Decently-produced mini drama with Good Acting and Chemistry
Subjective Gut Rating: 8.25“The Love Duel” is a short and very enjoyable transmigration mini drama. Despite its lower budget, the production quality is pretty good. It doesn’t feel cheap.
Although the cast is not A-listers, they are quite experienced, especially in the mini dramas. If you are a fan of the genre, you have probably seen female lead Smile Hu, male lead Wang Xuan and second male lead Leo Yang before. Hong Wu (2FL) is the newcomer of the bunch. I am actually quite impressed with the acting of this cast. I might have developed a minor crush on Wang Xuan. He has nice, big, expressive eyes. He looks a little bit like Xu Kai and Xiao Zhan, doesn’t he?
It’s nice to see a female lead who is the bosslady. She takes charge and is smart and fun (maybe a tad bit overdramatic). The personality contrast between the leads is nice and we don’t see this dynamic in bigger productions often enough. The chemistry between the 4 leads is good. I enjoy the development of the main romance. The secondary romance is simpler and more predictable. However, both confession scenes are a little anticlimactic for my taste.
You can say this drama has quite a few plot twists to keep things interesting and the plot moving along. However, I think my biggest criticism is that the plot is too busy. The political side plot isn’t written well. It seems like an afterthought and just put together half-heartedly. It could have a simpler political background story but focuses more on the assassin organization.
“The Love Duel” is binge-worthy and enjoyable. There’s a lot of humor in making fun of dramas that are self-deprecatingly funny. It’s not to kill a couple hours or as a quick palate cleanser in between some serious dramas.
Completed: 7/24/2024 - Review #465
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Fluffy and fun mini drama with a satisfying happy ending
Smile Hu knows how to pick her mini-dramas - The Killer Is Also Romantic remains one of the best of this genre. While The Love Duel is not quite at that level, it is still a fairly solid short-length series that affectionately pokes fun and pays homage to some of the best and worst drama romances and tropes, including those Bad Endings, while ultimately giving viewers a Happy Ending.On paper, it incorporates a number of elements I do not particularly enjoy in dramas - goofy/slap-stick humour, travel or transmigration into a book or video-game world, to name two key ones. But the combination of a likable cast, a well-paced and respectable (if predictable) script, satisfying ending, and decent production values help elevate what could have been a painful waste of time into a fun and fluffy, easy watch, with just enough swoon factor to satisfy that drama itch in between full-length shows.
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Quite Enjoyable
Nice mini series! Definitely one of the more entertaining ones with a complete story and decent ending.The Good
Great chemistry between leads. Lots of romance that was done very well. I appreciated that it was a more mature drama with mature leads. Well placed comedy. Fast paced so the story kept moving along. The plot wasn’t anything new with the transmigration but stood out a little from some of the other ones of the same type. Acting was decent enough but not necessarily the best.
The Bad
Poor lighting which had some scenes too bright. Low production value. Filmed in a couple of locations. Cheap costumes, wigs, etc. as previously stated, acting wasn’t always the best.
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Fun light-hearted fluff
Another completely biased review from me to you.Spoilers ahead.
This series was one of the better mini-dramas out there. The FL and ML were adorably fun together. The story was silly, wasn't complex, and it was just light and easy to watch. There were some 'dark' bits but they were more tongue-in-cheek dark, if you know what I mean.
The premise has been done before, the leads waking up in a historical setting with a comedic relief 'guide'.
The FL was a lot of fun, a tough badass who won't lose to anyone for any reason! Even her fighting wasn't too bad. I love how she takes over her own story. Her inner monologues were too funny. She is so funny with her knives and homicidal tendencies. And the character's 'acting' was so terrible it was funny. Her clown makeup was hilariously bad! And her 'dancing' omg, terrible! The dance and the makeup should win an award for best awful scene in a series. You will laugh! I loved her character and her style and costume designs.
The ML's character in the story was the typical bad guy prince. Or at least that was what you were supposed to think. The ML's hair, well, he seems to have that style for all of his short historical dramas. I guess I won't comment. But dang, he looks really good with his normal style. The ML's costumes were good too, nice and dark and flowy.
The downside, since I watched this on youtube, there were way too many times when all sound was gone. It wasn't too bad when there were subtitles but too many times there wasn't sound or subs so a lot of the story was lost.
The best, there's a nice happy ending. I enjoyed it.
Turn off the brain, watch and enjoy!
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