Ron Does Stuff

People who have been following me on Twitter for a long time know that I spent some time fawning over the Japanese show My Love Mix-Up starring Shunsuke Michieda and Ren Meguro. So I was interested when GMMTV announced that they would be doing a Thai version of the series. Will it be just as good? Let’s see!

First off, I was a little taken aback by the disclaimer at the start of the episode saying they were not promoting the behavior in the series. Are they talking about the gay stuff? Because your country just allowed same-sex marriage!

Anyways, we get to the start of the episode and it pretty much follows the Japanese original, with Atom longing for Mudmee. But it also distinguishes itself from the Japanese original with the background music, which is a little pervasive for my taste. Not necessarily bad yet, but may be a problem in future episodes. Although I think this really is a feature of Thai shows like this one, at least from what I can remember from Sotus and 2gether.

Also the fucking Ferrero Rocher oh my god is that just the Southeast Asian experience? Because as a young kid from the ancient times this was already the chocolate of choice for high school students getting into relationships.

I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing yet, but this adaptation is…noisier?…than the Japanese original? Scenes take longer, reactions are bigger, and sometimes things are over-explained and we’re not even 10 minutes into the show yet. But we don’t know yet how this approach is going to work in the long run.

Outside of the background music that is beginning to grate 10 minutes in, I do really like how they’ve adapted it to a Thai school environment. Granted we haven’t seen a lot yet but what’s been shown so far is promising!

We get to the sorta confession/mix-up on the rooftop and I know that the show put a disclaimer that they’re promoting the behavior in the series and I think they were talking about the decision to fill every moment in the show with some sort of background music even if it’s a moment that’s best served by silence. It’s hard to even imagine this as background for when you’re working because it sounds like those jeepney remixes of popular songs.

They’ve changed the sport of choice of the other male lead — Kongthap — from volleyball to basketball and I don’t know how popular that sport is in Thailand since I’ve only been there once but I’ve got not problem with it. Especially as someone who’s been smitten with a guy or two on the basketball team when I was in high school.

I also like this badminton thing they’ve got going on because I don’t think this particular plot point was present in the Japanese one? I’d like to see where this goes. Hopefully to a quieter part of the show because that freaking off-brand brick game background music is grating. And let’s see any Zoomers get that reference.

Half — I know it’s a Thai name thing so I’m looking forward to how they’re going to reveal that it was him on Mudmee’s eraser — can’t attend the badminton practice Atom has set up for them and it’s Konthap who goes instead. I’ll give them this, I feel like Fourth is giving the same energy as Michieda in the Japanese original.

The comedy in the badminton scene, however, is undercut by the video game music they’re using as background. Is this the curse of Southeast Asian shows? Drag Race Philippines continuously having audio problems every season while this Thai version of My Love Mix-Up musically scored like it’s for a Filipino “comedy” channel on YouTube?

It’s such a shame because I think the actors do a decent job? I liked that scene at the food stall where Atom is forcing himself to eat vegetables. The expressions on Fourth’s face? It could have been funnier if it weren’t for that constant background music blaring. And it also undercuts what could have been a sweet moment when Kongthap gets the vegetables from Atom’s plate and gives him the meat instead.

They’re also leaving a few breadcrumbs for viewers to follow when it comes to Kongthap’s background, as it seems like he’s going to have some father issues in the show, even if the show tries to play it off as a joke. I don’t think that was ever explored in the Japanese version, so I’m curious to see where this goes.

During the day of the badminton battle, Kongthap and Mudmee end up as a team because both of their original partners ended up sick, complicating Atom’s plans of defeating Kongthap. Complicating it even further is all the nice things that Kongthap has done for him in the lead up to this game. In the end, Atom can’t find it in his heart to use Kongthap’s weakness to defeat him in the game.

This Thai version also pushes forward the whole cat thing that I think was shown a bit later in the Japanese show — I could be misremembering — and I think it’s a reasonable decision so that the viewers can immediately see why Kongthap falls for him, but it does make me wonder what they’re going to fill further episodes with?

OH THERE WAS A PRODUCT PLACEMENT SHOW BUT I THOUGHT IT WAS MORE IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE BIKE RIDE BE PART OF THE BLOG INSTEAD. You guys know from my Secret Ingredient posts that I love me some obvious product placement.

The show also telegraphs quite early that Half and Kongthap have similar names, so we’ll wait and see how this plays out later on in the show. I am really curious though what their names really are because it was understandable in the Japanese version since it was only a one-letter difference.

Then we get the rooftop scene where Kongthap tells him to wait for his answer and you know what? Kongthap leaving Atom with that phallic symbol in his hand is a good enough reason for me to keep on watching this, irritating background music be damned.