Khu Khaen Saen Rak (2021)

I'm gonna preface this by saying that I'm biased towards this pairing, and may or may not have scored it higher than what I would've if it were a different pair. I was at first disappointed in the beginning, but overtime the lakorn did get better and there was a twist in the later episodes that made everything that happened in the earlier episodes make more sense. The chemistry between these two were just as amazing as their last lakorn, and certainly made this a fun watch. However, I recognize that the storytelling overall had some bumps and this is just one of the lakorns where you can't think too hard, or it'll ruin the drama for you (I'm usually not a fan of these typess but Mike/Mookda make it worth it for me haha).

I would say that the biggest issue I had with this lakorn was the storyline and characters in the first half (up to ep 7-8). Things quickly got repetitive with Dao fighting with Kran's family and her revenge plot not really moving forward. I was also turned off by how easy Songkran seemed to be; he easily accepted Dao into his life despite being a Casanova who never gets close to women and had this insta-love for her, which made no sense. I also didn't like how over the top Kran's family was. There was also a lot of forced comedy moments that felt cringey and moments of Kran's dad and brother-in-law being womanizers that was supposed to be passed of as humor but felt uber creepy to me instead (especially towards Dao; I was really turned off here and didn't understand why Kran, who knew about this, was ok with it).

However, Kran's behavior was explained by a twist I didn't expect at all, in which he'd actually known who Dao was all along and wanted to play along for her game, but ended up falling for her instead. 

Even before this reveal happened, I found myself surprisingly falling for Kran because he's a total mushy romantic with cheesy dialogue, supplemented by silly facial expressions and shameless actions that made me laugh. I really didn't expect this from him and it was endearing to watch him try to win Dao's love. Even more lovable was how he accepted Dao even though he knew she was deceiving him, and kept his distance even though he wanted nothing more than to beg her to take him back (gotta love when a ML is not clingy to the FL y'all). I loved how he was able to pick up the pieces when things fell apart with his family and how he's smarter than I gave credit for. His relationship with his son was super adorable, and they made a great father son tag team haha, especially against Dao. Overall, I grew to love him and was rooting for him to get with Dao. 

I liked Dao a lot too, although in the beginning I was a little turned off by how she was implementing her revenge (especially flirting with her in-laws, that was gross to me). But later on, you could really see that the poor girl did not have the heart for revenge and was confused on whether the things she was doing was for revenge or out of love. I also related a lot to her as the middle-man between her dad and sister; it's similar to my own situation and it was great watching her be a great sister and filial daughter. I wish she was more affirmative in her love for Kran near the end, but I understand she was thinking of her dad first and that's totally something I can get behind.

The best thing about this show was hands down Kran's son Pika and Dao's father. I usually don't like how kids are portrayed in lakorns but this kid was super super cute; I loved how he's just as cunning as his dad and how he was the cupid for getting Dao and Kran back together. Him calling for his P'Dao just melted my heart. As for the dad, I really didn't expect him to go from a heartless, scary bandit leader (in another lakorn) to a gruff, overdramatic teddy bear that made me giggle with his antics. A golden line that got me laughing was when Dao was telling him that sleeping with Kran was part of the plan; he goes "What crazy plan is this? You wanted to get revenge but instead he got you naked???" LOL. Again these were characters I didn't expect to like as much as I did. 

The direction of the story also surprised me; I really didn't expect for Kran's family to go from riches to rags. Karma really did hit them hard and I was honestly here for it.

Beyond that, there's not much that stands out for me; the side characters served their purpose and I guess if I did have a gripe with one of them, it'd be Jan. I wish they had Jan move on already from Kran, and they made her look so dumb for not being able to do so when she didn't even know him for that long. I was kinda shipping her with Uncle Nu tbh. Her actions in the last episode was very weird to me, and in general the story in the last episode was kinda wonky.  

As for the music, I enjoyed the main theme song even before the lakorn aired and in general, I really appreciated the use of a second song and appropriately placed bgm. Not much complaints here.  

Overall, the bumps and holes in this story are things you'd only notice if you focus on the nitty gritty (so I'd advise you don't put your critical lens on), but I think this never really presented itself as anything more than a silly rom-com. I do think this was better than your average rom-com lakorn because there was a cohesive story throughout with lovable characters to root for, and fire chemistry between our leads. If you like rom-coms, I'd say to go ahead and watch this or if you're like me and watch multiple dramas at once, this is a pretty good one to watch when you don't want to think too hard and want a breather.

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Extra points for the chemistry

What to say about this lakorn?
If you’re here for Mike and Mook, than it’s definitely worth checking, they’re gorgeous as always, their chemistry amazing and I love each one of their scenes together. Also, the little one is adorable and the interactions father-son, in their own little world, were so damn precious and melted my heart.

But,
If you’re looking for a good drama, then this is probably NOT the one. Super old-fashioned kind of plot/humor, jokes that shouldn’t exist before and even less in 2021.
Exemplifying (inevitable SPOILERS, but minors, read at your own risk): sound of an elephant when a fat person falls, the use of body to obtain things, how “funny” it is to have men “escaping” home to go to brothels. And the worse, they dared to make fun of having the father in law trying to get into his daughter in law’s bed. Like, WTF. Let’s not even talk the unreasonable repulse mother and daughter had to Dao. Oh, and I seriously worry about the actors’ healthy, the much they screamed the entire drama I’m sure they needed throat treatment. Finally, not one or two but FOUR crazy reject girls being obsessed about the lead guy (yeah, he’s hot, totally agree, but come on…).

Rant done. Is this drama worth checking? It all depends on what you’re looking for. I finished it because the leads’ chemistry is phenomenal and gave me strength to keep going. If you don’t know them yet and want a good drama, I highly suggest you to watch Maturot Lohgan instead. Surreal chemistry, interesting plot, great characters and action scenes… one of my faves!

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