BeetBits: Love Me If You Dare
Been a while since my last Chinese drama review, Love Me If You Dare is a Chinese mystery drama starring Wang Kai, Wallace Huo, and Ma Sichun. The first thing I noticed about the actors is the uncanny resemblance between Ma Sichun and Kim Hyun-Joo, the famous Korean actress. Just to show you, here they are together.
Who is who? I will let you guess!!
What is the Story of Love Me If you Dare Chinese Drama?
Where to Watch This Drama?
Viki is the ideal place to watch this drama as the episodes are all available subbed in more than 30 languages.
Love Me If You Dare Chinese Drama Review
Cons of the Drama
Storyline
The first half of the drama was brilliantly written with a gutsy female lead who is shown as smart, slightly outspoken and way more social than the male lead. She literally completes the male lead! The same female lead thought changes into a background character half-way through the drama once the focus shift more and more towards the big evil guy. The outspoken part of her character disappears halfway through the drama, which was a serious turn off for me. Additionally, the writer went overboard with the concept of the big evil guy. Having one henchman for the Flower Cannibal Murderer is enough but having 3 is really irritating and not the best way to end a series that started really well. Honestly, I would have loved it if they'd stopped at 16 episodes for this one.
Dubbing and Acting Issue
This is my second time witnessing this issue after Best Lover drama, although this time it is not a Netflix mistake. In fact, I was very happy when I noticed this was one of the few Chinese dramas not dubbed like many others, which means the actors and their actions were not overacted by an irritating high-pitch voice. However, I believe the drama took the no dubbing rule way too far with this one, especially when they decided that it is ok to move the drama over to the US and have the cast speak both Mandarin and English at the same time and understand each other perfectly.
I have to admit when it first happened over a video call, I simply thought Jian Yao and the FBI agent understand each other because they worked together and she understands Chinese. However, when suddenly even the doctor in the hospital responded in English in the middle of a Chinese conversation, I simply wanted to shut his mouth.
Another major let down was the English cast as well. If you intend to give them a huge role, make sure they can act, the female FBI agent was just super flirty most of the time even during situations where her tone should be threatening, I was literally rolling my eyes.
Pros of the Drama
I feel like I have talked too much about the cons of the drama and ignored the pros, which are also a lot.
1. Direction
The drama handles very heavy issues like murder, torture and suicide, so it is not easy to watch; however, it was brilliantly directed to only show the minimum of these harmful scenes to complete the story. While you get a look at an explosion once or twice, you don't get a detailed look at the corpse, torture scenes are also filmed from an angle that does not show much bleeding at least at first. The second half of the drama did take a drastic change in terms of direction as the story got more and more violent, so the director had to show more than just simple scenes. Still, overall, it was not as heavy as it could have been if filmed another way.
2. Acting and Storyline
The Chinese cast acted brilliantly; therefore, the first half of the drama when it was just them is really enjoyable, and you get a rather quirky feel thanks to Andry, the AI car. Moreover, the storyline, in the beginning, was solid. The chemistry between the actors was very obvious, and the way they solved mysteries was fun,
Finally, the handsome main lead and pretty actress add to the charm of the drama if you are looking for a manga-like drama. The drama sure has that feeling of Kindaichi Jikenbo, Conan or well mystery mangas in general.
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