La Pluie (Thai Series)

La Pluie has a creative and an interesting premise (although very unbelievable, but for BL series, we have realizes that it is ok to go to any level of absurdity). In this situation there is a diseases among certain people where some of them suffer from a sensorineural hearing loss when it rains. This is the time they stop hearing. Our lead protagonist also deals with this issue. Apparently this is also the only time that if there is a soulmate out there for you, the two can telepathically talk to one another.  We will analyze the story further down. The show is standard 12 episodes each of around 50-55 minutes duration and is a significant investment of time.

Our leading young man Tai suffers from sensorineural hearing loss when it rains and regains hearing when rain stops.  If you have a soulmate, he/she would be able to telepathically able to communicate with you at this time. However, after his loving parents get a divorce, Tai doesn't react very well. In fact out of the four brothers, he is the only one who reacts the strongest to this and hence doesn't want to believe in the idea of the soulmate or have any relationship.  A guy has been talking to him telepathically for almost 2 years now during rain times, but Tai never replies to him because he doesn't want to start the beginning of a possible relationship.  One day, while working at a cafe, he meets a veterinarian named Patts. Tai instantly recognizes his voice and identifies Patts as his soulmate. As the two chat casually, they form a connection.  After meeting in person, Tai changes his earlier stance and begins communicating with Phat more. The rest of the series follows their friendship, eventually falling in love, usual love triangles and an ex-girlfriend of Patti who wants him back. In a parallel storyline, we see one of the Tai's brother who is very close to him. Tien is a university student in film school. He clashes with a fellow student Lomfon and doesn't get along with him. However Lomfon takes a liking for Tai and wants to explore that. We are later told about an incident few years back when Tai saved Lomfon's life. How ever of late when Tien and Lomfon are forced to work together on multiple projects, Tien starts to have feelings for him. How he navigate through that also forms the rest of the storyline.

Despite an intriguing unique concept, which could have done wonders for the team, the show somehow feels short of what it could have been. Tai and Patts fall in love quickly with little bonding, which takes away the fun of seeing them nurture their attraction. Patts seems smitten with Tai before even meeting the guy. The series emphasizes how the leads are soulmates so much that it doesn't feel organic. And the whole idea of trying to create an angle with Lomfon is also not fully explored. Suddenly out of nowhere Lomfon also has a hearing loss and can hear Tai, so he thinks now he is also supposedly the soulmate. However, this angle is never really explored in detail and suddenly he comes to realization that maybe his admiration for Tai is more from a respect since he saved his life and so now he suddenly feels attracted to Tien. This is one thing that I don't particularly like about BL shows is that when people's Plan A love doesn't work out, they happily go to Plan B , and the person in Plan B happily agrees to that. The whole family angle of Tai was also a bit weird. Why is Tai so hostile towards his mother is not explained. When the parents are themselves so loving, why would he single out his mother to be the sole reason for separation? There is an enormous number of extraneous characters that materialize out of nowhere, have no effect on anything, then are never seen again. But then this is a generic pattern with a lot of similar shows. And co-incidences go to altogether another level when now suddenly we are told that Tai and Patts have been communicating with each other and being the support because Patts grandmother was Tai's neighbor and he would visit her often. I am not sure by the end of the show whether the show really wanted us to believe the concept of soulmate or was it more just an idea and eventually it's your destiny.  Anyway, the actor sin their leading roles were all good and needless to say that Tai standout in the central role. Rest everyone was ok. It was funny to see that because of this bizarre concept, the show would see sudden spurts of rain so that our leads could share a loving connection moment and soon the rain would stop. And this happens repeatedly. (6/10)