Love in a Cage (2023)

Could have been better...

So I expected this a lot because I've long been a fan of Yada Narilya, since I saw her in Naree Rissaya. Moreover, I'm also a fan of Pon Nawasch, so I was very excited to see these two paired up.
I have to give it to these two : they had a great skinship and chemistry. Too bad it was wasted in a story that was miswritten (lol, I'm not sure this word actually exists).
Honestly, this had a good potential : Yada's character, SoiInthanin, starts off as a temperamental but relatable character who suffers from the injustice of her condition, being an illegitimate daughter who has to live like a servant for her father's family and must endure countless humiliations and mistreatment, despite being the master's daughter, while her half-sister Soifah lives like a princess and is surrounded by love. She often expresses a desire for freedom and hopes to someday escape the palace that is a cage for her, and the lakorn gives us the impression that she will have to fly away and take her independence. Unfortunately, I feel like they totally mishandled her "journey" to freedom and eventually made it more about her "tortuous" love story with the male lead, Paat, her sister's fiancee (and later husband) and her rivalry with her half-sister Soifah.
Moreover, for some reason, her character starts off as strong-tempered and rebellious but after in the second half of the lakorn, she somehow eventually turns weak and kinda pathetic. She had always been a fighter who didn't want to be bullied for free but she suddenly would let her half-sister and others beat her up. She also takes bad decisions, such as agreeing to become the fiancee of Pop, second male lead, and her dad's step-nephew, in hope to totally forget about Paat.
Also, I think her story with the male lead could have been handled better. Again, the two characters were super cute with each other and had a great chemistry. A lot of viewers blamed SoiInthanin for "stealing" her sister's man but I didn't see it that way : first of all, the engagement between Soifah and Paat had been decided by others, not by them. Second, Soifah had always been a real bully towards SoiInthanin, never treating her like a sister so I don't see why she should have treated her as such. And most importantly, it was clear that she hadn't been the one coming on to Paat and had even tried to stay away from him at first, while Paat was the one who hadn't let her go. Anyway, what I mean is that I don't mind how their story began. What bothers is how it eventually turns later. When Nin and Paat's love story gets busted by the families, Nin, being once again dismissed and mistreated by the family to the advantage of her half-sister, leaves the palace and Paat, despaired, eventually marries Fah to pay back his parents' debt to to Fah and Nin's father. However, when Nin and Paat reunite later, their relationship rekindles, leading them to eventually have sex once, even though Paat is now married and Nin is now engaged First of all, I think Paat kinda turned into a weakling, marrying Fah and getting into a marriage that was clearly doomed to turn into a disaster. Second, letting these two have an extramarital affair, even brief, was clearly a bad idea for reasons that I won't even bother to explain. Also, I didn't care for Fah, who was a real spoiled b***, but I felt so sorry for Pop, towards whom I had a big second male lead syndrome
One of the thing that made me dislike it, is that it gave the viewers a reason to sympathize with Fah, even though she was supposed to be the female villain (she was a bully who enjoyed seeing her sister being mistreated and she cornered Paat into marrying her by threatening to kill herself). Fah's ending also left me unsatisfied : like I said, she was clearly a villain but I think they mishandled her karmic retribution. I think they should have given her a retribution that made her, and everyone, realize what a spoiled bully she had been in the past. But instead, they gave her a kind of ending that only made people pity her, sympathize with her and made many viewers side with her rather than with Nin, despite her past bad nature. Like I once said in a past review, a lakorn that makes so many viewers root for a second lead but dislike the lead character has clearly failed in the writing.
The same problem has been observed for many characters : the karmic retribution they received was unsatisfying and frustrating. I feel like there were a lot of wrong that weren't addressed in the story or properly punished, especially the biased treatment of SoiInthanin and Soifah’s father between his daughters, his neglect towards Nin and his behavior with his women. I was kinda annoyed that no one ever blamed him, when the guy was clearly a bad father and husband. There was also Nin's mother : the woman was a coward weakling, whose weakness often caused her daughter to be bullied but again, not a word of that. There's also Jao Orn, Fah's mom and Nin's stepmom, and Sabai, her servant who's very happy to help her bully Nin : again, these two characters eventually receive their karma but this is not as satisfying as it should and their unfair treatment towards Nin was never addressed.

So anyway, I think they missed a chance to make this a great story about the female lead's journey to independence and created a lot of frustrating tropes/situations that were never addressed.
However, I have to admit that all of the actors show great talent through the show, giving justice to their characters.
Also, like I said, Yada and Pon have great skinship and chemistry. We can appreciate the fact that they gave us REAL kiss scenes, and not just little pecks on the lips. Yada and Pon are great and I hope they'll eventually reunite in a better written lakorn.
So you can watch this for the great performances of the casting and the great pairing that is Yada and Pon but the writing will make you pretty frustrated.
We can hope that this story will someday be remade and better re-written

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