Thai Cave Rescue

I watched this and Thirteen Lives one after the other. They are same and yet different. Thirteen Lives' POV is outside. They follow more the rescuers mainly the scuba divers. It's more cinematic, clean but chaotic, sensational, and technical. Thai Cave Rescue's POV is private. They follow the kids, the coach, the families, the government more thus it feels raw, rough, murky, and emotional. Also one is a 2 hr other 6 hr, so fast paced vs a slow burn. Both are good either way.

They both delivered the story well, it's just a matter of perspective. I will not comment on which is more authentic as these are dramatizations. There will always be some embellishments unlike straight documentaries. If you're mainly curious on how the rescue went on then Thirteen Lives is more than enough.

But for me I prefer to see the backgrounds. For me it adds to the emotions, the humanity, not just for the entertainment factor in order to watch a marvel of a story. I appreciate watching what was the day to day activities of those who lived through the horror before they actually went through it. I also like giving focus on what the families were feeling. Like the episode that focused on Saman Kunan was a wonderful yet somber salute to him.

One other thing I prefer Thai Cave Rescue did over Thirteen Lives was the overall feel. Thirteen Lives as I mentioned was cinematic, it was better acted, you can see everything and have good different angles of clean view thus it gives a good watch but in Thai Cave Rescue it was gray and murky underwater while the outside is drenched in rain like 90% of the time. I could actually feel the heaviness and gravity of it so to me that felt more real even when paired with not so great acting.

As a show, I'd give it an 8, but I watched "The Rescue" on NatGeo before this and that is a documentary of what happened, told mostly from the perspective of the cave divers who did the actual rescue. Because I know what I know, I had to knock this one down. Some say we finally get to see from the kids' and coach perspective (and in other versions of this story, we legally could not as one of the parents started a trust fund to protect the kids from Hollywood vultures), but considering the inaccuracies, I don't know that we really do. **UPDATE** after watching this one, i watched "The Trapped 13" which is also on NetFlix. It is a documentary that includes the kids and the coach and others.***

You'd expect some dramatization and changing of facts, but some of this changes the story tooo much, especially when I read that Jon Chu wanted to "tell the real story" of what happened. Most notably, the cave divers "accidentally" found and rescued 4 stranded pump workers nobody knew were in the caves before finding the kids. When those 4 grown men panicked and flailed and made it difficult to be saved in a shorter stretch of a swim, it had a huge influence decision on why the main/first cave diver thought they might have to sedate the kids. And in the last id that got rescued, the merged 3 different events to make it more dramatic and changed some things around.

I also thought they did a bad job of representing the first/main/lead cave diver and made him more arrogant than he actually is. In fact, I'd say it would be better represented if they swapped both the actors and the demeanors of the guy who played the first cave diver and the guy who mapped a lot of those caves.

And RIP to those who lost their lives. Thai Navy SEAL Saman Gunan died in the rescue attempt after coming out of retirement to help. And lesser known is Beirut Pakbara who died a year and a half after the rescue, due to an infection he got in the caves. There were 5000+ heroes who helped in the rescue and you men also gave all you had. And also RIP to "Beam" Papangkorn Lerkchaleampote who died 6 months before the series got released.

As a Thai person, I've followed this story very closely since the news first broke out and have watched every movie that's come out following the events. Though the others are also well-done, this depiction is my personal favorite solely due to the POV of the actual Wild Boars and their coach as it was the only project to have access to the real life survivors of the team who shared their firsthand experience. Production companies are understandably excited to tell the story of action and heroism, but I think it is too often forgotten in these films that the boys and their coach are also some of the main heroes in this story. Thirteen Lives and The Rescue were fantastic to learn more about the cave divers and their experience, but the story always felt very detached from the boys and gave very little to show them as actual humans and not just a package to deliver (though the little footage we see of the boys after they are found is unbeatable in The Rescue). I was always left feeling like I'd wanted to know more about what happened inside the cave with the team.

This series also included a lot more focus on the cultural nuance that was missed out in the other films which I felt were an incredibly powerful part of the story: the meditation that was key to preserving the soccer team's mind and energy and allowed them to stay alive longer without food and little water, the Buddhist faith that kept the team and their loved ones mentally strong, and showcasing the Thai values of generosity and positivity. Overall, it was a very enjoyable and heart wrenching watch. Especially knowing that it was Beam's best and final performance.

I did deduct a point for the extra dramatization that seemed rather unnecessary... I do love Yaya as an actress but her role as the water engineer was entirely falsified and inaccurate in a way that discredited the actual water team that did that work. What I really didn't understand, was why they would change the divers. Who the hell is American David Ellsworth?! That seemed pretty bad to me and I'd already hated the way they'd changed the boys' names in Thirteen Lives. Maybe it had something to do with rights or American ego but another star deduction for that.

I also understand other reviewers' issues with some of the acting but I didn't think it was too bad and was able to look past it as I know it is some of these established actors' first times acting outside of their first language and I can tell the script was written in English and then translated to Thai as some of the dialogue seemed off at times. The American actors, however, I can't say the same to lol.

The acting by the boys and the mothers are excellent. Some of the dialogue is hard to digest and might have come from startrek the worse epespodes of ultruism.

It's a shame Elon Musk didn't make his cameo.

It is interesting to see the egos of the senior politicians worrying about how they might look before making decisions to rescue The videographyis excellent and the scenes done in low light is well acted as well as well recorded.

Do Not watch dubbed into English. It's so so bad

Really the dubbed English is criminal Switch the subtitles on

Enjoy listening to Thai people and seeing the surroundings of a beautiful country that I would love to visit one day and reading the translation.

Nearly gave up halfway through the first episode but I'm so glad I kept watching. This series is brilliantly done and I found it absolutely gripping. A few cheesey actors but that's few and far between, overall it was a brilliant watch. Those saying that it was too Americanised - I have to disagree. The US played their role and I felt that the series depicted it well. I was most pleased that Dr Richard Harris got all of the attention that he deserves, he's the biggest badass we in Australia have to offer. A great watch, definitely with subtitles and not dubbed as this makes the whole thing just feel far more authentic. It's half in English anyway so there's a good mix between languages. Highly recommend.