My Lethal Man (2023)

Great chemistry, interesting premise, good OST but so many inconsistencies

8/10 is my rating. This is a 2023 Chinese Action and mystery romance drama. With 24, 45 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then I review.

Synopsis

Theoretically most people have a doppelgänger (someone not genetically related that looks identical or nearly identical to someone else). This story centers around a rich Chinese heiress’ doppelgänger. Shen Man Ning (Li Mo Zhi) grew up abroad after her parent’s untimely death. Her grandfather, the Chairman of the family conglomerate, figured it was the best way to keep her safe from others who wanted to eliminate her to gain the company. Zhuang Xin Yan (also played by Li Mo Zhi) and Shen Man Ning’s paths cross at the university they are both attending. When Xin Yan is kidnapped after be mistaken as Man Ning, Xin Yan dies while rescuing her. When she wakes up in the hospital, Man Ning meets Yan Xing Cheng (Fan Zhe Xin) who was Man Ning’s fiance (or so she originally thought. Although distressed at Man Nig’s death, Xing Cheng, doesn’t directly show his grief. Instead he bullies Xin Yan into a scheme to fake she is Man Ning in order to inherit the conglomerate as Man Ning rightfully should have. In a bloody battle for the inheritance, it is a dangerous deception. But with the brilliant and forceful Xing Cheng at her side, they work to unravel the mystery behind Man Ning’s death, prize the inheritance, and slowly fall in love.

Review

I recommend this as a good action movie with a solid central romance. The acting and chemistry between the main leads makes it a worthwhile watch. I don't rate it super high, because there were a lot of inconsistencies and character development issues that kept it from being an outstanding show. The musical score for it was really good, I liked all the songs and particularly liked the theme song. I would recommend it for anyone that is a fan of either of the leads, and/ or those that can suspend a lot of belief and just enjoy the action, the intended mystery and the romance of the leads. I would not rewatch it very soon, although if it was on, and somebody was watching it, I would probably watch it with them.

Spoilers*

Although doppelgängers are a real thing they never explained well how the two came to be in the same place overseas at the same time. If they had crossed paths in China it would have been more believable but for doppelgängers to cross paths overseas like that just when the one is about to be kidnapped, represents too many rare events all in one to make it believable.

The main girl was very uncertain, not very forceful, and got very nervous about everything in tge start of the series and the male lead role in that first part fit that lethal man description. There were a series of action scenes. Where he was forceful, and was amazing in fighting. He talked her into pretending to be the girl that had died and even guilted her into it. In the first part of the series, they made it out that her pretending to be her doppelgänger was a critical part of his plan to get in and back at that family. But then the chaebol girl, that was in love with Xing Chen, found out that Man Ning wasn't really the daughter of the family. To get Xing Chen, the love rival forced a situation that caused Man Ning to reveal she was not the family heiress. Rather than remedy the situation as he so vehemently promised he would,he drops the plan and reveals he is the grandson they thought was dead. Which made his insistence Man Ning pose as her look alike nonsensicle. Why did they need to do that if he was a relative? They never fully explained why he did not reveal his identity in the first place. ZHe also also agreed to marry the girl that had tried to kill the woman he loved. That made no sense as there was little to gain from marrying her.

The entire "she is allergic to mangoes but has to eat them to prove she is the heiress" made no sense. Knowing how severly allergic she was, there were so many options she had not to eat them. She could've said she developed an allergy. She could've said she was feeling sick. She could've just had a small but and said she was full. With so many believable reasons to not eat the mangoes, it was odd that she ate the whole thing. Then here he was, the guy who promised he would protect her and take care of problems, watching her eat the desert. He should have been able to clearly see something was wrong with her eating the mangoes. He wasn't a lethal man in those portions of the story he was more like inaction man. And then she has this huge allergic reaction, and rather than take her into a hospital, he gives her some home remedy to make her vomit. Simply making someone vomit that has that severe of a reaction is not enough to stop it. And then he puts her in the shower presumptively to cool her rash or fever but blocks her body with his which kept most of the water off her.

The "love at first sight was way overdone." Multiple characters has love at first sight with other characters. They made it out like loving someone at first sight is a valid thing and you can develop a deep emotional attachment that quickly. It made it nonsensical that several of the characters were so heartbroken when they were rejected after not really knoing the person to begin with.

While Xing Chen was a not so lethal man, more of an overly emotional wreck on many occasions his right hand man team was worse. One of his team was supposed to be an amazing bodyguard and the other a highly skilled hacjpker but they both failed more than they succeeded. Main guy would assign something to them, like keeping the girl from leaving, and she would just slip by them relatively easily. Still he acted like they were so awesome and trustworthy .


The second half of the show the characters did a flip-flop where now she is strong and forceful, and he is uncertain and even gets suicidal. While I love that she never let him trample on her, and when he was cruel, rejecting her, she didn't cry and beg, it was a reversal of her earlier personality. I was happy she told him off and even bit him when he acted cruelly toward her. But whe had allowed him, early on, to put his hands on her and even choke her and just cowered in response. So for her to suddenly be the forceful one was a huge shift. He, on the other hand, had been arrogant, confident and cold, and also very capable and strong emotionally in the first partl. Then, in the second half he was suddenly falling all apart. I think the most confusing scene with him was after he told her he didn't love her, goes to confront the family all forcefully but just falls apart the moment they flip it on him. So they lied to him and told him he wasn't part of the family that he was adopted or a bastard child and he initially meets it with his usual "lethal man" like response. He even responds defiantly "you think you're gonna do anything to me?" But then, the next scene, he's at the water ready to jump in and end it all. Was he defiant or broken? Defiant made sense as a "lethal man" but broken like that was out of character.

It felt like they missed a lot of opportunities. They could've made her the actual real daughter, and that the identical twins were split up when they were young to keep them safe. That would have been a twist tha made sense. And he could've been a son of the other family. That way they weren't related, but they both were heirs to explain why they would've wanted to hide them. Then with the aunt, who was all murderous, we find out she's the daughter of the Butler essentially, and that they adopted her into the family and treated her as one of them. From scores of other dramas the wealthy famikies usually ostracized and ousted illegitamite children so for them to so easily incorporate her made no sense. Why? The mother typically refused to accpept children that were not her own so where was the grandmother? Since the Aunt was a preteenor teenager when she was adopted, why did she feel so entitled to everything the family had? I know she was crazy, but even a crazy person would've realized that they weren't a natural born child, and would not have had as much as the oldest child, so that didn't make any sense. She also claimed a lot of abuse in that gazebo garden area but they only showed one incident and it seem to be grandfatger misunderstood and thought she had hurt the oldest daughter. Just that one incident made it hard to buy that she was as crazy as she was about that gazebo.

There was never any justice for grandpa. It was never revealed the Aunt made him so distressed it triggered the heart attack and then she, rather than help him, backed him off the steps, and then he fell and hit hiss head. She murdered him. The grandpa wanted to cover for her for 17 years, which made no sense as he was supposedly always punishing her for other things. Little things. But he was okay covering up her murders? The murder of his daughter and her family? Made no sense.

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Better than Expected

The storyline was good with enough changes and suspense to keep you interested. Good script and a good opening, and I look forward to seeing more of Chu De Jian’s work. Didn’t expect that the aunt was the culprit, which was hidden well in the story. Also didn’t expect Yan Yi’s mother would still be alive, a couple of flashbacks leading up to it would have made the story more mysterious. Also couldn’t understand how Yan Yi lost his position in the corporation. A better job could have been done leading up to it.
Fan Zhixin did a good job of portraying his character. This is the first film I've seen him in and would like to see him do more films as an ML.

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This is a fun drama to watch for viewers that are looking for a leading couple with great romantic chemistry. The drama offers romance, mystery, intrigue, and some good action scenes with a dose of some exaggerated humor coming mainly from the characters Rao Mei Na and Fang Xiang that was really unnecessary, these two characters had so much more to offer than just that. Although there are ridiculous twists on the story, the drama is interesting enough to keep the viewer watching until the end. Although the ending is a happy one, it felt a bit rushed in order to get a kind of complete resolution to the revenge/finding justice plot. Still, the leading couple carried the plot with a steadfast love and great romantic scenes. Enjoy it!

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Typical M&B romance

!! Beware !! Please leave your logic out the window when you decide to continue watching this, coz I'm telling you, there will be a lot of ridiculous, inconsistent and illogical scenes in the story that will make you fume and drop this ?

Luckily for me, I did just that and I get to enjoy and finish until the last episode.
The only redeeming quality here, imho, was the nifty acting skill of Fan Zhi Xin... It was truly impressive and did justice to his character, the first time I have realized he has real potential.

Watch this purely for romance (if you have time and patience) and just go with the flow. ?

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Strong Relationship

I really do like their relationship. I feel like even their breakups made sense to the story and weren't just to creat angst cause the writers didn't know what to do next. I love how she always chases him, not because she lacks dignity but because she genuinely loves him and has faith he cares for her too. And people say she cares more and puts more effort, that's only outside appearances. I think it makes sense for his character that he takes so long to say I love you. If you watch him every time she tells him she loves him he looks kind of amazed and scared. He says he never thought he would find love, but he found her and she becomes his whole world. I love how his walls seem to fall down with her. And I love how insistent she is with him. She's not just a simpering ninny who let's things steal her love and life and hope. But she fought for it and supported him no matter what. I love the part when she interups his engagement ceremony. It was so refreshing that he ran after her right away. I also love when he tells Tang Lin that "There's always someone in this world who is more important than your life." After being hospitalized from having a panic attack because he forced himself into the ocean to save Manning.


I did think her best friend was very obnoxious and can't understand why the MLS 2 friends fell for her, I couldn't stand the chick. And Tang Lin sure had some guile and delusional tendencies (narcissistic). The part when she's crying after he leaves their engagement ceremony? To answer her question. No liking someone isn't wrong. But ruining an obvious devoted relationship because you think you have the right to a taken man is wrong. I wanted to slap her and tell her to get over herself. Like seriously, you can obviously tell how much he and Manning love each other but she clearly is too much of a selfish twit to care more about someone else than herself or to feel any indignant dignity of being unwanted. She's the real one with no dignity. And I guess she does redeem herself in the long run but jeez she was annoying. I couldn't even bring myself to feel bad she was embarrassed the way she was when he left. Serves her right.

A few things I didn't like was how the plot got a little slow and, how the lighting was set every time there was a damn kiss. Jeez, you could hardly see them because you were being blinded by a random strobe. And it made it unnecessaryily cheesy. I wish I could tip the directors that NO ONE LIKES IT when they do this and they need to stop doing it.

If I was rating the main romance aspect of the story it would be a 9.5-10. But because the story got a bit slow I took my overall rating down to a 9.

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Something new and fresh

I liked the FL in A camellia Romance cos she is pretty cute and acts well. And I am liking her in this show as well thought it’s a bit slow but that is because is more matured than normal cdrama. I like the twists and turns in the drama and the fact that their next move is always unpredictable. I think I would have to rewatch it though to fully understand the show but so far so good ?. And also I noticed they do not repeat outfits constantly. Another thing I can wait for the FL to fully embody the character she is portraying Xinyan and Xinyan was shown to bold, brave and calculative. I can’t wait for her to stop being a scaredy pants.

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Opinons

Story: Oh, I could dive deep in the story. It was amazing! Twists, turns, Plot twists, etc. The story in a quick summary, *Yan Xicheng (Yan Yi) Had been seeking revenge on those who killed his parents and tried to kill him 17 years ago. Shen Manning, Had been a substitute as his wife to get more information on them.*
Just the story alone could have been a whole book.

Cast: I loved the Cast, Though Fan Zhixin carried most of it. I wouldn't say FL was bad. Confidence was a bit more prominent in Fan Zhixin, not as much to FL. But the cast was amazing. Now, the Second Leads Were so Funny! Fang Xiang, and Meimei. Such a funny duo, I had previously seen them in Time to fall in love as AnAn, And Situ. They act great together, a cute couple and have sibling energy that I'm here for.

Music: I didn't pay too much attention to it, But the Main Theme and the little moments with no talking and just music were cute. Having the romantic music behind them, intimate moments. Also the intense moments, Scary. It added a lot to the whole 'Lethal' mood. Though the Main theme was my favourite.

Rewatch Worthy: Definitely, I rewatched it a lot! It was such a good show to rewatch, even though I knew what happened I still liked seeing the moments I didn't remember. Most importantly, Just assessing the things I missed. There was a whole ton I could've missed that I can catch and Laugh at. The whole show is amazing to rewatch. Definitely Worthy of it to.

Overall: Just a whole survey over it, It's in my head a ten. I found this to be my favourite drama and it still is to this day. When I first watched it from the first few minutes I was captivated by it. I definitely recommend it!

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This one's doe Yan xingcheng

Only thing I wanna say is the actors did a great job... Especially the male lead... I mean he has such an incredible talent for acting and he's just 24...lol I'm 22 and jobless....
Let's appreciate his effort.
Loopholes and flaws in the story are not his problem, it's for the writer to think about.
Female lead was kinda on and off but she did perform well.
Other supporting roles did a great job too.
P. S : They should've reduced kiss scenes, I mean romance doesn't mean kiss though!!

If you r wondering, yes this review is biased!
But thanks for your time though.
If you liked the male lead you'll agree with me.

Have a great day!

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