Fai Kammathep (2001)

I was looking forward to this lakorn, it looked like one of the kind I love watching... That oldschool romance burn and undeniably hot cast. Nang'ek is one of true beauty, including her voice. AND she doesn't look completely european as them modern nang'eks (of course HE does... but that's the point in this lakorn:) Even her best friend is both likeable & beautiful (yet the totally blind brother first brushes her off as a "tomboy" and looks elswhere, LOL).

I wouldn't praise it that much like the other review as there is no proper kiss scene, just something fake that's proper embarassing to watch. Far from feeling the "romantic sexual tension"... You can see it in the opening credits (mostly we can watch their back or their elbow only), even a kiss on a forehead or a cheek which looks less fake is hotter. So sorry, this won't be a 10 or 9.5 lakorn for me.

After several epis this dragged for me (the version I watched - with the persistent mispelled logo 'Fire Of Desier' had TWENTY episodes, so I found it quite far from "miniseries"). Too much dealings with the secondary characters and when there was time for the lead ones, it was awkward. It's one of those stories where he says that he loves her since day 1 but how those feelings did develop is unclear. I don't know if it was the script or Purdy's acting, but sometimes it looked like Ken was just making fun of Uma.

I cheered for the second couple - Uma's brother & Uma's best friend - way more. I also liked both of them more than Ken or Uma.

Episode 15 (or 16 with subs) out of 20, there is Ken & Uma's kiss on a forehead, which is nice. It's not much but it's not fake. She has developed some kind of feelings by then so the more it's intriguing. But then they continued by more kisses, like him kissing her face here and there... but obviously kiss on a cheek was too much already so there was the need to fake it. Then we move straight to bed scene (I'd say when it's like this, it would be better to leave it) which is plain uncomfortable. As we obviously won't be able to see a lip kiss, we watch huge detail of Purdy's lower half face, followed by huge detail of her hand on his back. I felt like an unwanted pervert watching a scene I wouldn't mind skipped.

The rest of the episode is weird, too. After the bed scene there is one scene (the one from the opening credits) with Ken kissing Uma's cheek, which looks better than the whole bed scene but mere 2 scenes later Ken is shown sulking and going to sleep on a sofa without a word. There was not even a scene with him and Uma having a fight so I went back to double check if I missed some scenes. It was not quite understandable... But then again, what WAS in this lakorn.

Following epi/s, the "silent treatment" seems to continue and while I appreciate this type of nang'ek (the older I am, the more grateful I am for absence of loud screaming characters in lakorns) I would sure love to know the explanation. Meanwhile, the second couple is jealous on both sides, in denial on both sides and each crying secretly in one corner. By the way, where did the original big drama about Ken being a farang actually go? LOL.

Episode 17 (16) Ken makes a big scene finding Uma's contraception pills. He says "no wonder we were together for months and you still had no sign of being pregnant". Wow, they slept together for months, actually? I didn't know, LOL. I saw only one (bad) bedscene. But maybe it was a way this lakorn could work. Better only imagining bed scenes than seeing bad ones. Way to go!

Yeah, I definitely appreciated the r* scene actually being offscreeen. And not because I would debate how much of a "r*" it was if she actually loved him, but because I now COULD imagine how horrible it would look like. No loss not seeing it. In the same episode there is also a separation of the main couple with both nang'ek & pra'ek crying but I'm sorry I'm watching this in 2021, not 2001. I am no longer sympathetic with people living in 1 room and not being able to talk things through. LOL.

Even the last episode, there is still stupid side-character plotting business to deal with...

Overall, this was way more boredom than joy.

But I won't rate it badly considering the year of origin, I'll leave the rating neutral. It would be foolish to complain, you get exactly what you expect with this kind of story. And the cast IS an eyecandy;)

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