Jia Mian Wei Qing (2025)

Watch for the more complex than usual scumbag! Interesting, though it left me ambivalent at the end.

(I rate vertical dramas on their own sliding scale.) General spoilers only. Basic plot (the summary on iQIYI isn't quite correct so I've edited it): "Five years ago, Ye Chuchu [FL] gives up her career as a jewelry designer and marries her first love, Liang Jiaming [ML]." The FL's best friend, Man Lin, seduces the ML and the FL finds out. The confrontation accidentally causes a miscarriage. No one was aware the FL was pregnant so the SFL takes the opportunity to fake a DNA report saying the child was not the ML's. In a rage, the ML smothers the FL and, panicked, the SFL and ML take the FL to the top of a building to stage a suicide. "Chuchu falls off the building, but survives." She comes back as Shen Wenjun's [SML] younger sister Shen Zhuoyan. "Filled with vengeance, she is bent on making the scumbag and traitor pay the price," starting with the seduction of the ML.

I really appreciated the complexity in the ML's character, and the actor was fantastic. Even though he's the scumbag, the story revolves around the FL and him so I'm terming him the ML. The SML, who loves and supports the FL, is a simplistic secondary character and does not get much screen time.

A heads-up: this is focused on revenge and some seduction; the romance is a small part and taken for granted (not built up). The FL has more skinship, moments of sexual tension, and kisses with the ML scumbag than the bland-as-water SML. And though there are satisfying seduction scenes, I would not count this as a steamier vertical drama, in large part because the FL does her utmost to string the ML along with as little physical intimacy as she can from her end because he, understandably, disgusts her.

Mixed feelings about this one. Storytelling was strong for a while but then the satisfaction I was feeling while watching started decreasing, and took a turn towards a bit annoyed near the end.

PROS:
1) I liked the spin that it was a revenge story of a person supposedly dead, but NOT a rebirth plot (though I enjoy those too).

2) As I mentioned, the complexity of the ML's character made this common plot more interesting to watch. Plus, the actor has great acting skills, has plenty of charisma, and can kiss well. The character is a narcissist with alterior motives (the FL's dowry), but he does actually care about her somewhat. He starts out rejecting the SFL's advances. Caves quickly, but still, it's unusual to see in this type of plot. He has every intention of keeping ChuChu as his wife and the SFL only as a mistress.
When ChChu comes back as ZhuoYan, the ML is greatly drawn to her because she looks like his ex wife. The FL manages to dissuade him of his suspicions regarding her identity in large part because he just wants it to be true (that she's someone else) because he wants to pursue her (for sex and money mainly, though also a bit of nostalgia for his ex wife too).

3) The idea of seducing back her ex to torment the SFL and to get a hold of the ML's wealth and company, is fun and interesting to watch for a good portion of the show.

4) For those who care (and I'm one), some realistic kisses from the ML infused with desire (but not the SML- though they had a simple kiss I think, it wasn't memorable, obviously).

CONS:
In the later part of the show, multiple issues with the FL started to grow for me.
1) She becomes less and less smart about how to enact her revenge. She repeatedly puts herself in potentially dangerous situations with the ML and SFL with no good preperation or backup plans.Multiple times she is only protected by the SML popping up out of nowhere, at just the right moment.

2) She is so focused on revenge that she disregards other people who care about her. Examples (small spoilers): The SML is one, and the other: the audience only learns near the end that the FL's father is still alive, and is still grieving the death of his daughter for over a year! She hasn't told him anything. That really tanked my opinion of her.

3) Justice through the law is not part of her plan at all. Examples (small spoilers): She conciously has a hand in a tertiary character's death.
The police are never involved until the very, very end, when we hear about the final fate of the ML and SFL through a report on the TV.
It doesn't appear that she's trying to gather evidence this whole time either. She's just determined to ruin her wrongdoers to the point of... it's not clear...

4) Which is another frustration. Except for one part (taking over the company) the endgame of her revenge is not clear. So it feels like she's kind of flailing about rather pointlessly near the end. It wasn't that satisfying to me.

Overall:
Despite my frustrations I deem it a decent one-time watch. I did not fast-forward and enjoyed a good chunk of it.

I watched on iQIYI (in the US) on 8/6/25 as Masked Danger.

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