“My Love Mix-Up!” is a youthful romance that begins with a comic misunderstanding.

Based on a Japanese manga, the plot follows high school student Atom (Fourth Nattawat) who has a crush on his classmate Mudmee (Pahn Pathitta). One day, he borrows her eraser and sees the name of their classmate, Kongthap (Gemini Norawit), written on it. They have a superstitious belief that if you write the name of your crush on an eraser and use it, your love would be reciprocated. Matters become complicated when Kongthap sees the eraser with Atom, and in order to protect Mudmee, Atom falsely says that the eraser belongs to him. This leads to the titular love mix-up as Kongthap assumes Atom has feelings for him.

The Japanese live action remains a favourite amongst fans of BL to this day, and expectations for the Thai adaptation were going to be high. The Thai version is helmed by Au Kornprom, who had notably directed “My School President”, Gemini and Fourth’s first series together that had become an instant classic. Unlike “Moonlight Chicken”, their other show together which took on more serious themes and where their characters were quite different from “My School President”, “My Love Mix-Up!” was going to bring them back to the light-hearted, high school romcom setting.

For multiple reasons, comparisons would be inevitable. Would they be able to live up to expectations set of them?

The longer answer follows, but the short answer is yes.

While Fourth and Gemini’s chemistry in “My School President” was fresh and bubbly, here it is more grounded. They know what works for them and with them. They don’t need dialogues to communicate what they can with a simple eye contact, and it takes years of working together and trust to be able to cement such a dynamic. Atom and Kongthap’s relationship goes from being acquaintances, to a crush, to the talking stage, to the start of a relationship, to the possibility of a long term future together, and Fourth and Gemini carry their characters throughout all these stages gracefully. They make you root for them every step of the way.

The Thai adaptation also takes its longer runtime to flesh out some storylines and to take the characters in a different direction than its Japanese predecessor. The biggest example of this is the relationship between Mudmee and Half (Chokun Puttipong). Their Japanese counterparts did not have more than a few scenes together due to the short runtime. But Mudmee and Half’s story is expanded more, their relationship is in fact more tumultuous than the leads’. They have their ups and downs because of miscommunication that results in misunderstandings, but over the course of the series, they learn how to communicate their feelings properly to one another.

The only reason I remove a fraction of a point in my rating is due to the ads, which were a bit too much and a bit too long even for a GMMTV series. They often detracted from the main plot and made me jiggle my legs in impatience waiting for the ad to finish so I could immerse myself back into the show.

But at the end of the day, they weren’t enough to take away from the sheer joy I felt watching the innocent love between Atom and Kongthap begin to bloom and flourish.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

Streaming on- GMMTV YouTube Channel