Based on this screen-cap alone, I think this show might overtake Nirvana in Fire and The Disguiser for best title sequences of the year.
Wallace Huo and Zhang Luyi put on a battle of a split-personality psychopath and a more conventional psychopath (as conventional as psychopaths gets) in the latest trailer of romantic detective thriller Love Me If You Dare. Poor Ma Sichun and Wang Kai are caught in the battle as both are taken as hostages at some point. This marks the third drama where Wang Kai gets shot/stabbed in the shoulder, twice by his best friend, once by his dad, and once by himself to warn his best friend. The show airs two episodes per week beginning today (October 15). Watch it on YouTube here.
Author Ding Mo has two more similar detective romances set for adaptation, If snails could love 如果蜗牛有爱情 by Shandong TV and Stuff My Heart 美人为馅 by Yu Zheng. Yu Zheng tried to get Jin Dong for the latter and got so brutally rejected that his heart shattered like glass (actual words used by Yu Zheng). Let’s just hope he doesn’t go Wang Manchun after this heartbreak..
I watched the first 2 episodes, and am already slightly annoyed by a few things: a) Jin Yao. I have yet to decide if she’ll be another typical damsel in distress, but Sandra Ma’s facial expressions make it look like so. And it seems like her character is a lot younger and less experienced than Wallace’s and Nick’s (she’s not graduated yet, right?) b) The shoving of Audis down our throats. c) The repeated use of fisheye lens effect and some other camera works which make this look like a CF rather than an actual drama.
The musical score leaves something to be desired. And some other small things (why did Jin Yao go for the interview in shorts? Don’t think they’re proper enough even for a part time job. Does Bo Jinyan get paid well as a professor, as he lives in a nice house and rides a talking fancy car? Etc.)
These are not dealbreakers, so I’ll still probably watch it, especially that Viki has subbed it.
They should really stop the fisheye lens effect. It reminds me of reality shows, which is never good. Audis, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. The car is very distracting but at the same time quite entertaining. Didn’t you laugh watching the scene with Sherlock Holmes music? I was rolling my eyes at the show’s blatant piracy, then we found out it was the car playing the SH soundtrack. Crack me up big time. I love the music score. I don’t know if they did it on purpose or not, but the contrast between the dark, somber visual and the light, melodious music made the show feel surprisingly refreshing.
As for Jin Yao, yes, she should be young and inexperienced. Her character will develop and mature as the show goes along. Bo Jin Yan’s mysterious wealth will also be explained. As for the dress code, inappropriate maybe. I do think business or business casual for part-time job interview maybe a western world concept, ‘cuz I’ve seen some Asian people wear T-shirt and jean to full-time job interviews.
I see. Thanks for the bits and hints! :)
Young and inexperienced girl paired with older, wealthy and cold guy — it’s a little too Asian cliche to me. Also feel a bit cradle robbing LOL. So I don’t think I’ll care about this pairing, will just look forward to the investigation arc.
Just for the record, in the novel Jin Yao is in her early twenties and JinYan is in his late twenties. Age and height were the 2 things some fans of the novel said Wallace did not possess to play JinYin. I’m not sure how old each is suppose to be in the drama. In reality, Wallace is 8 yrs older than Sandra, which isn’t too terriblly big of a gap either. Wallace has always looked a little mature for his age. He also lost a huge amount of weight for this role, which IMO contributed to him looking even older than he should.
I agree, 8 years is not that big of age difference — heck, if it’s between adults, more power to them. I should’ve made it clearer. I think the gap feels larger because one of the pair is still an undergraduate student and the other is already a professor, so it feels like cradle robbing. I’d still feel the same if the pairing was between Sandra Ma’s character and Wang Kai’s character (he’s not a rookie officer).
Andy is clearly the best character of the show. Also apparently the show made a profit even before it was sold thanks to Andy and other product placements.
I think business casual is still expected for most, but it’s a drama, so I’ll forgive them.
What an intense trailer! O___O
i just watched the first two episodes and it kinda went beyond my expectations. Jian Yao seems like a sweet good girl, and i also love officer Li and Fu Ziyu . Seeing Wang Kai smile so many times in two episodes feels so good ! Honestly, this drama has some of my favorite actors, but it annoys me that there’s only two episodes each week.
I am going to see if I can hold out till next week so I get four instead of two. Have four ep of NIF to get through so I am unite excited about that. Trying to stop myself from reading spoilers. So good.
hahahhahahah, i can understand that. Having 4 episodes at a time feels good , and it also helps better understand the whole story. i originally thought i could wait till the whole drama to come out, but honestly, after the ending of NIF yesterday , i was kinda too upset to resist the anxiety to see Love Me If You Dare. But again, my net sucks (probably because i was at school) so i could’t follow the live last night, so i have to see it this morning. And it turns out to be pretty good. i’m not going to give you any spoiler:) , however i must say that LMIYD remind me of some curtain Britain & American drama.