Campy but Fun

Out of boredom I'm trying out more Chinese dramas these days, and that's why I began watching My Lethal Man, a slightly absurd but visually lovely romantic thriller that had great ideas and plotting that tried hard to make it all work. If you can overlook about ten thousand mistakes with the storyline, characters and science and just go along for the ride, it's pretty fun, too.

The premise: Shen Manning, an ordinary Chinese art student at university, literally runs into her doppleganger, rich and powerful heiress Zhuang Xin Yan (both roles played by Li Mo Zhi) at school. Because they're as identical as twins, Manning is shortly after mistaken for Xin Yan and abducted by enemies of the Zhuang family. The real Xin Yan rescues her twin, but is killed while protecting Manning during a lethal car accident. Enter Yan Xing Cheng (played amazingly well by Fan Zhi Xin), Xin Yan's gorgeous and rather scary fiance, who orders the doctors to perform a corneal transplant from Xin Yan to Manning to save her sight. When Manning wakes up after the surgery, he demands she pose as Xin Yan and help him infiltrate the dead heiress's powerful family for reasons he won't explain. Although she initially resists (and nearly jumps off a building trying to avoid Xing Cheng), Manning's guilt over Xin Yan's death compels her to agree.

This rocky start was just the first of many thriller farces throughout the series. The Zhuang family is supremely messed up, and it seemed like every five minutes Manning was about to be exposed as a fraud. Yet somehow she always manages to save herself, whether it's eating a fruit she's allergic to, or figuring out an electronic password she couldn't possibly know. She also quickly falls for Xin Cheng, who alternates between threatening her, ignoring her, or kissing her like they're lovers when they're alone. When he's not with Manning he's either intimidating someone, beating the crap out of someone who gets in his face, or demonstrating how cold and indifferent he is (but he's really good at all of it, so you don't care.)

The problems with this series are so numerous we'll be here all day if I list them. I knew from the beginning who the real culprit was, so that could have been masked better. Someone in the script writing department also needs to learn the difference between corneas and irises. Smoke inhalation recovery takes a little longer than 5 minutes, too, guys. The most glaring error is when Xin Cheng's true identity is revealed, and you realize there's actually no point to him using Manning to get inside the Zhuang family when he could have just walked in and told them who he really is -- he has the DNA to prove it, too -- which also could easily resolve the black moment toward the end. Also, there are a couple of plot twists that were pretty silly, including one with Manning's dad that doubled back on itself at the last minute. A couple of secondary characters were absolutely wasted story-wise, including one of Xing Cheng's henchmen, who stole every scene he was in.

That said, the series was really fun, thanks to pretty stellar performances by the two main actors. There's a background myth of two roses woven throughout the story that I thought was beautiful. Everyone in the series is gorgeous, of course, and while all the actresses look on the anorexic side they weren't as painfully thin as some others I've seen in c-dramas. Some of the cinematography was actually very well done. In the end, I have to say I enjoyed it. Available on Viki.com