So, Bo Jin Yan is criminal psychologist who solves difficult cases with help of his newly hired assistant, Jian Yao. At first like almost in every drama they concentrate on seperate cases. And like in most of crime dramas, there was something bigger in the background but I still say this is one of the most unique crime dramas ever.
Very professional, high-quality writing. Just as you have decided you have conclusion how a scene is going to end writers make a turn and will make you go like 'whaaaaaaat?!' I enjoyed the emotional rollercoaster of being surprised and not knowing what happens next. I'm sucker for good mystery/crime drama and this is the best I have watched for a long time! Ending episode threw me off the course and I was staring my computer screen mouth open :D
Leads had great chemistry and I enjoyed every awkward moment they had because of Jin Yan's serious character. I'm always drooling for handsome lone wolfs and it was adorable that IQ genius was struggling with romance.
Side roles were important and well written into plotline but I wish they would have had more depth into Zi Yu's character. He was the only side role I was excitedly waiting for to appear in every scene.
I liked how this drama didn't totally evolve to concentrate on romance element because most of dramas make that mistake. Instead they concentrated on Jin Yan's character and especially how he sees things inside his mind analysing criminal's mind.
Music was actually pretty good! I'm not a fan of chinese music, especially ballads but I fell in love with ending song~
So if you enjoy crime dramas with mysterious and exciting cases, adorable characters and little bit of romance, this is totally made for you!
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Wallace lives and breathes his role as Bo Jin Yan. He's adorably awkward when it comes to romance, and level-headed when it comes to his job as a criminal psychologist. Wallace also plays his 'split personality'; very well, showing that he's a versatile actor. I think Sandra was the perfect cast actually. She's pretty, and yet she gives off a girl next door vibe, complementing Bo Jin Yan (Wallace) fabulously. In a way, their relationship reminds me of Edward and Bella from Twilight- cool, seemingly emotionless male lead and sensitive yet observant female lead that brings the warmth out of the male lead. In my opinion, they have great chemistry and Bo Jin Yan's cheesy lines were hilarious. I can't forget Jin Yan's love for fish. He loves to eat fish so much that it was part of the storyline-kind of cute. I actually didn't guess the ultimate Big Bad so I was shocked when the twist came out. In that respect, this drama did a great job because it kept me on my toes.
The cinematography was gorgeous as well, the fish eye lenses were a cool touch, and I loved the car, Andy. So high-tech, and hilarious-Andy's like part of the cast! The cases were interesting and not too predictable. Every case was drastically different so it didn't get boring. I especially liked it when Jin Yan does his criminal analysis because it's so interesting to listen to. The cases flowed well together and connected with one another, each case spanning around four episodes, and led up to the Big Bad storyline. Though it seemed like each case was separate, they were all ultimately connected to the Big Bad, and the drama explores the deepest aspects of human desire through the cases. All the leads had a backstory as well, lending more depth to the story, making the drama come more to life. It was a little graphic but not too intense/gory either.
I loved Zi Yu (Andrew Yin), he is the ultimate best friend. Their bromance was fun to watch and a good comedic relief from the serious tone of the crime investigations. Xun Ran (Wang Kai) was a good second lead but the drama never really gave him a chance to be a serious romantic threat to Bo Jin Yan. Nevertheless, I admired his dedication and willpower as a cop- his acting was also spot on. The beginning was a bit slow but it was needed to set up the story. It starts rapidly speeding up after around three episodes. This drama didn't drag that much; rather, it went by quickly in 24 episodes.
The music kept me barely breathing in lots of suspenseful moments so it definitely did its job! There was a lot of orchestral music which was a nice change from usual dramas.
Re-watch? YES! I will most definitely re-watch this and so far this is my favorite Chinese drama! I recommend this drama if you're into suspense, crime scene investigations, and lots of romance. I wouldn't recommend this if you don't like romance intertwined with crime scene investigations. That said, this drama was fantastic in all respects so I recommend it to everyone. (10/9.75)
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When I start watching a drama with such high ratings and reviews calling it a masterpiece I try to fight of the hipe as much as I can but I still started watching Love me if you dare with a mindset of 'this is going to be good' and oh boy was I disappointed.
The drama started of strong with a badass female lead and a mysteriously intriguing male lead, but it all went downhill from there.
The STORY, while still not the best, was pretty interesting up until like 15 ep and then it just hit a rock bottom. It felt like the writers were trying sooo hard to be unique, to surprise us but it just didn't work for me, everything felt really forced. All the plot twists were kind of bleh. The romance was mature in a really boring way there was only one scene where I felt some kind of chemistry between Jin Yan and Jian Yao. Oh and don't even get me started on Jin Yan's investigation methods, you might as well label this as a Sci-Fi drama, because he came to conclusions and found out things out of nowhere (not everytime but I could name a few...) The story wasn't the worst thing, but certainly wasn't good it just didn't do anything for me, I never felt my heart racing, It didn't give me any questions to think about...
The CHARACTERS for the most part were so boring. I could not relate to them at all. Bo Jin Yan with some exceptions seemed emotionless. Sure you could say that he showed many emotions but to me he never looked human, in the end I was annoyed by the fact that he was so perfect. I wanted him to make a mistake, I wanted him to just loose his shit, because that is what I love about episodic shows, I can watch characters grow, I can see them fall and get back up again but that never happened. Maybe I am the only one who was disappointed, I saw that most people seemed to like his alien like persona but throughout the whole drama I didn't get attached to him, nor Jian Yao who went from badass to an accessory and for me dramas are all about getting attached. The only character I liked was Fu Zi Yu, he was fun, smart, freaking human like.
I think I could go on and on explaining why I think this drama is not worth the praise but despite all that I still encourage to watch Love me if you dare, because you will probably enjoy it considering the fact that I am picky as hell.
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Until about episode 16 or so, it was mindblowingly good!
The main character is this crazy hero, who is so intelligent that he is practically an alien.
And love story is cute, although very expectable.
Ok, there were some minor flaws when it comes to the police work (like walking all over the scene of the crime and touching stuff etc.), but you can forgive such flaws, just like the bad acting of most of the foreign actors.
The intelligent plot is great to this point, but
THEN....
everything changes:
1) Right after they fall in love he just starts behaving like a normal person, thus looses all his
charming antisocial features.
2) Then comes the all-tying plot in, and it is so DAMN PREDICTABLE that I couldn't believe that
it comes from the same writers as before!
3) Everything becomes one huge ball of clichés, you expect this to happen, then that, and this again, and it all does. Freakingly disappointing!
4) And it starts to draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag... Seriously, from ep. 17 on I felt like watching something in slow motion.... because of the predictable "turns" it was even worse, not just the directing. The pace was totally off.
So - while the first arch of this drama was insanely good, the latter was so bad that I really had to
force myself to continue watching. Jeez, that was a pain in the butt.
The only good news: The last episode improved on that.
But the so charmingly outlandish main character was lost on the way.
The good part would get a 10 from me, the boring part a 6, thus it ends with an 8.
It is still worth watching, though.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm going to be completely honest here; if anyone is trying to convince you that "Love Me If You Dare" is a compelling, mysterious, cat and mouse suspenseful detective drama, that will keep you guessing- they are lying. It's as simple as that. As someone who has seen her fair share of crime/mystery/detective shows, I can testify that there was not a single unpredictable twist in LMIYD. Simon, even though he is supposed to be this genius mastermind is, frankly speaking, extremely over-hyped in the show. The clues that he finds and the mysteries that he solves could easily be the work of a rookie detective and more often than not, his discoveries would be so obvious that I'd solve the whole thing before Simon even began to work his mojo.
For being Sherlock, his intellect was not very impressive, and when the show climaxed, the real culprit was unmasked and it was supposed to be this "wow, wow super wow" moment, all I could do was yawn, because I had already made the seemingly mind blowing revelation about four episodes ago.
Let's not forget that the main heroine is literally there as a pretty face and nothing else. She's so irrelevant to the plot, that it's actually funny. She has no role in anything and is there just to showcase and shine a different light on Simon's personality. Her character has been used merely as a superficial prop to revolve around Simon and I find it a little bit offensive as a woman, that for someone who is supposedly smart and who showed a lot of promise in the beginning, she remained nothing but a cliched damsel in distress till the end. Like for goodness sake, as much as I love Asian dramas, I am really not a fan of the wholly patriarchal society they mostly seem to portray.
So all in all now, I'm going to tell you the real reason why LMIYD, is in all its entirety so freaking famous. Why people are giving it great ratings left and right. Why they would claim that it is probably the best drama ever written. The answer lies in One Name. Two Words. One Person: Wallace Huo.
First of all, nobody can deny the fact that Wallace Huo is the epitome of beauty. He's gorgeous; plain and simple. I can watch a thousand of brainless plot-less episodes, if it meant I could stare at his face for hours. And stare at his face I did. I ogled him so much that I was afraid my eyes would pop out and I would drown in my own drool. Because, not only does he have a very pretty face, he's also an excellent actor. His dialogue delivery is entrancing, his expressions are spot-on, his walk is elegance incarnated and everything he does, he does with utter grace. If Wallace was to spout complete gibberish, the onlookers would still be starstruck because he'd relay that gibberish in such a way that it would seem nothing short of Shakespearean. This is a one man show. He's the king here and he commands it with his charisma, allure and masterful acting skills.
In short, LMIYD would have been nothing but a superficial drama with outwardly beautiful people if Wallace didn't give it soul. And to be honest, there's this one scene towards the end, that makes watching all the "meh" typa episodes that led to it worth it.
*Spoiler*
It's that scene where Simon has to pretend to kill the woman he loves in order to best his enemy. I'm not going to lie, I watched that scene about 15 times and my nose bled every single time, so much so, that I thought there was an imminent danger of death by blood loss. You can't help but fangirl like a lunatic when you see Simon display so many different emotions. That scene is purely iconic and is the reason why I gave this show a solid 7.
So, if anyone tries to tell you otherwise and claims that they aren't shallow and are all like "oh but, it had so many other great things than the male lead", know that they are frontin' for Wallace is the only thing great about this show.
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Jian Yao started off as a smart, independent female that was in control of her life. Bo Jin Yan was this enigmatic man whose cold exterior was gradually warming up to Jian Yao and drawing closer to her. I enjoyed the episodic cases they solved together and the growth of Jian Yao as Bo Jin Yan's protégé in criminal profiling, not to mention the blossoming of their feelings toward one another. There was some quiet humor in there as well that I enjoyed immensely. But in the end Jian Yao was just a damsel in distress, and Bo Jin Yan was running away to "catch the bad guy" immediately after telling her he'd be with her "24/7" -- more than once. She was left out of the loop completely.
So....why the 6.5 rating you say? Well, that's because the last 1/4 of the show, the story, once it moved from China to America, went downhill in flames for me. I raced to the finish of this show expecting things to get back on track, but they never did. It was almost as if they changed writers because the whole tone of the show changed completely. Jian Yao and Bo Jin Yan were hardly in a scene together afterwards, and their dynamic changed as well. The chemistry and romance was lost as they pursued "one" big bad villain. The plot got too twisted and convoluted. The actors playing the Americans were atrocious. The stilted speech was one thing, but there were several goofs as well. One text was sent out - with a misspelling of "steel" instead of the word "steal" that was meant....but on the receiving end, the text was completely different than what was sent out. The actors playing the Americans had a few flubs in their delivery of lines, as well as changing the names of the other characters a few times. There were a few that also could not hold their American accents. It was horribly distracting. Also, the Americans would speak in English, and the Chinese would reply in Chinese. This seemed very unrealistic, as how many Americans are fluent in Mandarin? And apparently New York police officers really need to wear their bulletproof vests. Yikes!
The 7.5 score for acting goes entirely to the Chinese cast in this case, points deducted for the "Americans". (Edited to add: Although, I do realize that English speakers are NOT the target audience, I hope that this information is helpful for those that it would make a difference to.)
Poor Jian Yao and Bo Jin Yan were almost completely different characters by the end of this show. Not the same one I was captivated by in the beginning. That disappointed me a lot and the only reason this is getting a 6.5 is for all the scenes in China. I feel bad hating on a show that most seemed to really love, but there it is. They could have fleshed out the story and the characters better if they had stayed put and continued in the direction they started. The switchover to New York also had the undesired outcome of not completing the setup they started in China. Many things were dropped and not explained.
Despite my utter letdown in the ending of this show, Huo Wallace has gained a new fan in me. I hope to one day see him act in something that will "wow" me like the start of this did.
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I enjoyed the serial-style crime show that composed the first half of this drama, but it the writing wasn't particularly clever or fluid as other crime dramas I've seen.
The story felt dragged out and not as cohesive as it could have been, and it overall lacked substance. Crime shows deal with heavy themes of humanity, but this show was just dark without social commentary and had too much cheesy romance. On that note, the chemistry was spicy, but the romance itself was rushed, unbelievable, and not well paced. Even without substance, shows can be saved by fun and action, but again, there wasn't enough feel-good vibes or humor for it to pull that off, so it was just straight-up dark and cheesy from there.
The acting here was pretty good, but acting can't save mediocre writing, and the acting did become sloppy at times. The best performance here was probably Wang Kai's; his character was the only likeable one in the end.
On another note, I understand Chinese patriarchal culture as someone who is indeed ethnically Chinese, but a viewer can't deny the awkwardly sexist writing here.
Overall, I can say that viewers can pass on this drama. It's very highly rated and well-reviewed, but I think reviewers may just have found a show to their tastes rather than a show that actually measures up to the other brilliant crime shows in the drama industry.
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Even though it is a mystery, I've rewatched it several times, mainly the parts with the main couple. Opening OST is awesome, check it out on You Tube. I highly reocmmend this drama and I am now a huge Wallace Huo fan!
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Love Me If You Dare is a Chinese drama based on the novel "Close Your Eyes. Stay Close to Me" by Ding Mo. Combine a person with a strong sense of justice and an emotionally closed off genius psychologist and you get the best crime-solving duo I have ever had the pleasure to follow.
I tend to find Chinese dramas to be slow, as in unnecessarily-dragging-the-plot-and-losing-their-beauty-along-the-way kind of slow. This was not the case with Love Me If You Dare. I watched it all in one go (after an unbearable amount of time waiting for all the episodes to air). And let me tell you, I was beyond excited by it. Every episode had me craving for more!
I found Love Me If You Dare to have the perfect mixture of romance, criminal psychological thriller, and mystery. The chemistry between the main characters, Simon and Jenny, was breath-taking. you could see the sparks in the air in every scene were they interacted with each other. I loved how the plot didn't go straight into the romance but, instead, allowed us to see the romance between our main characters grow with each episode, as the characters themselves developed. Huo Wallace (Simon) and Ma Sandra (Jenny) really did bring justice to the characters. Their performance was intriguing and beautiful, to say the least. The plot itself was perfection. It didn't leave space for one to be bored and at every step, a lingering sense of mystery was present making us excited about what was going to happen next. This itself put Love Me If You Dare apart from all other dramas I have seen. There were no cliches. Everything was unpredictable, leading to a much-appreciated excitement towards this drama.
Loved the ending though I believe they left it open for a possible sequel. There are many theories about this ending which certainly make sense (if you want to read them after you watched the whole drama) however, I'm still wishing for a second season because I just can't get enough of Simon and Jenny duo...
Overall, I believe this is a must-watch drama for every drama fan. Highly recommended!
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Acting/Cast: Superb cast overall but I find that FBI guy who speaks in a thick South African English accent a bit annoying coz he's the only one not speaking in American English and yet goes around in the role of an American FBI agent (a mis-cast?). The lady playing Susan was great and I hope she'll hit it big in Hollywood in the future. The other actors in the US side are passable but not great. The Chinese cast are obviously the ones shining in this drama here.
Music: Most of its OSTs are instrumental and fits the sophisticated, modern and mystery feel of the drama. The ending OST however is hauntingly beautiful and its lyrics accurately depicts the emotion part of the drama (the relationship between the main couple).
Overall: It is not always you find a gem amongst all the dramas produced throughout the years and decades of Asian entertainment. Once in a while, you find one at a place you didn't think to find. I've always followed Chinese dramas but mostly for historical and wuxia series, seldom for their modern series as I think the quality of chinese modern series are beneath that of Japan and Korea but this drama here is an exception when it comes to modern chinese investigative series made by mainland Chinese (not HK which has an excellent track record for investigative modern dramas). I am surprised and impressed and read from a blogger earlier today how there are fans of this drama who wanted more than 24 episodes and are hoping for a Season 2. Well...I sure hope to see more of Bo Jin Yan if possible but apprehensive about Season 2s as they normally do not perform as well as their predecessors. As for those of you who are hesitating, don't...just watch it and I'm sure you'll not regret this decision!
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Its just amazing , a great Comedy-Romance-Suspense mix
everything about the drama feels great , it has elements of suspense and crime , strong emotion and funny moments . make you laugh many times ,the feelings is easily felt and reach your heart .
Story 10/10 - Its a unique story - I cant say anything that might spoil the story , but its more than a typical love story , nothing complex or boring , It is full of thriller ,suspense and deep emotional moments that keeps you wanting more and more of it .
Acting/Cast 10/10 - the acting is perfect - both the male and female lead do a great job at expressing what they have to express , they totally fill each others gap (emotional and intellectual lacking) .
Music 8/10 - OP/ED theme is just amazing , it give the right feeling to the show , background music is amazing , thrilling at times , and comfortable , dialogs are as clear as it can get (NOTHING LOUD THAT DISTURB THE DIALOGS)
Re-watch 5/10 - I don't usually re-watch dramas , and there is lots of other dramas waiting for me to re-watch this again.
Overall 9/10 - It was my first Chinese drama and I'm glad it turned out to be something amazing which made me Wanting to watch other Chinese dramas ( I hesitated to watch them before )
I RECOMMEND it to ANYONE interested in MYSTERY/CRIME dramas to watch it , its like reading Sherlock Holmes books to me (I haven't watched movies or dramas of Sherlock homes ) .
A Good-Watch for everyone in MDL .
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