What is Netflix's Thrilling New Thai Drama "Mad Unicorn" All About?
The global limited series based on a true story drops May 29 and I was at the very fun Bangkok premiere.
Thank you for visiting Coffee TV & Me. If you’re new here, I cover a little television, a little travel, a little life (which sometimes includes my cats Miso and Mango) and the occasional reflection back. Please consider hitting the subscribe button and be a regular reader. My posts are always free but that’s partly because of some generous readers who pay for either a monthly or annual subscription. Whichever you decide to do, I’m glad you’re here. Enjoy!
___________________________
It’s not every day that I get to go to a big Netflix show event like the ones I attended regularly living in Los Angeles. As you’d expect, in Tinsel Town, Netflix likes to go big and their premieres are always a must-attend spectacle that has been known to sometimes shut down Hollywood Boulevard.
Turns out a great Netflix premiere isn’t exclusive to Hollywood as I found out on Tuesday night when I walked up to the premiere event for the streamer’s new Thai drama, Mad Unicorn. The limited series stars Ice Natara Nopparatayapon as Santi, a poor but ambitious man from the mountains who comes up with an idea involving bringing affordable express shipment services to Thailand, an idea that could make him (and any investor) very rich. However, he trusts his idea with the wrong businessman, Kanin (Thaneth Warakulnukroh), and is forced to do everything he can to reclaim his fortune and maybe get a side order of revenge accomplished, as well.
The seven episode show also stars Janeyeh Jiranorraphat, Palang Rocksilp and Pachara Chirathivat and was directed by Nottapon Boonprakob, who also wrote episodes with Vasudhorn Piyaromna, Thodsapon Thiptinnakorn, Tanida Hantaweewatana and Pattaranad Bhiboonsawade. Mad Unicorn executive producers are Jira Maligool and Vanridee Pongsittisak.
Tuesday’s event at the Warehouse Stadium in Bangkok was a spectacle since the space was decorated with a plethora of shipping boxes and signage for THUNDER EXPRESS, the fictional company that Santi creates in the course of the series. There was also a fun activation where you were giving a shipping label, told to grab a wrapped item off a conveyor belt and then take it to a shipping area where you’d pick a box and tape it up yourself to be shipped to your home. You can see it all in my video from the event (and the full trailer is below, too):
Besides the fun activation, the very entertaining Q&A with the cast and director/writer Boonprakob gave more insight into the Mad Unicorn story, which is inspired by a true story. The actors also talked about how they faced their characters’ challenges and being a part of the intense world of the series, which was shot in Bangkok.
After the Q&A, there was some delicious local Thai food to be eaten and I had the good fortune of sitting down with Nottapon Boonprakob for an interview that I’ll be able to share soon at Variety.
In the meantime, here’s the trailer for Mad Unicorn:
All seven episodes of Mad Unicorn drop on Netflix on May 29th.
Until next time…
We were watching it and after watching episode 4, it completely dropped off of Netflix....What happened?