Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Thai romantic-comedy ‘My Romance Scammer’ is all about how cousin brothers Pai and North, heirs to a strict billionaire grandad, are duped into marriage by two charmingly scheming gold-diggers. But when the scammers start to genuinely fall for their targets, the game changes. Will the couples get divorced or have a ‘happily ever after’ with men who intended to cheat them?
Directed by ‘New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul’ (‘Perfect 10 Liners’, ‘Fourever You’, ‘We Are’), the trailer for ‘My Romance Scammer’ had pretty much given the entire plot away, so one knows the pairs are going to end up together. But well, this isn’t a thriller, so the focus is on the comedic journey of scheming, scamming, and loving. But 12 episodes is just too much for this simple, silly plot about two billionaire heirs marrying professional conmen.
Mark Jiruntanin Trairattanayon plays Pai, the wealthy workaholic who falls for the handsome Tim (Junior Panachai Sriariyarungruang), a professional scammer with several sugar-mommies. Meanwhile, Pai’s cute but clueless cousin North (Poon Mitpakdee) finds himself crazily in love with Yu (Ohm Thitiwat Ritprasert), a man he meets while out on a solo trek.
Tim pretends to be an architect and meticulously spends months planning how to entrap the sharp and intelligent Pai, but Yu gets comically lucky by simply searching “where rich people hang out” online and stumbling into the gullible North by pure chance. Recently single, North immediately mistakes it for love at first sight after Yu “rescues” him on a wobbly bridge, one Yu sneakily shakes himself just so he can play hero.
In a hilarious turn of events, Yu and North get married within days of knowing each other, and Tim quickly senses that Yu is a scammer like him. Birds of a feather sure know how to spot each other! And in a funny co-incidence, both Yu and Tim unknowingly hire the same actor to play their mothers, which poses trouble, since they aren’t related. So, the two conmen team up to continue their game and ensure their lovers do not find out the truth, especially when their feelings get real.
The biggest surprise of ‘My Romance Scammer’ turned out to be Ohm Thitiwat Ritprasert as Yu, whose past works include serious romantic roles (609 Bedtime Story, ‘Oh! My Sunshine Night’) and his performances have been stiff and boring. Maybe he was made to go undergo several workshops or has simply gotten better with experience, because he was engagingly expressive in ‘My Romance Scammer’ and had great onscreen chemistry with Poon Mipakdee.
Poon Mipakdee as the simple, large-hearted North is both the most comical and cutest character in the show. Obviously North is deliberately exaggerated, but it works well the light-hearted premise of the story. He doesn’t take things to seriously and tries to run a bakery with his friend Pure (Louis Thanawin Teeraphosukarn), despite having no acumen for running a business.
Junior Panachai Sriariyarungruang and Mark Jiruntanin Trairattanayon as the principal couple Pai and Tim also look great together and have an entertaining onscreen chemistry throughout ‘My Romance Scammer’. Although Mark wasn’t very convincing as a billionaire heir who handles the family business, because he looks like he is still in college.
Anyway, ‘My Romance Scammer’ is quite funny in the first half, but the plot begins to drag out in the second half. With a predictable plot progression, it would’ve been a lot more entertaining if the creators had wrapped up the show in eight episodes.
And since this is a GMMTV show and I will assert for the 100th time that something like ‘Moonlight Chicken’ deserved more episodes to give its characters better ending, than this romantic-comedy. Anyway, if you’re in the mood for a silly gay romantic-comedy with cute leads, this might be a decent pick.
Watch ‘My Romance Scammer’ on YouTube.
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