My Dear Gangster Oppa (2023)

Great fun through Ep 4, then treat Ep 5 as a fluffy epilogue & stop!

For Ep 1-5 it's an 8.5/10. Great fun through Ep 4, then treat Ep 5 as a fluffy epilogue and stop at 38min. After Ep 5 it slides quickly into very poorly written, clichéd, repetative, annoying, plot-predictable, and eye-rolling ridiculousness with unnecessary melodrama (with unbelievable and poorly choreographed fight scenes).

Ep 1-5: I was hooked within 20 mins. The premise was unique and the story was fun and interesting with relatable lead characters. There was great romantic tension and sweetness. Overall it was lighthearted and enjoyable. I eagerly looked forward to new episodes every week.

Ep 6-8 were a 3.5/10. I stopped looking forward to it and there was so much cringworthyness that I fast-forwarded more and more. I found the ending so cheesy that it wasn't satisfying.

After Ep 5 Kenji becomes the main antagonist. The actor playing Kenji is sooooo bad it makes any scene and plotline involving him lose steam and all seriousness. His over-active jaw movements make me cringe and laugh out loud at the same time. The part isn't written well to begin with, but the terrible, overly dramatic yet flat and shallow acting makes him the weakest link by a long shot and he dumbs everything down.

Some of the transitions between scenes are abrupt and the music is generic.

I can see myself rewatching Ep 1-5 at some point but I will never again force myself through Ep 6-8.

g_jun's review on MDL also sums everything up really well.

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Definitely Worth Giving a Try

Honestly, I went in with the lowest of low expectations. I do like MeenPing but AiLongNai kinda fizzled out halfway through for me. I've never seen a Thai adaptation for BL manhwa before and I know Korean adaptations of BL manhwa usually only cover half the story anyway so I wasn't expecting much, BUT HOLY DID THEY PROVE ME WRONG!
I usually don't like action romance but this one seems to balance both very well, the set up of the characters was interesting and their interactions are really cute. They really stepped it up this time around and I have little to no complaints about the show so far other than the fact that this series is only 8 eps.

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Pretty Dissappointing

Man this really didn't do much for me. After the first two episodes this show became a bit of a let down and I really struggled to enjoy it at all. I was hoping it'd improve as I kept going, but unfortunately I was left disappointed. I'm all for slightly silly premises and fun romance tropes, but the execution left me pretty bored.

I'll start with what I liked because I don't love being super negative, but it's a short list.
I enjoyed the initial progression of Tew and Guy's relationship, they seemed like they were actually becoming friends, and it was nice to see characters develop a friendship first. I also liked the moments when Guy stood up for himself and began to try to have a life outside of Wahl, it was a nice message and well-handled.
The overall concept of online friendships developing into full relationships was nice too, and I liked that the gaming group continued to return to the story.
Unfortunately, that's pretty much all I liked.

Honestly, my two biggest issues were the plot and the production quality. While the general idea of the story is not bad, and had some interesting elements, the execution was at best, lack-luster, and at worst actively grating. The ending especially felt like a really cheap way to generate more drama the villain's motivations were pretty weak and the way everything played out was somewhat nonsensical. It was really just boring to watch, which is sometimes worse than being actively terrible.

I simply couldn't make myself care about any of the characters, including the main couple. Their romantic development left a lot to be desired for me and the acting didn't move me at all. Tew never explained himself and faced very little consequences for his actions, while Guy just had 0 personality. He was a loner who played games and was in love with either his friend or his boyfriend, that's it. I did like how he navigated his feelings towards Wahl, and how he wanted to become a person outside of him, but that was the only time I was really interested in him as a character. Tew's backstory was... a lot, but I could've overlooked it if the rest of the show had been stronger. There were also like 0 repercussions for him lying about really serious stuff or the breakup, it was just all magically fixed, Guy is better than me I guess because that would've given me major trust issues. At least the initial lying about his background plot had some teeth but that was pretty much it. Their chemistry was okay, better in some moments then others, but it often didn't really feel like they were that into each other.
As for the side characters... none of them were particularly interesting and I didn't care about them much at all. Wahl kind of sucked and while he did improve by the end I just couldn't make myself like him much, which is too bad because I'm usually a huge side character guy. Guy's gaming crew was alright and had potential, but their lack of depth made them pretty uninteresting. The less we talk about Kenji the better.

As for the production quality, there are ways to shoot a show cheaply and still have it look clean and polished, this show misses the mark entirely. Lighting is not consistent from scene to scene, or even within scenes. Sometimes two shots side-by-side will have completely different lighting and colouring. It's incredibly jarring and makes the show feel messy and low-quality. The special effects were... nothing to write home about, and the makeup and hair were rough sometimes as well. Although I will say the leads usually looked good (aside from Tew's scars, I literally don't want to talk about those). The audio was pretty rough as well, very inconsistent, often muffled or way too quiet. There were some scenes that could've been easily dubbed over to fix this as well and they just, weren't. I'm sure the production team wanted to make a competent show here, but it felt like it was either rushed or lazy and with all the above issues it was just unpleasant to watch.

Overall, even if you're just looking for something easy and a little fun to watch, this isn't it. At best, you'll be mildly bored for about 8 hours.
Bad shows are one thing, sometimes it's fun to watch super trashy shows and yell at the characters, I'll watch shows even if they make me mad because they're entertaining enough to get me through. I'll take trashy romance and a nonsensical plot over boredom any day.

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Disappointed potential

A Thai BL in a Korean formatting… giving a little more spice/drama and quick story progressing. Shorter episodes and number of episodes.

The story seemed as a freah and new premise that we have not seen before. The trailer looked amazing and the CGI elements looked very well made. However, as the story progressed it bacame more and more cliche, which might not be a bad thing for some. I’m just disappointed it didn’t deliver what I expected from it.

Overall, I personally found it quite boring and it has no particular rewatch value for except maybe to watch selected scenes again. The writing became very predictable and fell into old tracks instead of trying to surprise us. I have not read the source material, so this might be expected for the ones who know if the producers were true to that or not.

The acting could be better for some of the cast. Particularly emotional scenes seemes a little forced and unbelievable. But it is far from the worst performances I have ever seen in a BL. My main challenge with the series lies with the, to me, perceived underdeveloped characters. The heroes were the classic heroes and the villains were the classical cartoon villains without any depth. With the shorter and fewer episodes, side characters were given too much room in my opinion so there were no real time for character maturing.

Also the background music choices were at times a little strange. I did think based on the amazing CGI in the first episodes made me belive that the production had a better budget than it did have.

All in all, its a sweet watch that I would recommend to people, but not in my top 10 for 2023 as I initially thought it would be sadly.

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potencial desperdiçado

Nota: 4/10

Foi definitivamente um BL legal e que tinha um potencial enorme. No início, a história parecia ser bem mais complexa, mas em torno dos episódios, na verdade, foi mais simplória do que eu imaginava. Tão simplória que virou uma simples fanfic do Wattpad (coisa típica de alguns BLs), daquelas que você lê em pouco tempo, percebe inúmeros defeitos, mas é imemorável demais para ter uma crítica.

A fotografia ficou muito boa, e as cenas de ação continuam no mesmo estilo tailandês de sempre (interprete como quiser). O protagonista (guy) teve um desenvolvimento muito bom em questões como socialização, mas pecou muito na dependência. O que antes era para seu melhor amigo, agora ficou para o seu namorado. Suportá-lo por algumas horas nos episódios finais ficou difícil. Além disso, ele também atrapalhou muito no episódio final, sabendo que o seu namorado é um EX-GANGSTER e você > ACEITOU < isso, obviamente ele vai ter SEMPRE uma história para resolver, até porque ele tem uma dívida eterna para com seu ex-chefe que estava correndo risco de vida, por que diabos você tentaria impedir/se intrometer nisso? Fala sério, você não sabe lutar.

O ator que fez o Kenji (vilão) merece mais créditos porque sua atuação foi a melhor dentre todos ali. O grupo de amigos virtuais foi uma coisa incrível de ser representada, ainda mais incrível quando esse grupo funcionou na vida real, achei lindo isso. Também foi surpreendente quando a Phai se revelou ser policial, eu de fato nunca imaginaria.

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In parts yes, in parts no.

This follow-up series to the pairing of Meen & Ping in "Ai Long Nhai" shows improvement in acting skills of both leads, although Ping could benefit from doing improvs in front of a mirror to reduce his squishing of his eyes for most emotions. Their romantic scenes worked well and showed the benefit of both actors being familiar with each other.

The show is very much a hybrid of mafia and romance and its production bifurcation is reflected in having two DOP's. I suspect one was chosen to apply the lush cinematographic effects to certain critical scenes, most especially the romantic ones, while the remaining scenes feel stock standard Thai soap in character.

The action scenes are plentiful as entertainment if one ignores the equivalency of portraying a man who kills without compunction with a faithful lover willing to sacrifice a lucrative life in crime for a gay nest. Balancing all these factors causes the storyline to be rushed with the result that critical life decisions are raised and resolved in the time it takes to order at a restaurant, which is a pity because this show has a supporting cast many would envy. Winner as the third wheel in the relationship comes close to tipping the scales away from Guy's boyfriend, Thiu. Tonlew looks as if she could handle roles with more meat. Tinn is clearly working below his class in this show while Nitta and Paam are worth seeing again in other projects. Tommy could be the find of the year if he improves on his acting, but this series is based on a webtoon, and much of it felt cartoonish anyway.

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This could have been so much better

I really wish this hadn't been so difficult to finish, but while the story in general was enjoyable, the incredibly bad acting made it so damn difficult for me to watch... At first I thought Ping's wooden acting was his attempt to portray a character on the spectrum, but by episode 3 I had to admit to myself that no, he is just THAT BAD at acting. And not just him, also many of the side characters' acting was really lacking. I think the only one's I enjoyed watching was Meen (playing Tew) and Tinn (playing Tul) and even they didn't per se deliver a stellar performance... .

Also, as others pointed out some of the character had potential to be written in a much more fun and intriguing way. And some generic characters were written so one-dimensional (I'm looking at you, Kenji) it almost hurt. So there really were a lot missed opportunities.

But the show did also have it's enjoyable moments: So it was a pleasure to watch Tew as a mafia boss being so god damn wipped by a random boy. And the interactions between Tul and Tew were really adorable, what with Tul being so fond and supportive of him and his relationship.

All in all, I wouldn't say it was a waste of time to watch, but I'm happy it wrappped up with 8 episodes as I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to take more of the acting tbh.

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Rushed but still eating it up.

Let me tell you about this one *insert giggle emoji*. Yes this show is rushed and should’ve been slated for a 12 ep series however it’s not terrible. When I first saw the cover for this drama I was intrigued. When I then read the synopsis I was like “ooh this is for me.” But when I registered that it was MeenPing acting I almost fainted. I just love everything about MeenPing. Visually together they’re beautiful and compliment each other so well but baby gworl the chemistry is just out of this world. At first when I saw Meen was going to be in a gang I was not skeptical but I also was not convinced. But let me just tell you the writers said fear not because Meen is not going to be no punk ass gangster jajajajajaja. Anyways there’s genuinely only one bad actor so far I forgot his name but you will know who I’m talking about because oh God his acting is SO BAD. I cringe EVERY TIME.
It could have been better but I eat up anything MeenPing are in lmao.

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Story

Well Im probably the only one but I find Pings acting really annoying and childish. Its hard to work out if its
a comedy series or a serious series.Ping is much the same character as In Ai long Nhai. These two young actors need to branch out and widen their portfolio
and do some serious acting. How many times do we see the drunk scenario bl series. Im not blaming the actors. They have a script in front of them so what's written down they have to abide by but you can get typecast
by playing the same type of character. The series was OK and many will enjoy it but I could nt take it serious
enough. It went from OK to not OK. Both actors were
good looking and that will probably be enough for some viewers. The love triangle and plot were annoyingly frustrating and the last few episodes were chaotic.
I did watch it to the end but All in all felt let down.

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Was promising, what happened?

Started off to be a bop, but ended up being full of plot-holes and nonsense.
The first four episodes were perfect. The story was somehow original and both the main protagonists showed off their pleasant personalities, with good qualities and interesting back ground stories. Their dynamic was so cute, the typical golden retriever/black cat relationship. And I was honestly all about it, they got me wrapped around their pinky toes. For real, Meen NAILED the gangster role at first, I was so surprised seeing him drenched in blood and then all sweet with his love interest. How cute.

Things started going down the hill by the end of episode four. The whole confession felt rushed, and I don't think Guy was there yet: literally ten minutes before accepting Tew's confession, he was almost kissing his long-time crush. I also don't understand how their relationship developed so quickly. That made Tew's character way too much confident about the reciprocity of his feelings for Guy. Also, his way out of the gang was way too easy, way too rushed; so much that his promise felt untrue.
The end of the straw was episode six. The fighting scene was hilarious: Tew fought like 10 guys and ended up as fresh as before, not even a little scratch on that stunning face. I get it, you're cool, but you're still human last time I checked.
I blame the eight-episodes-lenght for almost everything of this.

Outside of the way-too-rushed pace, tho, there are SO many problems.
- Kenji is too cartoonish on his own, doesn't even need to get commented;
- Why the heck is the "being with me is too dangerous I must leave you" trope so popular? super annoying and makes ZERO sense;
- The break up felt also very fake. The actors' probably did their best, but with a poor script like this it was almost impossible doing any better;
- I get that Tew is the good guy, here, but he literally solving no problem with Kenji. I get it, you don't unalive people, but... at least do something?
- Was Tew really convinced that an apology and some soy milk would solve things? On what planet does he live? Things were SO messed up that I almost ended up cheering for Wahl;
- End of episode seven makes no sense, again.

It's not the best drama I've ever watched, but it's definitely not the worst. Meenping is always so cute and fluffy: their chemistry is so good, it keeps you entertained enough.
Waiting for the last episode, now, but I doubt it will solve any of the problems I listed before.

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Manque d'envergure mais sympa et romantique

Alors que ce drama figurait en bonne place dans ma Watchlist, la lecture des différentes reviews et commentaires du forum m'avait assez vite refroidie. On parlait essentiellement d'un problème de montage et d'enchaînement des scènes, ainsi qu'une deuxième partie décevante malgré une première moitié prometteuse. J'ai quand même décidé de donner une chance à ce BL et contrairement à ce que je craignais, il ne m'a pas particulièrement déçue.

C'est vrai que l'on peut regretter un certain manque d'envergure à cette histoire très clichée, des personnages secondaires qu'on aurait souhaités mieux exploités (tant qu'à faire, le groupe d'amis en ligne aurait pu servir à autre chose que simplement aider à repeindre le resto, vu leur bonne dynamique d'ensemble) et on aurait apprécié de les voir réellement concourir à l'événement pour lequel ils s'entraînaient. Quant à l'intrigue mafieuse elle est très simpliste et le méchant qu'on a tenté de rendre intense et charismatique est plus caricatural qu'autre chose, sans compter ses motivations assez puériles. Pour finir, les rebondissements sont convenus et une fois ou deux, notre héros Guy nous offre des scènes bien neuneu et larmoyantes histoire d'augmenter la tension dramatique.

Ceci étant dit, cela reste un BL agréable à visionner. Déjà parce qu'il n'y a que 8 épisodes et par chance, ce format relativement court par rapport aux 12 ou 14 épisodes habituels oblige les scénaristes à se concentrer sur l'essentiel sans réel temps mort. Ensuite, je ne vois pas trop ce qu'on peut reprocher au montage, c'est vrai que certaines scènes sont rajoutées après-coup en forme de mini flash-backs pour expliquer certains trous mais ils arrivent assez vite et de mon côté cela a ajouté de la dynamique à l'histoire, d'autant qu'on a aussi droit à quelques scènes d'action assez bien orchestrées. J'ai trouvé les différents personnages attachants (même si j'aurais aimé que notre héros Guy soit juste un tout petit moins gamin et pleurnichard mais bon ça va, il n'en fait pas trop au point de devenir insupportable...), les protagonistes très agréables à regarder, nos héros partagent une bonne alchimie et leur histoire d'amour est belle et romantique, tout comme leur scène intime. Rien de toxique dans les relations présentées, même Whal qui a tout pour être chiant et possessif sait se remettre en question pour que leur amitié reparte sur de nouvelles bases. Et même si toute la partie concernant l'intrigue mafieuse manque de réelle profondeur et aurait pu être mieux gérée, ce n'est pas très grave vu que je ne regarde pas des BL pour leur noirceur mais pour avoir ma dose de guimauve dégoulinante, et celui-ci a rempli son rôle.

En dépit de quelques petits regrets (d'une part ça manque un peu de réelle passion, d'autre part j'aurais aimé voir la romance secondaire se concrétiser même si la fin nous suggère que ça va dans le bon sens, enfin le contraste entre le monde de la mafia et celui des jeux vidéos aurait pu fournir une bonne dose de comique en insérant un vrai dur à cuire dans une équipe de geeks et c'est dommage que cela n'ait pas été exploité), je suis contente d'avoir donné une chance à ce BL agréable qui fait l'effort de s'écarter du traditionnel contexte universitaire en mélangeant les genres, et nous offre un bien joli mafieux qui s'en sort plutôt bien dans son rôle de beau gosse pas très causant dont on ferait volontiers son quatre heures. Bref, une histoire sympathique qui se laisse regarder quand on est en manque de romantisme et de scénarios pas compliqués.

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Can we get them a gangster manual or something?

I didn’t have super high expectations after seeing the trailer, but I was still expecting more story wise. The plot seemed simple enough, but there were so many plot holes that I was left with more questions than answers in the end. I think a lot of time was taken up by other characters instead of giving more screen time to Tew and Guy, so they could properly develop their relationship. The gaming aspect was nice, but we only got one (maybe two) proper scene related to it. Which is a shame as it appeared to be quite a big element of Tew’s and Guy’s relationship.

Besides all the cliché complications and poor decision, the gangster element was very questionable. I couldn’t take Tew seriously as a gangster because of his baby face. I loved the styling; they went for the classic Italian mafia man outfits that looked absolutely incredible on him. But that was not enough. Don’t even get me started on how he was the worst gangster to ever live. Which says a lot because no one in this drama made for a decent professional criminal. Seriously, couldn’t they find a gangster manual or something? It might have helped.

Tew & Guy: Leaving aside what a terrible gangster Tew is, I actually found them quite cute together. Tew is more mature and doesn’t trust easily, while Guy seems to be deeply wanting friends and is ready to trust anyone. I don’t necessarily think they are a perfect match, but I think they are both adaptable enough to make it work. I was a bit bothered how Tew was someone who was always true to what he said, yet that is not something that is carried through the whole show. Guy was a bit too naïve at times too. Meen and Ping have a good chemistry, but there is something about Ping’s acting that always throws me off. I am not sure what it is, but he just can’t handle emotion heavy scenes.

Wahl was so annoying! He was incredible unlikeable character and I was rolling my eyes whenever he was on screen. I did like the game friends; they were quite different from each other, but they were great together. Tul was always loyal to Tew, even if some of his decisions are a bit questionable. Boss left me mostly confused. Not about his feelings, but about his reasoning behind a lot of his actions. It made absolutely no sense.

And then we got to Kenji. He was very cartoonish. He didn’t feel like a real villain, but more like one you’d find in a cartoon. All of which was even more exaggerated by his style, the way he talked and reacted to everything. I just don’t think this was the way to go if they wanted to create a good villain.

The ending was okay, I guess. It was only half of what I was hoping for, but it is also something that the series was leading towards since the 3rd or 4th episode, so it is what it is.

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