Startling Love (2023)

A Really Fun Watch (too bad it's only on Mango with terrible subs)

Caveat: It's hard to recommend trying to watch this if you need the subs, because Mango really is the worse when it comes to bad machine translations. One glaring one in this show is the translation of the FL's nickname (Mo Mo) into.... DOG. Yes, every time anyone called her Mo Mo the subs would say DOG (in caps).

On to my actual review.

The Good:
- Amazing crossdressing comedy galore! Probably because of censorship, I have not seen a lot of good crossdressing cdramas in recent years. This one has the Male Lead spend most of his time dressed as a woman to hilarious effect.
- Super bingeable. As a short form with each episode being 7-9 minutes, it is a satisfying watch with a complete story and no weird cliffhanger or confusing ending.
- The Male Lead is straight up pretty. No, really. As a tall woman, I think he actually looks quite lovely. Easy on the eyes dressed as either man or woman. He also just sells the role very well. I am quite impressed with his acting here.
- Cute secondary couple (with bonus crossdressing woman). The ML's sister has her own loveline/story and she spends most of her time dressed as a man. It's not as convincing as the ML, but it's much better than 80% of cdrama "woman dressed as a man" tropes out there. (Not that that's a hard bar to clear.)

The Mid:
- Predictable story with a lack of elaboration. The latter is expected for a short form so I can't put it into "not so good" but I've definitely watched short forms that surprised and delighted me with the interesting stories/twists they managed to put into them. I think this one definitely tries to fit a longer story into a shorter form in many ways. It means that everything moves fast, but also doesn't give any time for detail.
- The FL did not overly impress me. She reminded me a lot of Tian Xiwei's characters, with the "I'm cute with permanent pouty lips" affect. It's fine for the role, but I wanted to see more range and depth out of her character.
- The rest of the cast was also fairly unremarkable.
- For a romance, I was hoping there would be more focus on the romance. Instead, the story spent most of its time on the mystery/crime solving.

The Not So Good:
- Don't expect a lot of logic as to how some things work out. It has its share of contrived convenient solutions to problems that don't pass a suspension of disbelief check.

Overall, I had a really fun time with this one. I admit that I am biased heavily by a good crossdressing trope. But if you're looking for a light, enjoyable short form, this definitely hits the spot. I really hope it doesn't stay in Mango subs only purgatory forever so that a wider audience can enjoy it.

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