Fai Nai Wayu (Fire in the Storm)– Episode 1

Happy new year- happy new recapping project! Coming to us every Wednesday and Thursday is Fai Nai Wayu, starring Aum Atichart and Matt Peeranee courtesy of TV Scene Productions, bringing to us a tale about a mysterious man who finds himself staying at a quiet resort to sort out his beguiling problems, where he meets the resort owner’s niece, who is more curious about him and ready to fight his battles- especially when he feels that there’s no hope left for him. Besides, it’s Aum Atichart, how can I resist? Let’s see if I remember how to do this..

 

EPISODE 1 RECAP

We open in a dark and stormy night – very much in line with our title ‘fire in the storm’- a man (Aum Atichart) shivers in a rented van, but he is not wet. The man’s perturbed appearance causes the hired driver to glance furtively at him. Without a second thought, the van screeches to a halt in the rain, while the man shouts at the driver that he’s paid him to drive, so he ought to drive. Yet next thing the man knows, he is being thrown out of the van, beaten up, and abandoned in the isolated nowhere.

Drench and frighten from an earlier altercation, the man shouts into the dead of night. It’s one of those last resort, nothing’s going my way, my life is over, type of shouting.

Some three kilometers away, Look-Wa (Matt Peeranee) and the resort employee find shelter from the pouring rain under the office gazebo. Lightning is starting to make itself known. The owner, Dr. Pupa (Wa’s uncle) is away but Wa proudly exclaims that she can handle pretty much anything that is thrown her way. Unbeknownst to her, the appearance of a man would test that very notion.

They spy a figure stumbling into the vicinity of the resort and Wa makes her way to inquire, thinking the man is a guest or may want a room for the night. Wa comes up behind him and shields him from the rain. She urges him to the lobby where she chatters restlessly, the man hugs himself and avoids eye contact.

“What is your name?” Wa asks the man who has his back to her. He is a strange one, she seems to think.

“Yai,” he replies.

“Khun Yai, just a moment,” she says, indicating that her employee is collecting paperwork for him to sign. She awkwardly makes more small talk, but Khun Yai, as we now know to be his name, does not partake.

He signs his name (with no last name) and hands her a wad of bills, “Is this enough?”

“..this is,” she peers at him uncertainly. Why so unfriendly?

“I need a quiet room.. with privacy,” he requests, his voice still has a shivering undertone.

“Certainly, I will put you in a further out cottage, there won’t be people milling about.”

As they enter said cottage, Wa tells him to make himself at home. But Khun Yai cuts her off before she could finish her welcome speech, “Get out,” he barks.

She tries to leave the lantern for him since the electricity is out, but he tells her to take her lantern, her employee and get the heck out of there. Friendly guy.

Wa retreats slowly and is a little disturbed by the man’s behavior.

Once alone, Khun Yai shivers uncontrollably as he flashes back to a recent event: a dead body laying on the floor, Khun Yai is holding a gun, and then the beginnings of a shake that wracks his whole body. “I didn’t kill- I didn’t kill..” he cries as the lightning lit up the pitch black room.

The next morning appears as if a storm didn’t occur the night before. Blue skies meet puffy white clouds, while a duo stampedes across the green pastures on horses.  It’s Wa, being happily chased by a friend named Kaew who catches up to her and takes her straw hat. But she gallops her horse and races well in front of him.

As they give their horses a break, Wa asks Kaew if he’s tired of their morning horseback riding. Kaew replies that he can never grow bored of Wa, but he catches himself, because that would be admitting too much? Kaew changes course and tells her that can’t be bored because he loves horseback riding. Wa smiles and wistfully says that it would be great if Witu likes to ride horses too. Which propels Kaew to comment that Witu doesn’t seem to care about Wa: he hasn’t even come to visit her at the resort. Wa relents that they are both too busy to spend time with each other. Kaew tells her that he doesn’t want to see her hurt. Wa changes the subject by challenging him to a race across the fields.

Khun Yai stirs awake from the loud voices outside of his cottage. Apparently the cottage isn’t as private or as quiet as the lady promised lol. Khun Yai stumbles from his sleep on the bench – because the bed is too comfortable to sleep in- but the pounding in his head and the horrid memories of his blood soaked hands, takes him under. “I didn’t do it!” he screams and proceeds to trash the room. Dude is kind of losing his mind.

The noise makes it to the ears of the employees who are working on the lumber outside. The older man complains that he had warned Khun Wa that this guest is sketchy but she wouldn’t listen. He decides to inform her of Khun Yai’s ruckus, fearing to confront the man himself. But as Wa makes it to the front porch the noise subsides, her employee thinks Khun Yai is taking a water break, lol. Upon knocking on the door, he doesn’t answer. The employee surmises that Khun Yai must have offed himself then. (This guy cracks me up.) Wa decides they must enter the room with the master key just in case something bad had happened.

They enter the dark cottage, with the furniture strewn about and broken glasses on the floor. As Wa orders her employee to open the curtains, a scary voice bellows, “don’t you dare!” Wa takes a step closer towards the voice, “don’t come any closer!” he forewarns.

“What happened to the room, Khun Yai?” she questions.

“Don’t bother with me- get out!” he exclaims, then throws a pillow at them for safety measure.

The employee thinks they ought to leave, but Wa extends an offer of help if Khun Yai needs it, whether that’s just listening or helping him clean the wound on his hands, self-inflicted as they might be.

“Don’t bother with me. You can’t help me. No one can,” he replies. “So get out! All of you!”

The trio retreats and one of the employees suggested that they kick Khun Yai out of the resort in case he poses a danger to the other guests. Wa surmises that he won’t hurt others, seeing that he doesn’t want others to come close to him, therefore, the only person he’ll end up hurting is himself. She instructs the duo to report any of his activities to her. Meanwhile she will consult with her uncle on the best way to handle Khun Yai.

Said uncle, Dr. Pupa is in Bangkok on business and makes a stop to wish an old friend, Khun Thara, a belated birthday. He gets introduced to her younger son’s unofficial wife, apparently Kraigoon had brought her to live with them for 4-5 months now. Although the girl’s (Lawang) strength is that she’s nice and attentive to mom, Lawang is still from a lowly family name and thus a weakness in mom’s eyes.

Dr. Pupa asks to check on Khun Thara’s health conditions since she doesn’t look the picture of health to him. She admits that she’s been under a lot of stress, her two sons, Wayu and Kraigoon have disappeared and she still can’t find them. She had been preoccupied during her birthday party that she hadn’t realized this. But Lawang mentioned that Wayu and Kraigoon had a huge fight then no one knows what happened next. She has a bad feeling about this.

Dr. Pupa instructs Lawang to report this to the police if they can’t get a hold of the two men by today. Lawang says that Khun Thara doesn’t want the news of her sons’ disappearance to be made public as it might affect their business. He tells her to contact him with any news and he would be happy to help, because he and Khun Thara go way back.

In a farm near the resort, we are introduced to Khwan, Kaew’s older sister. He wonders when she’ll find a man to help her with her farm work, but Khwan relents that Kaew will only send them away. He tells her that he’s only doing his due diligence to ensure the prospect’s a good man.

Back at the resort, Wa and her employee check on Khun Yai’s cottage- more like spy on his cottage. She peers through the window and sees his hand, but her cellphone goes off and they make a run for it. Don’t spook the sleeping tiger!

Cut to Bangkok, at a bridal shop, Wa meets up with Witu. The man is confused, because he did not arrange to meet with her. Wa sort of smiles because they are at a bridal shop and the two haven’t been able to see each other as frequently. Little did she know that another woman snags his arm and tells her that she had been the one to send her a message from Witu’s phone. She wanted to let her know that she’s marrying Witu. Wa could only stare at them.

“I know that this is shocking to you but whether you find out right away or whether you knew this was coming, it’s inevitable,” says LukYing.

Wa looks unsteadily at Witu, “is this true?”

“I apologize, I can explain..” he starts, but Lukying interrupts him, “you don’t need to explain, P’Wa is a smart person, she ought to understand. I’m taking this one- can’t an older sister give this to her younger sister?”

Wa tears up and walks out of the shop. To top off the messed-up-ness of this (if that is even a word!), her mom approaches her and says that she understands that Wa loves Witu very much, but at this time, Witu and Lukying’s love for each other is greater. But that’s not how it works, mom! Sisters before misters!

Wa concedes and tells her mom that she will try to get over it. Mom tells her to consider that it’s a sacrifice for her sister, the way that she’s always sacrificed for her. Wa excuses herself from her excuse of a mother.

On her drive home, Wa allows herself to cry and wallow in self-pity for a moment, but she’s back in business mode the minute she reaches the resort- and back to her guest, Khun Yai. The employee reports that Khun Yai has not eaten and is eerily quiet in the cottage, that he fears Khun Yai might have indeed killed himself.

Wa discovers Khun Yai on the floor, overcome with fever. They carry him to the bed where Wa instructs the employee to turn on the light. That is when she got a good look at his handsome, unconscious face. A few seconds tick by, until Wa orders the employee to bring her the medicine bag. She will tend to Khun Yai’s illness herself. She notices that he tosses his head in his sleep, probably disturbed by his dreams. Wa peers sadly at him and says, “I don’t know who you are or what bad things you’ve encountered, but I know that you’re not a bad man.”

After tending to Khun Yai’s illness, Wa orders the employee to send a maid to clean the room. But Khun Yai’s reputation has made its way through the resort and no maid is interested in cleaning his room, thank you very much. So she assigns her trusted employee to look after Khun Yai’s room instead, much to his chagrin, hee.

Uncle Dr. Pupa is back! He asks after Khun Yai’ condition having heard the story from the trusted employee on the drive to the resort. Wa explains that Khun Yai may appear to be a hot head with a foul temper, but to her he’s quite pitiful. She thinks that Khun Yai must have had unimaginable circumstances in his life that he can’t overcome. His eyes are so sad and it makes her feel breathless, she can’t explain why. But that’s why she’s keeping him alone and having the two employees keep a close eye on him. Dr. Pupa praises her for keeping her distance and allowing the man to heal on his own. He advises that everything takes time in order to see a solution to a problem.

Then the tables turn on her, Dr. Pupa looks at his niece and says that she too need some time to get over her hurt from Witu. She’s surprised that he knows, but Dr. Pupa mentions that her mom had filled him in. He thinks that with time, Wa can overcome the pain.

After the morning horseback riding ritual, Kaew warns her to be careful around the stranger, Khun Yai. Wa agrees, but not before saying that Kaew would feel sorry for him too if he’d only see Khun Yai’s face.

The aforementioned man wakes up with his hand bandaged, a new set of clothes, and a note Wa instructing him to take his medicine. With a fit of anger he tosses the tray against the wall.

Khun Thara still has not heard news regarding her two sons, she says she’s not concerned about Kraigoon so much, because he has a habit of leaving for long vacations without letting anyone know. But Wayu, now that is strange.

Apparently, the Wayu is driving in his white Audi to a villa atop a farm, very much alive and well. His servant has fired all of the old workers at the villa and has hired new ones, as the man has instructed.

Wa brings a tray of food for Khun Yai and spots him standing at the balcony looking out into the pond. When he turns and sees her, Wa gives him a beaming smile- one that says ‘I come in peace.’Heh. But Khun Yai rushes into his room and closed the curtains. Unrelenting, Wa encourages him to open the door and to eat. She finally leaves the food outside for him.

As she walks away, Witu calls to explain (why he’s a cheating bastard) but Wa tells him that he doesn’t need to. He asks her to come out to see him- but as he says this, his newly betrothed comes up behind him and purposely tells him that they will look at wedding invitations next, knowing full well her older sister is on the line. Wa is trying to be the better person but it hurts nonetheless. She stands there as the tears fall.

Khun Yai spies her crying alone as he is about to take his tray of food inside (ha, so we are hungry aren’t we?) He watches her walk away, curious as to the reasons for the tears. (In this attire and hairdo, Aum certainly looks like his Jam Loey Rak days!)

Dr. Pupa spots his niece brooding by the pond. Wa tells her uncle about the call from Witu and that she didn’t give him an opportunity to explain. Dr. Pupa advises her that she should thank her lucky starts that this happened, because she is able to see Witu’s true colors. She doesn’t need to be with such a bad man. Wa retorts that she’s trying to get over it, but she can’t help feeling hurt by his betrayal. It is as if he never cared about her in the first place. Dr. Pupa tells her that suffering is part of the human experience, but this will allow her to appreciate a true love when she meets it. She will try to forgive the duo for her own peace of mind.

Wayu looks at some picture frames which made him even angrier, especially a picture of a woman.

Dr.Pupa calls Khun Thara to find out how she’s doing. But she’s not faring so well, thinking that matters of the heart cannot be treated by doctors. Dr. Pupa invites her to visit the resort instead, so that she may clear her mind and relax. However Khun Thara declines, the resort and the villas surrounding it reminds her too much of her son Wayu, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from going down memory lane. Dr. Pupa relents that he would help her find Wayu in his area, in case Wayu decides he needed a vacay at the farm (and without telling anyone?)

The employee tiptoes to Khun Yai’s cottage, bearing sustenance. Khun Yai appears behind him and requests black coffee instead, scaring the old man. So he speaks without bellowing, that’s an improvement. Wa wants to bring him the dark coffee herself so she could see him with her own eyes, but Kaew along with Uncle Doctor advises to back up a step in case he regresses back into his cottage. Nonetheless, Wa is happy to hear that his disposition has improved.

Khun Yai asks the employee to purchase him more clothes and to the surprise of the employee, he tells him to tell Look-Wa that he’s sorry that he’s yelled at her (rude to her). The older man smiles, hoping that he may not have to walk on eggshells again.

Kaew learns from Dr. Pupa of Witu and Lukying’s nuptials, he’s angry on Wa’s behalf. He reminds her that she can always come to him when she’s hurt, he would look after her. Wa tells him that she doesn’t need looking after, she’s totally fine, in fact, she’s totally happy that the two people she loved are together. Kaew calls her out on her lie and says that if she’s hurt, she can admit to him that she’s hurt.

Later Kaew runs into her employee whom she’s calling Long (uncle) Karb. He relays the message from Khun Yai to her, which pleases her immensely, and asks her to buy Khun Yai some new clothes.

Wayu meets with a potential business partner (well the middle man of a potential business partner.) They are concerned that Wayu wouldn’t be able to obtain the deed to the farm- as the potential buyer is interested in turning the land into hotels. But Wayu reassures him that he will have it in his hot little hands. The middle man offers to help but Wayu says he’s got it under control. He would be able to meet the business partner just as soon as they can get his hands on the deed. And just as soon as he finds the murderer. Hm.

Dr. Pupa pays a visit to Khun Yai, introducing himself as the resort owner and Look-Wa’s uncle. He asks after his experience so far at the resort, Khun Yai indicates that the cottage is peaceful. Dr. Pupa surmises that he must be his own boss to be able to take so much time off from work. Furthermore it’s good to take a break, it allows one to be refreshed and see the world in a better light. Khun Yai begs to differ, he says that sometimes it allows one to see the bad things in life, ones that are difficult to face. Dr. Pupa invites Khun Yai for a game of chess one day soon, he says that he likes to play chess because when he is cornered, it makes him think about the decisions he would make in order to get himself out.  Each game of chess is like a game of life, can you have a strategy to win? Or will you allow others to force you into making a move? And when you’re in that situation, you will feel that this world has more bad than there is good. Talk about analogies. Food for thought.

Wa delivers the new clothes to Khun Yai after learning that her uncle had spoken to him, and getting the validation that Khun Yai doesn’t appear to be a bad man. Excited that she has great people reading skills, Wa walks up behind Khun Yai to present him with the new clothes. But she slips on her butt instead, ha. Khun Yai is still weary of her, and dismisses her after accepting the shopping bags.

Kaew shares some news he heard with his sister, apparently Wayu, the owner of Wayugoon farm is selling his land. Which means that not for long, the investor will want to buy their land too (since the two farms are next to each other.) Khwan refuses to sell their farm to anyone since it is the last piece of inheritance from their deceased parents.

The news made it to the office of the resort, where the manager tells Wa that Khun Wayu is selling his farm. Khun Yai happens to walk by and overhears their discussion. The manager is stressed out that the new hotel would take away their business. But Wa tells her that it will be a long while until the hotel is built, so no need to stress before the eggs are hatched.  She spots Khun Yai standing there and wonders if he’s checking out of the resort. But Khun Yai reports that he will be staying indefinitely (or without a checkout date thus far.)

Khun Yai ponders about what he heard earlier and is disturbed. He paces the confines of his room and forces himself to think.

Khun Thara steps into the office herself as an urgent business came up. A contractor wants to commence a hotel project but Khun Wayu hadn’t signed an approval. Khun Thara tells him to wait until Khun Wayu returns before they can approve anything, which fires him up. He vows that she will regret treating him this way.

Khun Yai makes his way to the horse stable. As he pets a horse, he recalls a sweet memory with his dad, who promises to take him horseback riding frequently. He was only a boy, atop a horse and waving to his loving parents. Their faces are to blurry to recognize. Khun Yai asks the stable employee whether Wayugoon farm is close by, to which the employee replies that it’s not far and it’s not close either. Ha. The employee says that he can get to the farm on horseback as well. Before Khun Yai could reply, he spots Wa making her way to the stables and he takes off in the other direction. She follows him.

“Why are you following me?”

She extends her arms so he would stop, “I just wanted to say that if you are bored you can ride one of the horses. And if you need a friend, I can also accompany you.”

“I don’t need a friend, I like being alone.”

He sidesteps her and she follows him, then running right into him when he stops.

“No need to follow me- and stop bothering with me.”

Once he’s out of earshot, Wa complained how self-centered he is. She complains all the way to her uncle that Khun Yai is always hot and cold, inconceivable.

Dr. Pupa teases her that he thought she was used to his coldness, so why is she bothered by it now? Wa says that being used to it is one thing, but she doesn’t like the fact that he doesn’t see other people’s good intentions. She’s determined to crack Khun Yai- he will be nice to her, if it kills her! Dr. Pupa says he will wait and see, ha.

Wa shares that Khun Yai had asked about Wayugoon farm, which is suspicious. No one has spoken about this farm for a long time, and suddenly he brings it up as if he knows the place and wants to see it again, then there’s the owner of the farm, Khun Wayu who hasn’t been to the farm in ages, and is suddenly visiting and intending on selling the farm. Wa doesn’t quite care about the news surrounding Khun Wayu, she’s more interested in Khun Yai because he’s so mysterious. She will unveil the truth. Dr. Pupa tells her to stop meddling, it’s none of her business, and that she should focus on doing her own work.

Dr. Pupa immediately reports to Khun Thara that Khun Wayu is at the farm, which is a huge relief for her. Although she’s not going to the farm right away, she still needs to find Kraigoon first. She thinks once Wayu finds some measure of peace at the farm, he would return on his own. From the sound of their phone call, these two have quite the history. I’m sure it’s a history of more than friends or a one-sided, unrequited love.

Khun Yai paces the porch and wonders how it is possible that Khun Wayu is selling the farm. He flashes back to the time he woke up to a dead Khun Kraigoon. Lawang rushes into the room and cries when she sees Kraigoon on the floor, blood puddled around him. She turns to Khun Yai and asked him why he killed Khun Kraigoon. Khun Yai could only shake his head in shock.

COMMENTS

Oh interesting.. so Lawang knows that Kraigoon is dead but she didn’t tell Khun Thara, feigning that the brothers got in a huge fight but the two are missing. Methinks she’s conspiring with Wayu to kill Kraigoon so that they can sell the farm? How is Khun Yai involved with them? Obviously he’s being framed. But why does he want to go to Wayugoon farm, and why does he have memories there with his parents? Initially I thought that perhaps Khun Yai is Wayu, but now it seems that he isn’t. The suspense is killing me! Show, you need to give me more clues!

The story is interesting so far, and I had hoped that the sibling issues with Khun Yai (who I thought would be Wayu) would thematically build with Look-Wa’s sibling issues (in that they can relate) but things are going in a whole different direction. I am totally there with them though. The cast is superb, Matt and Aum are playing their characters to a tee. I am looking forward to more of their interactions, I want to see how Wa will crack that nut we call Khun Yai and uncover this whole mystery about who he is and what he has or hasn’t done that propelled him to run away.

Fret no more, I will be following this lakorn and recapping (peeling) the mysterious layers away, one by one. Cheers to a new recapping project of the year!

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[Episode 1 playlist]