Kissed by the Rain (2024)

Mai and Fon - the Thai romance that defies heavy subject matters

I haven't really connected with a non BL Thai drama so I'm surprised that this one worked. I think because it has adult themes in it such as domestic abuse, human trafficking, abortion so you see more than just the usual man chasing a woman drama

Mai is a great character who is a survivor and learns to forgive. Fon is a little harder to love at times as she holds onto past shame a bit too long and has a strange codependent relationship with her family.

The court cases are really not winning here unless you're into them. It was nice to see love triangles but they weren't so angsty that you were pining for the SML or anything like that.

There are a few funny bits and I would rewatch parts of it. Especially their chemistry. The characters felt real, nuanced, not just good or evil. They all had demons.

One episode left and so far so good. Would recommend as a binge watch as they do love a climatic ending to episodes.

Update - climatic last episode but some outcomes you may or may not agree with but overall I'll stand by the 8.5 score

Enjoy!

Chelsea Black

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Two imperfect leads and the hard reality of their lives ... forgive and let go of past guilt

Introduction →
When I first heard about Mario and Taew’s comeback, my heart was so full. I would say the high hopes and excitement I had since last year were met after completing this lakorn. First off, I like this. It’s a great watch. I love that it was just a nice male lead loving a nice female lead. I found the heavy concepts revolving around the both of them to be interesting to watch.

About the plot →
This drama has a not-so-good structure and developing plot. In all honesty, it’s making me feel fluffy. There were unnecessary scenes and characters, in my opinion, that gave little significance to the story. Some parts and characters were short-lived. The lakorn was very interesting the first few episodes, it got boring in the middle with the court cases and started picking back up towards the end because of the Ruk situation. I guess the structure of it doesn’t matter as much because it didn’t affect how much I still enjoyed it.

About the storyline →
I love the storyline. It’s not something I’ve watched before. All of the heavy issues really touched me, and I felt so much sympathy. It gave a slice of life feel and this lakorn felt like reality. I loved watching the amount of character development, forgiveness, and maturity Mai went through in his life. It was so beautiful to see the amount of forgiveness he has. It makes me want to let go of the past as well. This lakorn shows so much imperfection of many characters, but it was so beautiful to see Mai, Fon, Nicha, Chol, even Jintana learn to forgive or let go of guilt from the past. I love the subtle love between Mai and Fon. I adore stories like that with a forbidden-ish love feel. I kept on forgetting that this was older women / younger man, though.

Regarding Mario and Taew →
Because Taew is my most favorite Thai actress, I have to talk about her in this. This is definitely not one of her best or most memorable roles. But I loved her acting as always. As for Mario, I loved seeing the versatility and humor (his plants are his friends haha) in his acting. Mai has earned a spot as one of my favorite male leads. Mostly because of his determination and willingness to forgive. Acting wise, Mario and Taew have improved acting together. They were so cute that it made me smirk so hard.

Likes and dislikes —>
What I liked:
. storyline was interesting
. shows real world issues of human trafficking / abuse
. good character development
. you can learn some life lessons from this / it's gave a real life feel
. chemistry between Mario and Taew was off the charts!! (Their chemistry in here was so much stronger than their other two lakorns. Lots of improvement between them both!)
. this lakorn was not too complicated to understand

What I disliked:
. the structure of this was a bit terrible (kind of glad it’s only 14 episodes)
. many unnecessary characters and scenes that gave little significance

Rewatch value -->
I would definitely rewatch this.

Conclusion →
Overall, I give it an 8.5 for enjoyability and smiles. It was hard to choose between 8.0 and 8.5. The storyline is interesting and the love story between Fon and Mai was enjoyable to watch. Mario and Taew are so cute that I can’t just not love this lakorn! I had so much sympathy for Mai in the first few episodes and I loved seeing him develop into a good guy with such a big heart. I loved seeing how Fon’s past plays out when that guilt comes to reality in the present. I enjoyed watching two imperfect leads just experiencing the hard hit of life throughout the lakorn. This is my second lakorn from Sonix Boom’s production house and it left a good impression. This is worth watching!

This review was written on 07/17/24.

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