In a world where some people are destined to have soulmates, can the universe really determine who will make you happy? Can you defy your destiny? Do you want to?

——— Spoilers Ahead———–

It is these questions and more that are discussed in La Pluie. It is the story of Tai (Title Tanatorn), who gets sensorineural hearing loss whenever it rains, with the only voice he can hear belonging to his soulmate. Having seen his own parents’ marriage collapse despite them being soulmates, he has rejected the idea of ever responding to his soulmate who continually seeks him out. However, a chance encounter and love at first sight with said soulmate Phat (Pee Peerawich), may just change his views.

If there’s one thing I take away from La Pluie– it’s the flashbacks. La Pluie loves its flashbacks more than anything. It loves flashbacks so much that it would rather introduce two new characters out of the blue when the show is fifteen minutes from its culmination, only to give us their story in a flashback, instead of you know, getting the lead couple together. They have flashbacks for every character to explain every decision they take, they have flashbacks for scenes that happened in just the previous episode, and most egregiously, they have flashbacks to show us that if we thought soulmate connections were not enough, the characters of La Pluie were also linked with each other in their pasts.

The show tries to make connections when none are needed, in order to show that bonds have existed between characters even before the story started. Whether it was Tai and Phat being neighbours and exchanging motivational chits, to Tai saving Lomfon (Copter Nuntapong) from an accident, that ultimately has no bearing on the plot itself. Phat and Tai would connect anyways as soulmates, and Lomfon fell for Tai even before he knew that Tai was his saviour. I was confused as to why the decision was made to forcefully link their pasts together. Isn’t a soulmate bond enough of a connection?

It feels like a belated attempt to give more of a background to their characters, but it was a little too late, and felt out of place more than anything. Speaking of Phat and Lomfon, their execution was perhaps my biggest gripe with the show.

At a point in the beginning, I thought Phat was shown smirking and acting sleazy because being manipulative was a part of his character, and he would show character growth when he fell in love with Tai for real. I did not get that he was being sincere from the start until later, belatedly realising that the scenes where I thought he was two-faced were actually due to his character not being very well written, nor very well acted out. Same for Lomfon, his dialogues and expressions were monotonous, and I could barely tell when he was supposed to be happy or sad, frustrated or angry.

It’s not that they’re that bad by themselves; their acting would maybe pass in any other series where they weren’t out-acted by partners. But it’s hard to watch both couples in their respective scenes when I can feel the emotions emanating from the sibling duo, who radiate charisma when they’re with each other, with their love interests and even by themselves, while the love interests in question visibly falter in comparison.

In hindsight, I am debating whether the somewhat bland portrayals of Phat and Lomfon were solely because of the acting chops of the respective actors. Script-wise too, they weren’t given the best of materials to work with (Phat, who is written as a sweet and calm boyfriend, becomes a raging assaulter in a second, and that bit never gets addressed again). Their character arcs revolve around their love stories almost until the end, when they were both given flashbacks to flesh out their characters, but it was a little too late. I was only invested in them as characters paired up with Tai and Thian (Suar Kritsanaphong), by themselves they were not interesting enough to hold my attention.

Despite my frustrations with the show’s structure, and with Phat and Lomfon’s characters, La Pluie was enjoyable enough, I won’t deny. I love soulmate plots, especially when they are subverted to show that whom we love doesn’t necessarily have to be predestined, that we can choose to fall in love and choose to be in love irrespective of the soulmate bond.

There are also some other common tropes that were subverted, but the one most notable for me was the refreshing lack of an ‘evil’ ex. Phat’s ex, Nara (Pakpai Pareena), gets introduced as an obstacle to their love, with her wanting to get back together with Phat, but that easily gets resolved within minutes after he tells her about Tai, and she avidly supports their relationship from then on. I loved the glimpses of her romance with Phat’s coworker Dream (Ormsin Supitcha) and I would love to see the two actors doing a GL soon.

I would recommend this show to enjoyers of the soulmate trope subversion. It has its moments, both good and bad, but overall, it’s a decent watch for a rainy day (pun intended).

Rating: 3 out of 5

Where to Watch: iQIYI