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Caught in the Heartbeat chinese drama review
Completed
Caught in the Heartbeat
3 people found this review helpful
by ctechperson
Feb 1, 2022
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0

Thoughtful crime drama with a splash of romance

I looked this one up because I like three of the main actors (FL, ML, ML's sidekick ZiCheng). I was not disappointed.

The first episode scared me a bit with the "Chinese physics" problems (accidental kisses), but then it settled and became a good crime drama. There's an underlying mystery surrounding her memory -- we get a few clues now & then until about episode 30, then the remaining episodes really focus in on solving that problem. The first 30 episodes they work on solving other crimes... there was a bit of a sense of Scheherazade, in that you'd be half way through solving one crime, and get some interesting leads towards a second crime.

The best part of the crime solving was that they walked you through the logic: if A is true, and B is possible, then we should think about C. It always walked you through their thinking. This could be considered a "cerebral" crime drama, in that it's much more on the discussion of the logic than on running around with shooting, car chases, and explosions.

It's worth a rewatch because there are clues you get in one episode that you don't notice until a few episodes later when it gets raised. Lots of "oh... yeah..." moments.

The main romance was very slow after episode 1. It was a believable progression, but it's a very thin layer on top of the police work. The secondary romance felt kind of forced.

GuJing's chemistry with the two guys (YiXiu and ZiCheng) was good, but not at the amazing level of to Dr. Qin.

Dislikes
* Tang Yi Xiu's interrogations got annoying. He gets upset quickly.
* A few too many of the same flashbacks -- sure, FL's recovering her memory, but we don't need to see the entirety of every flashback every time
* Ah Zi started off interesting -- stereotypical Chinese giggly girl, but with a very cool interesting layer of capability underneath... but then shifted to a bit too dumb for her own good

As of Feb 2021, I found English subs through episode 26, then shifted to French subs for the rest. (My Chinese is good, but not for crime terms.) French subs did the song lyrics too.
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