are gemfourth really the protagonists?
Ok hear me out, I don't have anything against any actor and I don't blame any of them, this is more to the production and writers.I started mlmu for gemfourth and bc I watched the original one (the Japanese) so I was really excited, the first ep were good (no the editing and colors) it was funny and entertaining but then it seems like gemfourth were not the main couple and I was confused cause I their story was the one I was interior. I don't understand what's the matter with having a straight couple which is suppose to be like a little extra and give them more focus than the main one?? their story was boring as hell and I ended up skipping their scenes. they could have made one of the best gemfourth series but ruined it with the excessive sound effects, terrible editing, bad story, bad direction etc. the only good thing was gemfourth and the ost. I feel so sorry for them cause they are amazing actors and deserve a better better for their next bl
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This review may contain spoilers
Quite a lot comparison with the Japan version
Yeay finally this is done airing…. Let's discuss drama…Fair warning, I'll talk a lot about the comparison between Japan & Thai version. But first of all, like usual, I'll talk a bit about the story in my version.
Story about Kongthap who is mistaken about Atom’s feelings towards him. Cause Kongthap picked the eraser that was accidentally dropped by Atom, and has his name on it. The eraser actually belongs to Matmi & later on we find out that it's not Kongthap name on it but Half, or the first name of Half, Pholkongthap.
But that incident actually made Kongthap & Atom closer to each other. And cause Kongthap is a very serious person, he seriously thinks about Atom's 'confession’ to him. And slowly but sure, their feelings towards each other start to become special & finally bloom…
In this drama, we see how teenagers struggle about their feelings (Atom from like Matmi, which is girl, to Kongthap, which is boy), how to manage what society will think about their sexuality, decided about their future (university destination & what to study in university), to how to be honest with ur family…
Overall for me this is quite good. Not the best, but not really a dissapointment. Can I say better than the Japan version…? For me, as always, I can relate more with the Thai version than Japan.
Below I'll talk about what I like & don't like. But it's fill with SPOILER ALERT!!! Read it at your own risk.
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SPOILER ALERT!!!
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The good:
+ How half try his best to remember Matmi. It much better than Japan, which only show us Aida Hayato remembering Hashimoto Mio in the end.
+ The society pressures. What Atom feels when he is embarrassed with his relationship with Kongthap. He thinks about how others will see him & Kongthap. The struggle is more visible in Thai than in Japan. Maybe cause Japan is more individual country, many people see personal things as their own privacy.
+ The breakthrough symbolism. Half like to call Matmi ‘Hulk’. That's doesn’t mean Matmi as muscular and strong woman, it just indicate the most fav hero by half
+ The good teacher. Annop is a really good teacher. He really guided his students. Not only about study, but also about relationships.
+ Thai involve family more than Japan version. In Thai version we see how Atom & Kongthap struggle when they have to be honest about their relationship to their mothers. And also how Matmi & Half relationship in Matmi ‘s family…
+ Matmi & Half relationship is cuter in Thai version than Japan…
+ The struggle to pick ur University choice. Especially when u are like Atom, who doesn't know what to study at first. I ‘m really happy when Half decided to follow his heart & dream & not choose Matmi University choice, just cause they're in the relationship.
+ The Chinchilla band… haha. Seeing the Chinchilla band from my school president singing on the stage is really a bonus point.
The bad:
- Wasted potential: the camp. The camp in the Japan version has been meaningful. It has the purpose of uniting the whole class, not only 4 of our main leads…
- Too rushed. When Kongthap & Atom just start their relationship, Atom just wants to rush their relationship to the next step, like kiss, instead just wait for nature to take its course…
- The pause. They like giving pause in the sentence, like to indicate the next part is so important. But in the end it almost always turns out to be nothing. Especially when Half is talking
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Both too much and not enough
Both japanese and thai adaptations had their own goods and bads, but in my personal opinion, thai adaptation was quite underwhelming comparing to the japanese one.Feels like they tried to do a lot of stuff and instead of doing less but good, they did a lot with much lower quality.
Things I liked:
1. Sweet and wholesome series with a lot of cute moments.
2. Music.
3. Kongthap is a big green flag.
4. Chinzhilla's concert. That was a cute reminder of the My School President.
5. University. I liked the way both couples had discussions about future studying and what their plans for the future are.
Things I disliked:
1. Quite a lot of product commercials. While I understand that it helps a lot GMMTV with producing other series, it's still getting annoying at a certain point.
2. Too many sound effects. I feel like it's an ongoing problem with some of GMMTV projects, and it is pretty irritating.
3. Too much low quality stuff. As I said before, they bit off more than they can chew, tried to do everything and ended up doing nothing.
4. Could've been shorter and wouldn't even lose much of the plot. At some point, this series started feeling too draggy.
Overall, it wasn't too bad, but I had higher expectations for it. Especially since it was GeminiFourth and they had two great projects previously.
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What happens when a director can't let go of his famous work
I watched the Japanese version right after this was announced, and while I loved that one, this was equally as enjoyable. I think the characters were spot on and the actors did them justice with their own little touch to it. Atom was fucking adorable just like the original Aoki, and Kongthap was handsome as fuck like Ida. I'm going to be slightly biases with this review as I watched this show weekly during a stressful period at work, and it was the comfort show I needed at the end of a horrible week. I enjoyed it more than most, but even as I watched this show, and let it marinate a bit more, there were eye rollers.First, the good stuff:
PETITION TO HAVE GEMINI WITH HIS HAIR UP MORE CUZ I WAS GAGGED. That black and white outfit with his hair like that for their first date had me on my knees. Man was so handsome in this series there are no words in the dictionary to actually express how I feel.
"It's not as fun as when we are not together. It's a lot better when I have you ...is this what you call love?" Watching Kongthap figuring out his feelings/how to tell his feelings to Atom was an adorable mess. He's so neurodivergent coded and nothing can convince me otherwise. Like man don't understand or comprehend human emotions, and was trying his hardest to figure out his feelings, and him taking everything so seriously and always thinking about Atom was so endearing to watch. This boy was legit born to be a green flag in every universe, but the patience he has with someone like Atom is astonishing. "I'm sure he can make it. Even if he can't, he will be fine because he will still have me." -- Yes, I screamed. HE IS EVERYTHING!!
And Atom. This boy had to be the most relatable motherfucker on the planet. His self-deprecating one-liners were the funniest things ever, and I wish we had more of those. But watching him grow confident in himself and in his relationship with Kongthap was honestly one of the best things ever. They way he constantly chose to be forward and always tried to better himself so he can stand by Kongthap's side was one of the sweetest and amazing things I've watched. IN EVERY UNIVERSE THIS MAN WAS JUST MEANT TO BE BY HIS MAN'S SIDE. Just please let him have a father. Like seriously, why is he always fatherless? But at least he always gets a supportive mother in return, so I guess that works out. And his acting? This series let his acting shine so much, and I'm so proud of my boy.
Mudmee and Half's story was cute to watch as well. Mudneee embodied Hashimoto's soul into this, and that slap scene was the best part.
The bad stuff:
This series could have benefited from an 8 to 10 episodes rather than 12. The Japanese version had only 8 eps, and all had a duration of around 25 mins give or take 5, and they were able to tell a full story without anything unnecessary. And now, considering GMMTV always does 45 mins or over for every ep, they could have done the story in a 8 to 10 ep time frame. Some parts felt dragged out, or not enough content to pat out the whole 12 eps.
And don't get me started on the editing. Honestly, the editing was so off putting at times, and it jarred me more than expected when I noticed it. There was genuinely so many plot lines that they could have fleshed out more. Like Atom realising his feelings could have come an ep or two later, and we could have explored Kongthap and his mums relationship dynamic a bit more. I saw some of the clips that didn't make it into the show, and the fact that we didn't get Kongthap's crying scene with his mother got me so angry. And there were other parts as well that could have been used in the show instead of all the MSP references.
Yes, I too love and absolutely adore My School President. I too loved seeing the refences and loved seeing Chinzhilla's surprise stage in the last episode. But this isn't MSP. I went and checked who the director was, and yeah, they were the same person for both shows. It's like they saw how successful GemFourth were because of MSP and decided to incorporate that into this. What was the need for the musical numbers? They didn't need that many! Yes, MSP were one of their best characters, but that is a completely different show to this one. This is about to awkward teenagers navigating their love, not a kid aspiring to be a musician with the support of his bf. And apparently the director didn't see that.
Overall this was an enjoyable experience, and the three GemFourth kisses was everything I needed. I genuinely wasn't expecting them to kiss, and I replayed every single one of them. Legit looked forward to Fridays so much, and this was the highlight of my day, especially since My Stand-In was airing during then as well, and this was the only thing keeping my sanity.
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Boring, too many awkward advertisements
I believe Gemini and Fourth are good actors, but this series wasted their talents for real. The storyline is boring, many scenes are too cringey, and the very obvious advertisements that were put in so many scenes just made it worse. It's one of the worst GMMTV series. I guess this series got a quite high rating here just because GemFourth is popular.Was this review helpful to you?
NOT THE BEST VERSION!
I love Gemini and Fourth both as actors and as acting couple, but this is not their best work.Unfortunately it happened automatic for me the comparison with the japanese version, since I have watched it first years ago.
For me the japanese one was the best one: the actors were perfect for their characters in the drama, I also loved the delicacy with which the story was approached and the secondary characters were always inserted into the story in the right way and at the right time. They were never an extra.
Gemini and fourth are good actors, I loved them in "My school president" and I loved even more their characters in "Moonlight chicken" so I don't doubt their acting skills. But this was not their drama.
Maybe if I didn't watch the japanese version, I could've thought differently, doing no comparison. But the reality is different.
I have tried to watch this version until the very end only for gemini and fourth, but I couldn't.
In general, the drama has a very good plot so I can't say anything about it.
BUT IF YOU WANT MY OPINION, GO WATCH THE ORIGINAL VERSION E LEAVE THE THAILANDESE ONE APART AND IF YOU WANT TO SEE GOOD WORKS OF GEMINI AND FOURTH THEN GO TO WATCH THE DRAMAS THAT I HAVE NAMED BEFORE.
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Not Worth Your Time
UPDATE:After eps 1 & 2, the lack of effort put into this show is noticeable. The acting, pacing, dialogue, and minor story changes are all bland. There is not a single redeeming quality I can think about that makes this series worthwhile. It's sad to see Gemini and Fourth be used solely to garner a larger audience without any thought being put into the series itself. It's a shame, but I hope GMM learns that they should be producing content in quality, not quantity.
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OLD:
Their acting is fine so far, and although it's a bit stiff and could be improved, they're accurately portraying their characters. But I will admit that Gemini and Fourth deliver their lines in an oddly airy way here - maybe it's just me. Compared to MSP, there's something lacking in their delivery here - it's good, but not AS GOOD (a bit of a pattern with this remake).
As for GMM remakes, I didn't bother watching Cherry Magic since it seemed like it kept the same scenes and plot beats and didn't try to bring something new to the table. However, this remake does! Even within the first episode there are new scenes that bring a refreshing revival to this story. There is a different vibe that slightly shifted the personalities of the main characters which I enjoy.
Still, I'm pessimistic about this remake ever being as good as the original. GMM makes their series highly straightforward with internal and external dialogue, which leaves nothing for viewers to figure out themselves. This makes it feel overall preachy by treating us as though we're dumb, and I already felt a bit of that from the start. But we'll see!
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Simple, but cute
My Love Mix Up was super cute, light, and fun. Gemini and Fourth did a great job in these roles, and the side couple helped to round it out very well. No conflict was drawn out too long either. My only complaint is that it didn't feel like anything new, especially for Gemini and Fourth.It's said that if you write your crush's name on an eraser, the more you use it, the closer you'll get to them. Atom (Fourth) has a crush on Mudmee (Pahn), a girl in his class, but when he asks to borrow her eraser, he sees Kongthap's (Gemini) name written on it. As he's using the eraser, he ends up dropping it and Kongthap picks it up - leading him to believe that Atom has a crush on him. To prevent his friend's feelings from being exposed, Atom has to come up with another way to tell Kongthap that he doesn't like him, but the more time he spends with him the more he realizes he might like him after all.
This show was a very cute and simple high school romance. If you're a fan of Gemini and Fourth, you'd definitely like it. Mudmee and Half (Chokun) were also super cute and fun to watch! I do wish that Gemini and Fourth would branch out and play different types of roles though, as this show felt very similar to My School President (though less singing), especially in terms of the main characters. Overall though it was very cute and fun to watch.
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Difficult to rate
I greatly enjoyed this series each Friday when it aired. To me its difficult to rate because the story behind all the product placements (both commercial and GMMtv own) is pretty great. However they do not give the story enough time to shine. Taking out all the commercial bits from the series leaves us with a lot shorter time to tell the story.The story itself isnt the most groundbreaking or new, but it is feel-good and will definitivly make you laugh out loud in places. Sometimes you just wanna watch a story thats gonna make you happy. Creds to them for making a BL where the Het couple arnt hella annoying and manage to keep my interest. The best parts of the series are the ones that we have found out were improvised by Gemini and Fourth, which says something about the script quality.
The acting is good, the chemistry is decent and except for the directing and script, overall its a good series. Would I recommend you this show? 100% yes. But if you are easily annoyed by product placements then use the skip button. I probably will rewatch it again someday in the nearish future.
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This review may contain spoilers
The cutest
I was so hyped when this adaptation was announced, having watched Kieta Hatsukoi and Gemini x Fourth's past series, and I was not disappointed. Their acting is amazing, especially Fourth, who has the best expressions and shows nuanced emotions so well. His internal conflicts can be deeply felt without the need for any words; he's so good, my son T-T. Gemini also did a great job with his quiet and clueless character. I feel like they're both really similar to the Atom and Kongthap in real life too.I also really liked the secondary couple; they are so pretty, and they have amazing chemistry. Mudmee is so sweet, and Half is such a saint. Much better than the Japanese adaptation, where they were kind of bland and not very remarkable. The story also felt very natural and real, like actual teenagers' first love.
The things I liked the most about this version are that they erased the homophobia from the original work and the inclusion of mothers. No words can express how happy I was when we discovered that teacher was not homophobic like the Japanese version; I was tearing up for real.I have conflicting feelings about the amount of homophobia scares, though. I think it was maybe more than 5 times where they made us believe that a character was going to be homophobic for a long time before reveiling it was just a misunderstanding or something. It felt bad, and for me, a queer watcher, I really felt the fear Atom felt every time, because that's how it feels to have to come out; it's always scary, and especially for a teen, it's so nervewracking to feel like you're going to lose someone you love every time you come out, no matter how much you know they love you.
The other thing I have to criticize about this is how much Mudmee is influenced by her (very sucky, might I add) "friends". They never had a good thing to say and gave the worst advice, and Mudmee, despite questioning them, always ended up following what they said only to rediscover that Half is a very patient saint.Atom also got carried away by his own bad thoughts, but at least he has the axcuse of the very real fear of being rejected by homophobia, and Kongthap was also a patient saint throughout their process.
Overall, I think this was very well written. I loved the cast and the OSTs. I cried a little at the end, and it was great.
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Mixed opinion
At first, I was quite happy: good actors, a fun story and an original Japanese version that I liked. Atom and Mudmee's chaotic attitude is amusing and a good time is had by all.The problem is that the story is too simple for a 12-episode series. So after a while, the series goes round in circles and you start to get a bit bored. The countless product placements don't help matters, quite the opposite in fact!
To sum up, although I initially preferred the Thai version, I'm now leaning towards the Japanese version.
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Many Product Placements
First, I want to mention that I had already watched the original version before seeing this one, so it was really hard not to compare.The first issue for me was the excessive amount of product placements. GMMTV series usually have this problem, but some manage to integrate the product placements well into the show. Unfortunately, this series, like "Kidnap," goes overboard and the product placements end up taking too much focus.
Another problem was the unnecessary dragging of the story. The plot is simple and didn’t need 12 episodes of 50 minutes to be told. Japan, for example, managed to do something similar in a much shorter time. Here, the story drags on, with a lot of screen time given to the secondary couple, which honestly, I think very few people were really interested in seeing.
The performances also didn’t help much. It’s hard not to compare it to the original, and in this case, the acting in the original is much better. I really like Fourth and Gemini, but I think they still need to improve their acting. On the other hand, I think Mundee was well played.
The biggest positive point of this series is definitely the kisses, which were pretty lacking in the original version.
To sum it up, it’s a cute drama, without many big twists, and I believe it will be really enjoyed by fans of My School President, especially by those who haven’t seen the original. However, the excessive product placements and the unnecessarily stretched-out story hurt the pacing of the show.
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