Elisheva

The first four episodes of Memory in the Letter. Those are pretty close to perfect for a gentle BL full of yearning. The last two episodes are very different and needlessly complicate matters. My brain just noped out of those so. But the first four eps are lovely.

Maybe it's just that earnest, but there are moments where it feels like there's a touch of satire of earnest underdogs striving against the odds movies.

Something which happens in ep 4 is based on fact. This blogpost includes a re-telling of that. Don't read it too soon though, because spoilers.

https://thefootpathfiles.com/2023/05/18/the-secret-garden-where-tales-of-mythical-mountains-merchant-nobles-and-medical-missionaries-span-two-centuries/

Timeline - begins 1830
Timeskip - 1836 From the subtitles Hoon is 22 at that point, which makes him 16 to start with. This is truly impressive for Thailand's what is age anyway casting =D =D =D

Lamjuan's age isn't specified but she began menstruating during that six year span. Cherprang was 27 when the lakorn aired so she was playing below her age as well.

Astrophile (GMMTV's YT), Royal Doctor (Ch 3+, also Viu Malaysia via VPN), Dare to Love (Ch 3+ is very light, I didn't get on with it but many have).
Thai PBS maybe https://kisskh.at/list/4jPjmaPL
Are you up for some movies? Two hour Thai movies tend to be far more relaxed and gentle than western ones. Teachers Diary, Low Season, One Day, May Who?, Suddenly 20, Bangkok Traffic Story, My Boo.

Huh? Are you only looking at GMMTV?

Thai series and lakorns tend to have happy endings, you're pretty safe that way. Less guaranteed with movies.
I just posted a list of recommendations for someone else two comments above yours. Maybe some will appeal to you. If you're open to non-het, I can suggest more.

Depends on how you define similar, but maybe some of these?
Astrophile - kind caring gentle people taking care of each other (GMMTV's YT)
Stay - Thai woman visits a rural homestay in Japan, found family (fan sub, I can point you to)
The Broken Us - difficult subjects, gently told (Thai PBS)
The Curse of Saree - one31 YT, fantasy lakorn which commits fully to its nonsense and therefore works :) + Baifern
For heavier Ch 3 lakorns - A Switch of Fate, A Tale of Ylang Ylang and Game Prattana
(all available with Eng subs on their Ch3+ streaming service, depending on your exchange rate it's quite affordable)

My reactions were all over the place. Technically poor in many ways, effective in others if you just go with it, not enough Mek Winai, a moment which was comically bad, parts of the plot which were obvious, other bits seemingly random enough to not be (though it all does eventually hold together), not enough Mek Winai, oscillations between creepy and melodrama, with the melodrama ultimately winning through. I ended up liking it. Even with insufficient Mek Winai ;)

Definitely more for melodrama fans than horror.

imdb Anukul Jarotok, Prayoon Wongchuen and Amornsri Yensamran as directors
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2463546/?ref_=nm_knf_t_3

End credits clearly say "An Anugool Jarotok Film" (timestamp 107:21) อนุกูล จาโรทก
IMDB -Anukul Jarotok as director & writer
3 film credits total
lists both Anukul and Charnchai as directors (along with two more, this is odd)
https://www.nangdee.com/title/html/226/โรงแรมผี.html

With the last haawm he compares her to flowers, she smells sweeter.
There's some awkward editing and switch to an awkward camera position to clearly show us the first haawm. If they were faking a lip kiss on the cheek, they wouldn't have done that. Instead they wanted us to see that it was a very gentle haawm.
It's setting up dialogue about his being virtuous, which is important later (a magic or sacred object works for him because he's virtuous), and contrasts very strongly with the raucous bawdy slapstick bit after they breathe the ox-mating candle's scent. (There's also contrast with a non-virtuous character who can't use a particular object. It wasn't well developed though, like it was edited out, maybe for time.)
It's a compelling reason within the characterisation for the choice of a haawm there - he was so virtuous he wouldn't touch her with his lips.
He was also so OTT virtuous and unable to lie Khun Phra Saming had to put A LOT of effort into preventing him from his compulsion to spill out the truth. It's his character through and through, excepting the bit about lying in the first place. But hey, story premise =D
Her kiss on his cheek was demure and modest, That was her characterisation around sex, though maybe that has more to do with how FLs in historical lakorns are supposed to behave than this particular character.

The hidden kiss kisses (I think the first one was a botched camera angle rather than fake), did feel out of place. I don't think they needed to be hidden at all narrative- or character-wise, but maybe it was to keep the contrast with the bawdy slapstick. Their love was pure, innocent, tender, private.

Or maybe, and this is pure speculation but fun, if Thai actors are paid extra for kisses and anything sexual as in some other countries, maybe they blew that part of the budget on, ahem, certain other things. We see plenty of sweet lovely kisses, but how often do we see the shenanigans this pair got up to here? =D =D =D

About the 'fake cheek kisses' - they were haawms (sniff-kisses), a lovely SE Asian custom the rest of the world lacks. The dialogue around the last one makes that clear. More under a spoiler.

https://en.jff.jpf.go.jp/movie/my-love-story/
JFF has it but only through the end of this month (Jan '26). It's really good.

https://en.jff.jpf.go.jp/movie/my-love-story/
JFF has it but only through the end of this month (Jan '26). It's really good.

I read it as contrast between virtue and the bawdy slapstick. His first hawwm came before the wild night with the buffalo-mating candle when they ended up tying themselves back to back, which was followed by a magic or sacred thing which worked because of his virtue.
She kissed him on the cheek, she could push it a bit further.
Final hawwm was clearly a hawwm - he compares her scent to flowers.
Why they didn't just get married along the way was more because the writers said so than anything else, that was a weak and disappointing link.
So maybe the hidden/fake lip kisses were trying to keep up the modesty/virtue angle too? That their love was pure, innocent, private all that. I liked the bawdy slapstick better. But I read it as contrasting the two.

https://youtu.be/mXu9K4qmrM0

It begins with exaggerated parody of characters and tropes but develops into real growth for all four. It's clever how they did that. Worth careful attention.

Nan na si. This is the one which sold me on Thai ghost movies. It came at the right time in my learning for that <3

The ending here was exactly what it needs to be.
A Tale of Ylang Ylang comes to mind. Excellent lakorn, though it does shift halfway through to become something different than its start.
Or a Curse of Saree. one31 fantasy lakorn which commits deeply to its nonsense and therefore works quite well.
Baifern in both.