s no exaggeration. You have been warned.

SHORT VERSION:
A story about a group of people who traveled to an island on the 5th death anniversary of a girl they all knew. All of them carry their own dark past with heavy secrets, which were very well portrayed and underscored by the production. Only the story lacked a bit of coherence.

I REMEMBER 15 reasons why you should watch this series

1. The protagonists are ordinary people and that´s why it is so capturing.
2. Every person has their individual flaws and personality traits.
2. The concept of this series is not far from what could happen in that kind of situation.
4. The concept is interesting.
5. The problems of these young adults are various.
6. You never know what will happen. It´s random.
7. It is not ONLY random and unfounded slaughter.
8. The crew did the best they could with their budget.
9. The art department is fascinating.
10. It has characters that represent LGBTQI+.
11. It has characters that are facing disadvantages in life (sickness, disability)
12. The opening of this series is vibey.
13. The opening soundtrack is addicting.
14. They had a lot of fun while filming on set. (As shown in the interviews)
15. Amazing actors, Amazing crew.


DETAILED VERSION:
STAFF APPRECIATION / Production
In the beginning, I really would like to point out the staff´s work in this series. The Art Director [Kissada Namuang] / Art Department [Sumat Namuang, Suphachai Aemsoem, ...] & the Prop Master [Kittuchot Lumloet] really did an insane performance as well as the actors. It´s even more mind-blowing when you keep in mind that it´s the first main role/ big role for some (3) of them, at least on MDL.

The music is well combined with the mood of the series and all individual parts work well together. The opening, an example of the superb combination of cinematography, lights, shadows, colors, and music, is very addicting for me to watch. I could write about this for days.

PLOT 6.0 >> 5.5
12 young adults return to the deserted island, the place where Lyla died five years ago to pay tribute to Lyla and find out who sent a message over the phone to the deceased girl. However, the closer it gets to the truth the more they discover their cruel past. The suspense remains until the last episode, with a few cliché twists.

In terms of content, it approaches a well-known American show that drew a lot of criticism in 2017: 13 Reasons Why. However, while the situations and topics are somewhat alike the approach of each plot is totally different. 13RW focuses on drawing society's attention to urgent problems and crises of young people and improving classmates in their actions. However, while „Remember 15“also spreads awareness for mental health, LGBTQI+, and toxic personalities/ relationships, the approach and outcome are surely more brutal and more dystopian than in other series with the same trope/topic. What kind of rules and morals do you expect from traumatized teenagers facing death on an island far from a normal and structured civilization?

The more important question to ask is what can we learn from this show?

ACTORS 7.5
As for Zee Pruk Panich, Jimmy Karn Kritsanaphan, and Title Tanatorn Saenangkanikorn, they convince the audience of their role. Here I personally highlight Zee (Bew), he had to portray such a difficult character. My rating can also be very much based on the fact that I have „dealt“with his acting skills the most so far and therefore have "high expectations" which he bravely met in „Remember 15“. Especially when considering what kind of role he had to portray.

However, all characters are complicated and multilayered. In general, I would say that the overall acting is solid. At least nobody was a thorn in my side. Personally. On the contrary, even the rather new and inexperienced actors played their roles well [Noon Khingkarn Boonma = Nest, Boss Daranpope Charmpoonod = Mac, Sairung Prapakon Chairak = Lilly]. Hardly anything to complain about. Especially Sairung had a tough role to play. My utmost respect to Sairung, Nut, and Pruk for accepting and embodying these very complicated characters. It mustn´t have been easy.

OVERALL >> 8.0 >> 7.0
The series convinced me in many aspects and buried some of my doubts in the implementation like a corpse in the sand. The scenario is terrifying and not exactly encouraging to make new acquaintances. HOWEVER, that's the way it is with a lot of thriller/horror series, but that doesn't make them any less remarkable. The show's triggers and topics are something the viewer could "learn" from, as quoted in the last episode. One should not take revenge into their own hands, as it is for the law/god/nature to decide what will happen to the offenders/sinners, otherwise, chaos and massacre ought to happen.

In any case, a recommendation to you sweethearts, but I'll stay on the mainland for now. I´ve learned and changed some views on things I had a very set opinion on before watching. I´m glad I have watched this.

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High expectations are the key to disappointment

This is going to be a rant/review with the length of an essay, so friendly reminder that this is my personal opinion. I intended to make this spoiler-free, but I just had to mention a few scenes that made me roll my eyes in the plot/characters and directing part of my review.

Remember 15 was one of my most anticipated series of the year and it did disappoint me in almost all aspects possible. Before ranting, I want to mention the two things that I liked about it.

Promotion: I want to applaud the team that was responsible for the promotion of this series. The posters, especially the first one, were some of the best I have ever seen. The official teaser prepared the viewer for a suspenseful, gory series that would also focus on the characters and their stories and it was very well edited.

Acting: The portrayal of the characters from their respective actors was probably the best thing this series had to offer. They all did a decent job, taking into consideration the fact that the characters were not that well-written.

Now to the rant:

Directing: I usually don't pay that much attention to the directing, since in most series it is neither praise-worthy nor rant-worthy. However, in this case things are different. If someone told me, they changed the director after the first two-three episodes I would probably believe them. Even though it felt like it got improved in some way (not that it was good, but not as bad) the way they shot the first few episodes was amateurish at best. There were some shaky camera movements, even in scenes that there was no reason for the camera to be shaky (basically scenes where they were just standing and not running). Some unneeded (and shaky) close-ups, that not only did not create the atmosphere they aimed for, but also made the scene look even more ridiculous. Some outrageous shots that were filmed badly - worse than when I was filming a commercial for school-. There is this one scene where two characters are face to face and it is supposed to be intense, but the camera angle allows the viewer to see half of the face of one of the characters and not even that well, because her hair was getting in the way. And let’s not forget the scene when Fone lost her eye from the branch of a tree. That branch went so deep that it should have destroyed her eye completely, yet someone thought ‘’let’s make the screen red, to show that Fone is seeing red from the blood that she lost'', when she is not supposed to see anything, because her eye is gone!

Make-up: After watching the teaser of the series, I expected a decent amount of gory scenes and there were some, but the way they did the make-up was pretty bad in many of the cases. As a result it felt fake and it ruined the gore aspect that was supposed to be one of the main themes of Remember 15. Frankly, there are many times that I, and probably many other viewers, have seen some pretty bad CGI or some pretty bad make-up scenes (with a very recent example being Under the Skin). However, unlike those dramas, Remember 15 should have some realistic gory scenes to make the plot and the atmosphere work.

Plot/Characters: I wouldn’t mind that much if the plot was perfect and all the other aspects were lacking, but even the script was not well-written. The series has basically two timelines, one happening in the past and one taking place in the island. As a viewer, I anticipated some suspenseful scenes in the events happening in the island, but unexpectedly, the past of the characters was much more interesting to watch. Generally, the majority of the plot and the actions of the characters made no sense. I know I should throw my brain out of the window, when I have to, so I can enjoy a series, but this one was so outrageously stupid at some points that it was hilarious and a bit insulting to watch. The characters' reactions made no sense. Everything worked as a plot tool to make the story develop -if I can call that development-.
Everyone is so emotionless and their reactions (or to be more precise the lack of them) make no sense. People are dying and everyone is so calm! In one of the scenes Bozo (or another male character, I don’t remember) finds Bew with blood on his hands and with a dead body near him (that probably has no head left, because Bew smashed it with a rock) and he looks calmer than when I am having a walk in the park. People get severely injured, but they survive and can function properly, when the script says so, but others with less serious injuries can’t even walk straight. The characters' reactions are very fake and the way they act changes so drastically, in a way that it feels like they change their whole personalities. Therefore no matter what they do, you don't really feel anything about them. Some of them are okay, but the majority is just bland, the kind of 'I don't care even if they die' kind of bland.

The pace: Unfortunately the pacing of the series was another huge problem. I could call the first half of the series a guilty pleasure, but after some point it became very draggy. The thing is, that when you are making a slow paced series, you must know how to handle everything to make the viewer interested in what is taking place on the small screen. In this one, they apparently didn’t know how to do that. There are many scenes that last minutes, even though they don’t add anything to the atmosphere or to the plot and the sole purpose of their existence is to make the episode last longer.
Remember 15 could easily be a movie or a short five-episode series. I felt like they wanted to make this deep, emotional and at the same time engaging and suspenseful, but it ended up being extremely boring. As a result I watched the second part of the series in double speed and I felt like I was watching it in its regular pace.

This is trying to be a character-driven horror series with some social commentaries here and there, but it is failing miserably in all aspects. After having watched the WeTV Thai original series After Dark, I expected a similar atmosphere as that one. If you have watched that series, you will know what a disturbing atmosphere really means. It managed to balance good acting, chilling atmosphere and also make some social commentary, while this one just wanted to do so and never achieved it. Is this horror? No and I don’t know If they really aimed for it.

All in all, Remember 15 had an interesting concept, but the execution lacked in almost all aspects and for me, it does not deserve your time, especially if you are looking for a horror series. Try After Dark or some other Thai series with a similar theme, like The stranded.

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