Finding Love Back to the Heart

Based on the novel "Tam Rak Keun Jai" by author Kingchat, the drama follows a daughter's journey to finding and reconnecting with her father, who she thought had passed away.

There are not many dramas that are able to capture my attention from the very first 5 minutes. But this one did. I was caught from the beginning as it was thrilling — seeing the FL hike up to the mountains as a little girl cutely sings about her father's words about a rainbow and then all of a sudden there being gunshots and the ML saving both his and the FLs life as they duck behind trees and the sounds of gunshots ring in the air. It was exciting, and I was invested!

Every character (except the villains) had an organic growth and maturation. You could see their actions and their slow reflection, and development. For example, the FL's mother's gradual reflection during the ending episodes of the drama seemed very organic. She did not do a 180 and completely transformed into a well-mannered woman who liked to stay at home and do virtuous things, but she did learn to make peace with her ex-husband, her father, and also learned to love the FL as her daughter.

Additionally, I thought that the setting of the drama was beautiful, especially the location of the FL's father's home, which was situated just beside this beautiful river. It made me want to live in a place like that.

Aside from that, when it comes to the romance aspect of the drama: while I was unsure of the romance between the ML's younger sister and the FL's father, it did not bother me to the point of disliking the pairing. I also adored the ML in this drama. His gentleness towards the FL and his creative ways to keep her around — when she would ruin the work she was given — instead of firing her, I really appreciated it. He was very kind and indulgent with her... and this is where I find the only gripe I can with this drama.

I can't tell if it's the way the FL's character is written, or if it's because the ML is so gentle and cute with her but the FL's response or reciprocation of affection towards the ML seemed muted when compared to the ML. In fact, I think I'd just blame it to how the FL was written. They clearly liked each other but she kept pushing him away or edging away when he held her. Small stuff like that. It made me feel as if she was either not that interested ... or was being pushed to be "modest" — if you can call it that — in order to preserve the youthful innocence of her character.

Overall, this is definitely one of the best lakorns I have watched this year so far.
A well-written piece.
9/10

— on a more humorous note, an alternate title of this lakorn can be "Daddy Issues". Those who watch it will know.

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The Devil Who Owns A Tea Farm & His Bride

Based on a novel written by the writer Ubpatam Kongkaew and published as early as the 1960s or 1970s, Majurat See Nampeung or Honey-coloured God of Death is a slap-kiss drama set in exquisite mountain farmlands with greeny and scenery to fill my beauty-loving heart to the brim.

The drama's tone is quite melodramatic, focusing on filial piety, patriotism, equality, and forgiveness above all. It is quite multi-layered, focusing not only on the main leads but also multiple characters as we see their growth or deterioration as the drama progresses.

I will admit that there is weak writing in terms of the main leads, and points within the plot that made no sense, or left me underwhelmed.

For example, when one of the second female leads ended up getting pregnant after being raped by another man, she shows up at the FL's house and proclaims that the baby is hers and the MLs. When the ML clearly states that he had never had sex with the second female lead in question (which I believe is because he was an A-class woman hater), the female lead continues to speak as if the ML could be the father. I found that quite stupid.

Another example I would like to present is the lack of clear presentation of the progression of the FLs love towards the ML. I found myself silently rationalizing her emotions because there was a disconnect between this aspect of the drama and me. On the other hand, I saw the ML's progression very clearly as the script team did a good job in that aspect.

In addition to that, this drama has the craziest second female lead (FL's sister) I have ever had the displeasure of seeing in my lakorn viewing journey. It might be unreasonable but I don't think I will ever be able to like any of the characters this actress plays anymore.

I think that if someone is able to endure the disrespect that the ML puts the FL through for the first 8 to 9 episodes, they will enjoy the point forward as once the ML sees that the FL is genuine about him and his farm — not leaving him when he faces adversities and is jailed — he completely unknots his heart and acts like a sweet little boy who is experiencing his first love, as he goes about decorating the house in candles and preparing 3 dishes for her.

In summary, I will list down the good points and cautionary points of this drama below:

[CAUTION]
+ Most shameless and crazy SFL (FL's sister)
+ Unclear presentation of how FL falls in love with FL
+ I think the "mistreatment" phase could have been cut shorter, at least EP7?
+ Extreme levels of mistreatment and disrespect from ML to FL in EP1-9
+ TW: Implied rape (Side character)

[GOOD POINTS]
+ The OST is so beautiful!
+ The scenery of the mountains, and the tea, strawberry, and flower farms are so beautiful!
+ A good mother-in-law for the FL.
+ Most evil characters reflect and we see organic growth by the end.
+ Happy ending for main leads
+ Overall, if you don't mind the drama, it was entertaining.

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A Very Unique Sort of Frustration

When I first read this drama's plot, I was immediately intrigued and thought it was a great title to invest my time in. I went into this expecting a little bit of push and pull, but overall a fun, easy-going drama. However, I think I found myself more frustrated with the female lead than anything else.

I think by the time I reached EP10, I was continuously asking myself how I was going to complete the rest of the 5 episodes. Nonetheless, I did complete this drama instead of dropping it. And I will admit, it had its good points as well.

Below is a comprehensive list of things I liked or did not like about this drama. I hope it is able to help you.

⌜The Good Points⌟

・Original soundtrack — was very nice. Especially the opening theme. It played a huge part in my enjoyment of this drama.
・The FL's uncles and aunties — were amazing. I think they were the pride of the drama. I really enjoyed their humour.
・Absense of angst* — while there are parts that in some other drama may induce anxiety and sadness. In this one, it doesn't.
・True love wins — no not for the main leads. I am talking about the FL's second uncle who is able to woe her maternal aunt.
・ Thai Desserts —At the end of each EP, a new Thai was introduced and talked about. I enjoyed what each dessert signified.


⌜The Bad Points⌟

・Cultural appropriation in EP10 — two different cultures/race

・The Female lead — Is extremely annoying.
Just because you like to dress like a man does not mean you be so loud and disrespectful. In fact, let me rant for a minute, please. The woman was extremely loud and yelling and shouting all the time for absolutely no necessary reason. She also had not even a single ounce of respect for her uncles and aunts and talked to them rudely even when they spoke to her nicely and inquired about what made her upset. Being a tomboy does not give you a green pass for being a rude little rat.

・The main lead romance — may amuse others but I am not for this tsundere 24/7 romance, thank you.
・The Plot — I thought the plot was a little holey, especially in terms of the main tension which the whole Mafia thing.


Overall —
Personally I believed that it was a mediocre drama simply because of the characters and the so-so plot. However, it did not have too much angst and the FL, despite her flaws, was kinda badass. Therefore, give it a go if you want!

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Good Points:

+ The story is very intriguing.

I have been trying to watch this show for months now, but have been unable to due to the slow speed of the subbing (God bless the subbers for subbing 11 episodes and not giving up) — however, I always came back to watch this. I did not even once feel like just putting it away and not completing it because it was not subbed. That is very hard in the world of drama watching where you have dozens of things that can take your time when one thing doesn't work out.

+ The OST.

The OST is wonderful. The subber of this show has also subbed the lyrics of the OST whenever it plays. Can I just say how important it OSTs are in helping viewers have a feel of the drama on a greater level? Subbers subbing OSTs elevates our viewing experience by tenfold.

+ The Man-Eater

Contrary to what others might say, I thought that the man-eater's personality was very humorous. He was like a spoilt little brat who liked to kill everyone and eat them. And when the girl would growl at him he would make this funny noise — okay I'll stop before I give everyone else a false image of the man-eater. #StillCute

Things to consider:
+The show is only subbed till episode 11. I watched the remaining 4 episodes RAW.

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This review may contain spoilers. MAY. Subjective. Depends on what each person views as a spoiler.

> There basically is two parts to this drama, the first part is where the male protagonist is a mushroom head (Da Lang) and the drama is viewed in his POV, and the second part is where the male protagonist turns into a revengeful, super idiotic Hunkabaloonka (Xue Hai)~ this part is shown in the female lead, Bao Zue's POV.


> I believe this drama isn't one that you should watch with a serious mind. It's not a drama that you should seriously analyse and try to rationalise. You should come to this drama with zero expectations of it being a normal rationalised drama. It isn't. The characters will do some things when they shouldn't. And they won't do some things when they should. Things that would otherwise be so impactful and tangent changing won't be a big deal in this drama as well. You just have to keep your mind open to being carefree and detached. That way, you'll be able to enjoy this drama to its full potential.


> This was an extremely funny but weird drama. The First 6 mins into the first episode, I couldn't help but think, "Oh my God, what the hell am I watching? " But by the end of the first episode I was like, "Oh my God this is the funniest thing ever!"

> The role reversal was also strong in this one. The guy is the weird, innocent one and the girl is a total badass. I didn't ever wonder about a reversal as such but it's refreshing to see such a change nonetheless.


> At first I didn't like the girl as much as I liked the guy because I thought all her physical abuse towards the guy (she hits his head and kicks him in the arse a lot) and her screaming all the time was not necessary. It was a little too much. But then I realised the male lead was an even bigger idiot~ he never trusted the female lead and always conceded to everyone else on their views on the female lead.

> I think the main thing I found irritating in this drama was the main leads' weak personality traits. For instance, for the female lead ~ she doesn't care to defend herself. When someone thinks she's at fault, she lets them think what they want. It's the basic "They don't trust me enough and they doubt me, then why should I explain myself?" scenario with her. As for the male lead~ he's a moron. He believes just about anyone and is so naive and unchanging in his thoughts. Especially when half the things are so obvious~ and yet he makes up another excuse just to justify that what he thinks (which is incorrect, mind you) is correct!


> In the first part of the drama, I was really feeling the chemistry between the male and female lead, but during the second part my SLS (Second Lead Syndrome) rose and began going crazy on me. He basically gives her a home, brings food to eat with her because she has no money yet, gives her a job, looks after her when she's sick, and even went out searching with her for the male lead~ for three years!~ I couldn't find myself to blame her when she decides to forget the male lead and let the second lead in.

>The male lead's entry in the second portion of the drama comes right after the female lead decides to give up looking for him and move on. I have to admit though, his entry was hilarious! Purple pants, hot pink shirt and a very pale pink jacket to boot... I was so shook!

> At first when I had read the synopsis and done some research on this drama before watching it~ I had thought the main male lead would turn into a completely cold, ruthless player in the second half— he doesn't. He's still nice. Just completely, insufferably confused and misguided.

> I believe in the second part of the drama; what fuelled his stupidity was the fact that he believed the main female lead only dated rich guys, and so with his 'woe her until she wants to marry and then dump her' plan he thinks, "Oh I'm super rich, all I have to do is flaunt my money and buy her diamond necklaces and she'll come running right into my trap!"

Obviously, the female lead isn't money minded and this only pisses her off more. Over and over the main male lead tried to show off his wealth and compete with the second male lead, and over and over again the girl gets irritated and pushes him aside. It was such a sad cycle of events to witness tbh.

> By the end of the drama, I almost wanted to extend my hands and go, "Come here, Yan Feng (2nd male lead), just come here! You won't ever get her. It's so obvious. But you're so nice and oh what the hell, I'll keep you!"

> I also believe this drama could have ended in 19 episodes. I don't know if they wanted to keep a slow and steady pace, but I really wanted the leads to just figure it out and get back together or something already.

> I also really really disliked the male lead's two sisters. I have to admit though, I hated the player sister more than the grandma sister. This was because she was the stupid mind behind all the revenge plot and all his other actions that completely messed things up. Then, even when she witnesses what actually happened with the main lead and everything was explained ~ she still acted as if the boy's reason for being so melancholy was not justified and that he was hurt because of the female lead. He wasn't hurt because of her. He was hurt because of misunderstanding her. Honestly~ I don't see how anything was the main female lead's fault. _._

> Another character I absolutely couldn't stand was this tiny girl who worked in the ice cream shop and threatened to hate the main female lead if she didn't like the second male lead back. I wanted to reach into my screen and smack her head. Ha ha, I'm kidding. Okay, I'm not.

> Ah, that aside~ a lot of things happen in the second half, the first bit of the second half is funnier than the last phase of the show, which made me cry a lot. There was a fire, memory loss and kidnapping. There was also lots of tears. But I'm glad I was about to stick through!

> The ending made me realise how much I loved the female lead's character. Although she was rough and tough and refused to defend herself and let people believe what they wanted ~ she was, in her heart, absolutely devoted to the main lead. Yes, there were times when she felt like giving up, honestly, anyone would too, there is so much one can take. But she was completely devoted nonetheless.

> Some folks may dislike her for not refusing the second lead till the last episodes of the show but honestly ~ she tried to give him a chance and forget the main male lead, but every time she tried the main male lead did something and BAMN! Mission unsuccessful! So don't take that equation too seriously.


> ENDING: Happy. Very happy. :)



[[Little Notes]]

> This dude gets so many hits on his head by the girl. I'm thankful in every moment that he doesn't get any more stupid than he was. I just wish she would stop hitting him on the head all the time. Especially in public. Although — I really appreciate this actor's acting skills. Pretty good!

>During their second kiss— I like to call it the transition kiss because they transitioned from 'sort of friends' to 'dating'— I was really shocked because this was the first time I saw a female lead doing all the lip movements and the guy being still and innocent. This is the complete opposite in other dramas. I don't know why but I couldn't help but laugh during this scene. It was like "Oh wow, never thought I'd see this day."


> I felt so bad for the cars in this drama. I really felt like I wanted to shout "Leave the cars alone! Don't drive like you're shook and on weed! Shook and driving is illegal! Give the poor cars a rest!"


> Okay so this drama also had a scene with skin colour shaming (the main lead was the one who commented on it). Just a note to all you girls who are of colour. Please do not find it offensive (I held myself by the wire trying not to) Not everyone is open minded about melanin differences. :) Let us also keep in mind that this drama was made in 2009, completely 8 years ago and the mindset must have changed from then and now, right?

> Honestly I think the location for the male lead's home wasn't actually a mansion but a resort or hotel! It's hard to explain, but you'll know when/if you watch the drama.

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