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University student Guy is hopelessly in love with his best friend, Wahl. To escape the loneliness of his one-sided crush, he becomes a gamer and befriends a player called Yuri, who takes on the role of a kind healer in his favorite game but is actually a handsome gangster called Thiu in real life. When the two meet for real during their gamer group meet-up, the possibility of love looms in the air.
Based on a Korean webtoon called “The Ideal Relationship,” the 2023 Thai series “My Dear Gangster Oppa” has been directed by Dome Jade Bunyoprakarn and is a rather soft-silly romance starring Ping Krittanun Aunchananun and Meen Nichakoon Khajornborirak as Guy and Thiu, respectively. The lead actors were last seen together in “Ai Long Nhai” and look fantastic together, so half the battle to make the series a pleasant watch is won with the pairing. While Ping is adorable and endearing as the shy college student Guy, Meen portrays a charismatic yet tough gangster lead; together, their chemistry works well for the romantic storyline.
Spanning eight episodes, “My Dear Gangster Oppa” makes quite a few changes to the original source material, most of which is for the better. Winner Tanatat Kunaneksin is Wahl, Guy’s best friend, who is dating somebody, but it becomes quite apparent that he too might have more than platonic feelings for his friend. However, thanks to his own insecurities, Guy fails to pick up the hints. Interestingly, Winner and Ping have pretty good onscreen chemistry too, so some viewers might get divided over who they should side with – the best friend or the gangster?
Guy’s other gamer friends are fun too, with Muffin (Yoghurt Yosita Wasuphiruk) being the most comedic of them all, she is a young girl who loves to cosplay and lives in her own bubble. A secondary romantic sub-plot involving Thiu’s sidekick Tul (Tinn Boonpongthong) was completely unnecessary. Tommy Charupob Ruangsuwan plays the caricature-like villain Kenji, who works for the same mob boss as Thiu but hates the fact that Thiu seems to wield more power. While Tommy is actually quite excellent as the morally twisted Kenji, complete with a larger-than-life personality that pops out of a comic book, the character is terribly written, with a harebrained backstory.
The few action scenes in the series were poorly choreographed, and the limited budget becomes clearly evident through the basic set pieces in the tale. The writers should’ve either lessened the focus on Thiu’s gangster life or simply overhauled the script and made him a small time thug who falls in love with a cute college student. But Meen Nichakoon Khajornborirak makes a pretty good lead for a gangster romantic anti-hero, and it’s easy to imagine him in more series like the Thai show KinnPorsche, for example.
Rating: 6 on 10.
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