Hormones ~ The confused teens~ (2013)

SEASON 1 
Country: Thai
Format: drama, Season 1 in 13 episodes
Genre: youth, school
Cast: Pachara Chirathirat (Peach), Ungsumalynn Sirapatsakmetha (Pattie), Sutatta Uudomsilp (Punpun), Juthawut Pattarakhumphol (March), Sirachuch Shuenthaworn (Micheal), Gun Chunhawat (Gun), Sananthachat Thanapatpisal (Fon), Thanapob Leeratanakojorn (Tor), Supassara Thanachart (Gao)
Synopsis: The new school year starts in Thai and students are back in their grey school rooms. With new start there is also a new beginning for personal problems to come and go. Series focus 9 different students who must fight with their burning hormones.
Rating: 5/5
This is the most scandalous Thai drama in 2013 (and I believe that before 2013 too). I started watching it after I saw the same-named movie by the same director. Of course the fact that Peach is a member of cast and I knew him before gave me the main reason to watch it. I have to thank TH ANGEL for subbing it, because she really was the only one who made it possible to watch the drama online with English subs.
Story involves nine main characters who are attending high school. I like that they are all connected to each other in one way or another, because in the end the school is not that big either. It gives much more realistic portray when characters are commenting each other or show that in a way they know each other.

The view-catcher of the drama is Peach, who plays rebellious bad-boy Win. He himself does not think that he is so much rebellious, but he just likes to see things from a different angle. He thinks outside of the box, which brings him bad luck with conservative teachers. Even though he likes to think that he is grown up already and makes his own decisions, in heart he is still a young boy who does not think all his actions through. As the drama goes on the more messed up his life gets because of his silly choices. He and his story are the main reasons why I NEED to see the second season as soon as it airs. I forgot to mention that his good looks bring him a lot of girls too and even the first scene that you get from him is him walking out of the toilet cabin just seconds before Sprite comes out. But no matter how many girls he has, we all know that every bad boy has a girl who is very important to them and as usually the girl is the goody two-shoes such as Kwan.

Kwan is an outstanding student who has the best grades, is beautiful, takes part of school's activity as being part of journal club and everybody adores her. She has never problems with school as she strictly follows the rules. Despite finding Win's actions irresponsible and childish, sometimes she seems to respect him for doing things that she can never do. Yet her life is turned up-side-down by finding out that she has lived her life in a lie. The shock changes everything and suddenly her position at school drops from the idol-stage to less than average. Sadly, Win is behind the devastating truth which makes Kwan loose her respect for him. But her personality is not actually perfect, when she is having a problem. She finds it easier to run away and not face the problem no matter how important it is. She would rather lose a friend than clear the misunderstandings. Pattie was one of the cast members who also played in the movie version 2008, where she filled the role of Nana.

Win has two best friends and one of them is Mhog. He loves to photograph everything, but his artistic way of thinking does not come handy in relationships. He concentrates on arts so that he forgets everything around him, even his girlfriend.. He wants to study arts communications after graduating, but his father is against it - he is the example of failed artist, but they have not mentioned what he did. Mhog starts to get along with Khwan as he helps her out with school's yearbook. He is very friendly and it is easy to get along with him. Micheal was another actor who also was part of cast in the movie. He played Mai in the movie. 

Another friend is Tar who has always lived in the shadow of others. He is not outstanding at anything if we exclude being late to school. That all often makes him feel left out. Tar loves to play guitar and he tries out audition for school band. Slowly he starts to gain recognition in school. At new school year he gets to be a desk-mate with Toei, but he misunderstands her actions and falls in love with her. He is the only character for who we can draw a parallel with the movie - he is kind of a similar to Jo who wants to be more than friends, but the girl does not feel the same. At least Tar is much more likeable than Jo.

As I mentioned Toei is the desk-mate of Tar. She is very friendly with boys and likes to hang with them more than with girls because she simply is not interested in "girl-talk". She used to date Phu but they broke up after some months and also there is another guy who used to be a friend with her but after confessing and getting rejected distanced himself. Toei's relations with different guys bring up much badmouthing within groups of girls and soon Toei finds herself alone. She is really close to her mom who runs cupcake business. I think that Toei is one of the strongest characters in the drama and there is so much in her life that I was able to resemble with mine - sadly, most of them are not positive things, but I think that overcoming negative things will make person stronger. 

Phu is Toei's ex and the only one who has serious doubts in his sexuality. Even though he used to date Toei, he is in a relationship with his best friend Thee - co-member of school orchestra. His family is not aware of the fact that he is gay, but not even he is sure if he really is. After some things happen to Toei, he starts to question himself as he knows that he was happier with Toei than he is with Thee. He starts to have sexuality complex in which he is not sure if he really is gay or he still might like women. At that moment I thought that it seems like Thailand does not know what is bi-sexuality. 

Each school has its real bad boy who is always in war with laws and rules. It is Phai who gets called to the administration office more than any other student in school. Violence is the only way he knows how to solve problems. Everything changes when he falls in love with Sprite - his gang leader's girl who is known for giving it to every guy. But everything he does is just the outcome of his emotions he has at home. He has supporting mother and sister, but to his father he is only an empty spot. There is never a thing that father would approve, but there is always a dozen of things to disapprove about him. Being buried in the work makes Phai dislike his father who has never shown some fatherly emotions.

I had my doubts with Sprite because I do not think much about girls who f*** every guy. She used to be best friends with Khwan but at one moment they stopped talking. She is living with her mother who is a career woman and has many boyfriends. Because of that she does not understand why her actions are wrong - in the end it is only sex. But she changes when she finds out that she has true feelings for Phai. He makes it clear that one great relationship is better than emotionless sex. Despite being the outcast from others her real personality is really sweet. She is caring and is willing to help anyone who asks for her help. 

The last character is Dao. She is also the youngest main character and is the freshman in high school. She keeps blog which is basically fan-fiction of real life. The bad thing is that she writes everything really obvious and even when she changes names everyone knows about who she is writing about. She has really clear eye to notice what is happening around her, but her everyday life is messed up by one guy. Though she is young she is brave girl who is willing to face the world. But the biggest problem is her mother who cannot see that her baby-girl is growing up. Mother is making decisions for her and never allows to act as a normal teenager. We all know that in that age teenagers will just step over parents rules and sneak out anyway.

The director Songyos Sukmakanan wanted to do the whole drama in order to show the reality to viewers. These kind of problems are (sadly) normal in Thai schools and among youth, but no one wants to admit the truth. Thai has a really high number of teenage pregnancy and the time that schools have to explain sex and especially safe sex is almost nonexistent. Sukmakanan wanted to bring out the flaws in Thai society and make people think more about these things. I admit that these problems are not only usual in Thai, but in many other countries too. I wish they would show it in my country television too.
I think it is seriously great drama and you will find at least one or two characters to cheer on. The second season will air in 2014 Spring if everything goes well. At the moment there have been some scandals with cast members and they all have gained a big popularity in Thai, but I hope that everything clears out for them.

 SPOILER-Review: I have a feeling that Toei still really likes Phu, but the fact that he dumped her for a GUY really made her loose her confidence. I do hope that they will end up together again because they seem to be my favorite couple at the moment.
The end of the first season was way too opened! In the last episode I was so afraid that this is the end for Win, but luckily he was not that stupid. The end scene where they showed the characters with families, it did not show Win's family. It was due to the fact that all other families found their support in each other, but there was no-one who was there for Win - in the end he was alone - there was no one beside him to support him. So sad :S I wish that everything will work out for him in the next season.