La Pluie started off promising enough with an interesting concept and characters that worked within that concept, however, it quickly snowballed with ridiculous, unnecessary drama that contributed nothing to the story and eventually concluded by ghosting one of its leads for almost the entire episode. It could have been much better than it was if the creators had a more solid grasp on what kind of story they were wanting to tell as well as how exactly the "disease" that is central to the story works. As it is, it just strays into the absurd and eventually loses any kind of credibility. This is one drama that almost isn't worth the watch because the script is just so bad.

The concept of rain related deafness was interesting where the person is unable to hear anyone except their "soulmate". It's not well explained or really developed medically, but at least initially that was fine. You have Saengtai and Phat who have experienced this hearing loss for at least two years at the time the story starts and they are soulmates. However, due to his parents divorcing, Saengtai doesn't believe in soulmates any longer and actively ignores Phat whenever he tries to communicate with him. The problem here though is that Saengtai had the hearing loss prior to his parents' divorce, but Phat talks about how Saengtai never really responded to him. If Saengtai lost his belief in soulmates after his parents' divorce, why wouldn't he have responded to Phat before that? It's not a great start when there are already holes in the story from the get go. Even with the holes, I was willing to look past that because the concept was still interesting if not well planned out. And I liked Phat and Saengtai initially. The fact that both of them were determined to defy their destinies and then ended up falling for each other in the end was cute. There was a decent build up and I liked their interactions. What ended up killing it for me was throwing Lomfon into the mix. The drama that created was unnecessary, particularly suddenly having Lomfon develop hearing loss while it rained and hearing both Phat and Saengtai, which it was conveniently exempted that he evidently heard both of them. From there it was just a constant back and forth of misunderstandings that was tiring to watch. The final episode sent Saengtai on the hunt to find Phat and we spend almost the entirety of the episode Phat-less which was certainly a decision. He finally shows up with about 5 minutes remaining and they make up and everything is great. Throughout there's the side couple of Saengtien, Saengtai's younger brother, and Lomfon who start to develop feelings for each other, but it's complicated by Lomfon's feelings for Saengtai as well. Basically everything gets very neatly and conveniently wrapped up and leaves you wondering why it took so long to get to that point as well as feeling like nothing was really gained.

I do feel like a lot of issues would have been cleared up if the parameters of the whole rain deafness were defined. This is supposed to be a medical condition and yet there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to how it works and I lost interest in the idea of it as it was manipulated to forward the story. Lomfon, who has feelings for Saengtai, doesn't seem to have a chance because he's not Saengtai's soulmate until he very conveniently develops the hearing loss and can hear both Saengtai and Phat which, again, it is never addressed or explained that he seemingly can hear both of them, he just focuses on the fact that he can hear Saengtai. They also talk about how it's not possible that they can hear more than one person which makes it seem like this is a complete anomaly and again, isn't that just convenient. And then when Lomfon and Phat start fighting over Saengtai, all Saengtai has to do is yell that he doesn't want this destiny and suddenly they're all cured? It just completely strayed out of the realm of plausible within the confines of the story to the absurd and took away any and all credence it had to begin with.

I started out overall liking most of the characters, particularly Phat. They each had their own distinctive personalities and I was hopeful that there was going to be some real character growth, but I was frankly disappointed the farther along we got. Besides manipulating the rain deafness to suit the story, the characters also became a casualty of this manipulation so we ended up with several of them acting very out of character to suit the drama that the creators wanted.
-Saengtai was one of my least favorite characters from the get go, but I also found him interesting in his decision to defy his destiny. I didn't approve of his treatment of his mother and his childish behaviour regarding his parents' divorce. The fact that he laid the full blame on his mother and evidently made absolutely no effort to understand why his parents had reached the point of concluding things were not going to work out was frustrating the more that got dragged out. The fact that his parents had to basically sit him down and explain things in detail that really didn't feel like they should need an explanation was ridiculous. He was old enough that he should have been able to figure a lot of that out himself. Aside from that, I also found his passiveness to be frustrating as the story progressed. Things that seemed like they should have caused a reaction didn't and especially after he and Phat broke up, he was just far too calm about everything. I really didn't feel like he actually cared that much. And then there were other times he just made unilateral conclusions without waiting for any kind of explanation. All in all, he came across as quite selfish and self-absorbed at times. The decision to have him lie to Phat about meeting up with Lomfon was what felt out of character as he did it not once but twice. Considering his character up to that point, it didn't feel like something he would do. The events that followed could have been completely negated if he had simply been honest, but then where would be the drama?
-Phat started out pretty perfect. He was friendly, kind, compassionate, and an all around good guy. He was incredibly patient and considerate with Saengtai, he communicated and communicated well both with Saengtai and with his ex, Nara. Even with Lomfon he was initially polite. He was an absolute breath of fresh air. And then Episode 10 hit and his character went up in flames. His reaction to finding out Saengtai had lied to him and finding Lomfon kissing him was to beat the crap out of Lomfon. Um, what? The sudden aggressiveness that permeated his every action that episode was completely out of the blue and out of character. And he never shows any real remorse for those actions. He never apologizes to Lomfon for attacking him nor does he apologize to Saengtai for going off the rails. It's all very neatly swept under the rug. He later goes to try to make up with Saengtai, sees him talking to Lomfon and immediately interprets that as them being together and decides the best course of action is to disappear. We see him in Episode 12 for a grand total of about 5 minutes during which he mostly stares blankly at Saengtai while he monologues. It's a disappointing ending for the character.
-Saengtien is Saengtai's younger brother and I quite liked his character. He's a loveable, mischievous brat and I absolutely loved his relationship with Saengtai. I don't recall a good explanation being given for why he and Lomfon are at such odds initially, other than they are very different people. Lomfon is obviously more introverted and Saengtien is much more extroverted. I liked the way that Saengtien's attraction to Lomfon was developed as it felt natural. I truly felt bad for him when he saw Lomfon and Saengtai kissing and his reaction and his behaviour afterward felt justified. His obtuseness though when Lomfon showed his video didn't quite fit. He's not stupid so to have him play dumb felt out of character. I could understand him being hesitant to accept those feelings after what had happened, but to not get that Lomfon was confessing his love for him didn't work. The ending too where he suddenly develops hearing loss was ridiculous. I don't know if they're shooting for a second season or what, but that was completely unnecessary.
-Lomfon left me feeling conflicted regarding his character. On the one hand, I liked his interactions with Saengtien and I liked the build up of their relationship. And initially there was nothing wrong with him liking Saengtai because at that point, Saengtai was single. His continued pursuit though of Saengtai even after he had entered into a public relationship with Phat was over the line. At that point, it didn't matter if his feelings were conflicted as to whether he liked Saengtai or Saengtien. Even with developing the rain deafness suddenly and being able to hear Saengtai, the fact that Saengtai was already in a loving relationship should have told him that he was now off limits. His continual pushing of the matter made me lose a lot of respect for his character. And while I was glad he did apologize to Saengtai, he also owed an apology to Phat which he never does.

The acting was overall decent. I liked the chemistry between Suar and Copter. I felt it was lacking more between Title and Pee, but I think that's in part because there were times where it felt like Title forgot to emote and his expressions were just dead. They did have their moments though, just not enough to be consistent. Aside from the last episode where he just seemed devoid of any real emotion which felt out of place, I liked Pee's performance. Suar was great and I was impressed with his chemistry with everyone he interacted with. Copter was a bit wooden at times which worked to an extent with his character, but I did feel he could have given more.

There were several elements that were thrown in without much explanation that really didn't contribute much to the story. One of the main ones being that both Phat and Lomfon had history with Saengtai without any of them realizing it. It's revealed that Phat's grandmother used to live next door to Saengtai and he and Phat had communicated for some time via notes passed back and forth over the fence, however, conveniently they never saw each other which feels a bit implausible, but at this point it's better to just go with it. They both essentially see it as a further connection confirming their soulmate bond. But wait, then we find out that Lomfon also has a connection to Saengtai since Saengtai saved him from being hit by a car. And apparently that one brief encounter made Lomfon fall in love with the stranger who saved him so Saengtai is Lomfon's first love which doesn't make sense to me, but again, we'll just go with it. The only purpose it seems to serve is to attempt to give credence to Lomfon's feelings for Saengtai as if, besides his sudden hearing loss, the fact that they have history puts him on more equal footing with Phat. The developing relationship between Nara and Dream came out of left field. On the one hand, I'm all for it, but on the other hand, it didn't feel like it got the attention it needed to really make sense. It felt like Nara moved on from Phat far too quickly. I love the idea of them, I just don't feel like it was well executed. Also thrown in, in the last episode no less, are a couple who help out Saengtai when he runs out of gas. He stays with them and we're treated to this random couple's whole story which felt out of place. They get more screen time than Phat does in this last episode.

This was essentially a drama with an interesting concept and a decent cast that was just completely let down by the writing. It started out well but really went downhill during the last couple of episodes and the ending was disappointingly anticlimactic. Frankly, this is one drama that you're not going to be missing out if you skip it. There are other better dramas that have been released recently that I would watch first and leave this as more of a last resort if you have nothing better to do or watch.