Mae Ka Khanom Wan (The Dessert Girl) review
Synopsis by Wishboniko
What worked:
- The OTP. Seeing how antagonistic Pai was towards Wat, I was afraid I'd have to wait till the last 15 minutes to see any sweet scenes at all but thankfully that wasn't the case. Wat confessed around mid way through the lakorn and though Pai is too 'thin-skinned' to express her own feelings, she cared for him in her own way and there were plenty of cute scenes between them around the last 5 episodes. Mart's not the world's greatest actor but I think he was sufficient as the mobster with a heart and I can’t help but want to squish him when Wat goes begging Pai for food with that poor puppy dog look. Yea, Wat the big bad mafia boss can only eat food made by his mom (sorry, she died) and Pai. XD The OTP made me teary eyed on a few occasions which is a sure sign they’ve got my heart.
- No third parties. Sometimes you need a bitchy rai or guy best friend waiting in the shadows to introduce conflict but usually they are such blatant plot devices in lakorns that they end up annoying me so I’m always happy when they don’t show up. Pai has a guy best friend Mark who actually is just her best friend whereas Wat made it clear from the beginning that he only wanted to make use of his fiancee’s family name to whitewash his triad past. Ooh, and this might be the only time where I see the families of both n’ek and p’ek trying to fix them up!
- The supporting cast. When there are too many side characters, a drama may end up wasting too much time on them instead of properly developing the OTP (looking at you Kehas See Daeng) but fortunately they are a plus in this case. Pai's uncles and aunts are a hoot together and they make watching this lakorn so much fun. I wasn’t into Uncle Nat and Aunt Kaew’s side story though but that’s what the ff button is there for right? Haah. Watching Mark woo Fon (Wat’s sister) was also a lot of fun and his scenes with Wat are always hilarious.
- Cherry. She’s such a fabulous actress and was spot on as the brash Pai. I’ve seen her in sweet/gentle roles which she totally nailed as well so I was doubly impressed by her portrayal of Pai.
- Thai desserts. As Pai owns a Thai dessert shop, you get to see pretty desserts on the show. Not only that, a Thai dessert is introduced in a short segment at the end of each episode which I find very interesting and informative.
What didn’t:
- Overly aggressive n’ek. I dropped this around ep5 the first time I watched it because I found Pai being unnecessarily aggressive towards Wat. I’m all for women standing up for themselves but I thought Pai took things too far and she clung on to her prejudices against Wat far too long than necessary.
- The attempted rape scene. Someone needs to check the scriptwriters head because it was soooo random and unnecessary and this isn’t even a slap/kiss lakorn. Did you really have to stick it in there? At least this time the guy isn’t let off lightly. Pai actually shot Wat in the arm after he backed off. LOL
- The Tong Ake fiasco. Cherry was pretty convincing as a guy but by the end I was losing track of why she was pretending to be Tong Ake. One moment she was persuading Pan to leave Wat because he was only making use of her then when Pan started to be interested in ‘Tong Ake’, she wanted Pan to get back with Wat? Meh, maybe I wasn’t concentrating hard enough but after a while I couldn’t be bothered with that thread and started to ff the Tong Ake bits. It was also unrealistic that Wat took so long to realise that Tong Ake = Pai when he was able to observe both of them up close on so many occasions.
- The villians. I know this lakorn is a rom com and we don’t usually take the bad guys seriously but they were still sad caricatures of the mafia.
I rate this: 3.5/5
If you’re like me and don’t fancy seeing the main couple bickering on and on and on, I’d suggest you zip through the first few episodes. Persevere on and you will be rewarded with an OTP who’s as sweet as the desserts and they come packaged with families who will tickle your funny bone.
Plus it has a great OST!
What worked:
- The OTP. Seeing how antagonistic Pai was towards Wat, I was afraid I'd have to wait till the last 15 minutes to see any sweet scenes at all but thankfully that wasn't the case. Wat confessed around mid way through the lakorn and though Pai is too 'thin-skinned' to express her own feelings, she cared for him in her own way and there were plenty of cute scenes between them around the last 5 episodes. Mart's not the world's greatest actor but I think he was sufficient as the mobster with a heart and I can’t help but want to squish him when Wat goes begging Pai for food with that poor puppy dog look. Yea, Wat the big bad mafia boss can only eat food made by his mom (sorry, she died) and Pai. XD The OTP made me teary eyed on a few occasions which is a sure sign they’ve got my heart.
- No third parties. Sometimes you need a bitchy rai or guy best friend waiting in the shadows to introduce conflict but usually they are such blatant plot devices in lakorns that they end up annoying me so I’m always happy when they don’t show up. Pai has a guy best friend Mark who actually is just her best friend whereas Wat made it clear from the beginning that he only wanted to make use of his fiancee’s family name to whitewash his triad past. Ooh, and this might be the only time where I see the families of both n’ek and p’ek trying to fix them up!
- The supporting cast. When there are too many side characters, a drama may end up wasting too much time on them instead of properly developing the OTP (looking at you Kehas See Daeng) but fortunately they are a plus in this case. Pai's uncles and aunts are a hoot together and they make watching this lakorn so much fun. I wasn’t into Uncle Nat and Aunt Kaew’s side story though but that’s what the ff button is there for right? Haah. Watching Mark woo Fon (Wat’s sister) was also a lot of fun and his scenes with Wat are always hilarious.
- Cherry. She’s such a fabulous actress and was spot on as the brash Pai. I’ve seen her in sweet/gentle roles which she totally nailed as well so I was doubly impressed by her portrayal of Pai.
- Thai desserts. As Pai owns a Thai dessert shop, you get to see pretty desserts on the show. Not only that, a Thai dessert is introduced in a short segment at the end of each episode which I find very interesting and informative.
What didn’t:
- Overly aggressive n’ek. I dropped this around ep5 the first time I watched it because I found Pai being unnecessarily aggressive towards Wat. I’m all for women standing up for themselves but I thought Pai took things too far and she clung on to her prejudices against Wat far too long than necessary.
- The attempted rape scene. Someone needs to check the scriptwriters head because it was soooo random and unnecessary and this isn’t even a slap/kiss lakorn. Did you really have to stick it in there? At least this time the guy isn’t let off lightly. Pai actually shot Wat in the arm after he backed off. LOL
- The Tong Ake fiasco. Cherry was pretty convincing as a guy but by the end I was losing track of why she was pretending to be Tong Ake. One moment she was persuading Pan to leave Wat because he was only making use of her then when Pan started to be interested in ‘Tong Ake’, she wanted Pan to get back with Wat? Meh, maybe I wasn’t concentrating hard enough but after a while I couldn’t be bothered with that thread and started to ff the Tong Ake bits. It was also unrealistic that Wat took so long to realise that Tong Ake = Pai when he was able to observe both of them up close on so many occasions.
- The villians. I know this lakorn is a rom com and we don’t usually take the bad guys seriously but they were still sad caricatures of the mafia.
I rate this: 3.5/5
If you’re like me and don’t fancy seeing the main couple bickering on and on and on, I’d suggest you zip through the first few episodes. Persevere on and you will be rewarded with an OTP who’s as sweet as the desserts and they come packaged with families who will tickle your funny bone.
Click to viewPlus it has a great OST!