Perfect 10 Liners Review: Campus RomCom Upgrade from ‘We Are’
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Thai series ‘Perfect 10 Liners’ is all about an exclusive group of university students across different years from different Engineering streams and their romantic entanglements. It could’ve alternatively been titled ‘hot boys chasing dumb clueless crushes’.
Directed by New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul, whose last two series were also campus romances featuring multiple couples (‘Fourever You’, ‘We Are’), the 24 episode long ‘Perfect 10 Liners’ takes place over three years, following three primary pairs and can be distinctly divided into three parts. The first part follows cute fresher Arm (Book Kasidet Plookphol), pursued by hot senior Arc (Force Jiratchapong Srisang), whose flirtatious actions confuse the naive Arm endlessly. While Arc wants to date Arm, the junior often wonders if he wants to murder him.
The second primary pair is Yotha (Perth Tanapon Sukumpantanasan), an Engineering student, known for constantly changing girlfriends and getting into violent brawls. But he tries to mend his ways when he starts to fall for campus roommate Gun (Santa Pongsapak Udompoch), a super-sweet, cheery peer, with a deep fear for the dark. The third love-story follows Yotha’s younger brother Faifa (Junior Panachai Sriariyarungruang), an extroverted popular campus star, who starts to develop feelings for Wine (Mark Jiruntanin Trairattanayon), who is part of the ‘Perfect 10 Liners’ and is Yotha’s mentee.
Since this is a GMMTV series, one can see that the budget wasn’t an issue, and the show has cameos by nearly every young actor on the payroll of the company. It’s sort of like a silly, fluffier, saccharine version of the GMMTV campus drama ‘Only Friends’, which was all about angsty, painful situationships, but ‘Perfect 10 Liners’ is about cutesy, comedic situationships, and both shows have plenty of romantic moments between the lead pairs.
And as if three primary couples weren’t enough for this overlong show, it also stuffs in multiple side couples who randomly appear throughout the episodes. Their storylines seem to exist only to add some variety to the overstretched romance of the lead pairs. For instance, Force and Book (previously also seen in Boss and a Babe and Enchante) as Arc and Arm look great and have decent chemistry, but their ‘courting phase’ is prolonged for far too long in ‘Perfect 10 Liners’. Both of them like each other, kiss a bunch of times, but even then, dummy Arm is confused about what Arc wants from him.
It was more entertaining to watch Arm goofing around with his best-friends Sand (Poon Mitpakdee) and Pipo (JJ Chayakorn Jutamas), the latter being hilarious jokers. Poon Mitpakdee is adorable as Sand, and he ends up dating Arc’s friend (Marc Natarit Worakornlertsith), who is a lot faster in securing himself a boyfriend. Gun’s antics with his childhood best-friend Kong (Aun Napat Patcharachavalit) are also quite funny, especially when the two of them are introduced as loud freshers, quick to scream and scram when they make mistakes, like when they confuse their senior’s dorm room for their own on their first day.
The other two lead pairs have better progression, with brothers Faifa and Yotha also having some serious family baggage to deal with from their parents’ divorce. Yotha is also significantly scalded from his last serious relationship with his older brother’s friend Warit (Boom Tharatorn Jantharaworakarn). Interestingly, Boom’s Warit is the rare ex in a Thai show, who isn’t villainous or over-the-top, although his new boyfriend Klao (Aou Thanaboon Kiatniran) always gets into fights with Yotha.
Junior Panachai Sriariyarungruang looks significantly older than the rest of the cast of ‘Perfect 10 Liners‘ as Faifa, but he emerges as one of the best characters in the show, largely due to Junior’s smooth portrayal. Faifa is introduced as a friendly, overtly kind, and considerate student, always putting others’ needs before his own. This is shown to be a coping mechanism after being dumped by his mother at his father’s place when she finds a new partner. The second half reveals the more sensitive side of Faifa – the one that’s not constantly putting up a brave, cheery front for others, and Junior Panachai Sriariyarungruang convincingly portrays both these sides of the character.
Overall, ‘Perfect 10 Liners’ is more entertaining in its comedic moments, than in the romantic tales of its protagonists. Although, the humor in the series isn’t consistent, with plenty of childish jokes that fall flat, but then there are also some really funny ‘laugh out loud’ scenes. It’s definitely a slight improvement from Thai series ‘We Are’ from the same production house and director, especially since the long runtime is able to do justice to the stories of its main characters.
Rating: 6 on 10. Watch ‘Perfect 10 Liners’ on YouTube.
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