This review may contain spoilers
A BL which will make you suffer (mostly in a good way)
STORY - 8.5/10
My first impression was that Chi Cheng is by far not as toxic as everyone promotes him to be. Overall he's quite a "sheep in wolf's clothing"-character and is very adorable, especially when it comes to Wu Suo Wei.
Wu Suo Wei's antics were really entertaining. I understand that he needed to come to terms with his own feelings. BUT Chi Cheng just doesn't take a simple "No" for an answer and doesn't listen to the explanations Wu Suo Wei tries to give him. Be warned that if you value explicit, very clear consent in shows, you will probably not like "Revenged love".
At no point did I feel like I was impatiently waiting for the main couple to get together, because you get the occasional hot/sweet moments even though they're not really together yet.
I didn't like the whole 5-day deadline thing, though, and the weird lies of Wu Suo Wei's "master" and "friend" that came from it. I really thought he would just have a sincere talk with Wu Suo Wei or sth and not just try to manipulate him. At least the resolution to this conflict is handled well, and Chi Cheng sincerely apologizes. Still, I found this whole side plot more infuriating than entertaining and thus quite unnecessary.
In the case of the big Wang Shuo conflict, the miscommunication trope was done really well, though, as initially they just hide stuff from each other to prevent the other one from getting hurt. After all that suffering we went through, I would've hoped that they had a proper, sincere talk after all that crap instead of just pinky-promising each other to never hide things from each other ever again. I doubt that that will work out for them in the long run. They need couples therapy XD.
I also didn't like that there were some very cliché snake-attack scenes. Most importantly, the one where Wu Suo Wei gets almost strangled to death. That's really unrealistic for a multitude of reasons and just feeds into negative snake stereotypes. Beyond that, I was disappointed that the snakes weren't present at all in the story beyond a certain point.
AND HUH, why does Wu Suo Wei in turn manipulate his friend to sleep with Guo after being upset before because his friend manipulated him?! Especially problematic, because Jiang Xiao Shuai has most certainly experienced trauma from being taken advantage of before. He CLEARLY hasn't learned his lesson of communicating openly with other people.
The side couple is very adorable and wholesome and Jiang Xiao Shuai's backstory was really sad and well done. TBH I like them more than the main couple. They just have overall better vibes and a lot less drama.
Yue Yue is quite annoying, but she's supposed to be and doesn't get too much screentime XD. It would be cool if she weren't such a one-dimensional, stereotypical gold-digger character, but it didn't bother me all that much (as she is not that important to the overall story). I don't like that she's kind of stupid; c'mon, give her at least a few positive traits.
I also feel like generally all the characters could've been more dimensional, as you certainly had the time to with a 24-episode run-time.
All in all, I think "Revenged Love" is a very entertaining BL with quite a lot of good moments. You definitely need to go into it with the right expectations so you don't end up being disappointed. Even though I liked most of the plot, some events in the story really bother me.
ACTING/CAST - 8/10
The acting is quite good most of the time, but sometimes they fail at conveying big emotions. They could've portrayed feelings of hurt a little more convincingly (e.g., Chi Cheng's emotional outburst in ep. 17). Chi Cheng's actor especially tends to do those weird, blank, head-empty kind of faces sometimes, which look just kind of stupid, tbh.
I don't like how the slightly spicier scenes are edited. Like, can't you hold on for just one second and not cut to a different perspective/panning shot (for reference: beginning of ep12)? Just CHILL for a second, please. AND WHY are they sometimes suddenly shown upside down?
Other than that, I like that not every episode ends with an insane, over-the-top cliffhanger.
MUSIC - 10/10
I loved the OST. It has some really memorable tracks. I also loved that some of them get incorporated in the story itself by being sung by the characters in some scenes.
REWATCH VALUE - 7/10
I doubt that I'll ever rewatch this show as it's quite long for my standards. But overall it's a good show that you could certainly enjoy multiple times as it's really entertaining.
My first impression was that Chi Cheng is by far not as toxic as everyone promotes him to be. Overall he's quite a "sheep in wolf's clothing"-character and is very adorable, especially when it comes to Wu Suo Wei.
Wu Suo Wei's antics were really entertaining. I understand that he needed to come to terms with his own feelings. BUT Chi Cheng just doesn't take a simple "No" for an answer and doesn't listen to the explanations Wu Suo Wei tries to give him. Be warned that if you value explicit, very clear consent in shows, you will probably not like "Revenged love".
At no point did I feel like I was impatiently waiting for the main couple to get together, because you get the occasional hot/sweet moments even though they're not really together yet.
I didn't like the whole 5-day deadline thing, though, and the weird lies of Wu Suo Wei's "master" and "friend" that came from it. I really thought he would just have a sincere talk with Wu Suo Wei or sth and not just try to manipulate him. At least the resolution to this conflict is handled well, and Chi Cheng sincerely apologizes. Still, I found this whole side plot more infuriating than entertaining and thus quite unnecessary.
In the case of the big Wang Shuo conflict, the miscommunication trope was done really well, though, as initially they just hide stuff from each other to prevent the other one from getting hurt. After all that suffering we went through, I would've hoped that they had a proper, sincere talk after all that crap instead of just pinky-promising each other to never hide things from each other ever again. I doubt that that will work out for them in the long run. They need couples therapy XD.
I also didn't like that there were some very cliché snake-attack scenes. Most importantly, the one where Wu Suo Wei gets almost strangled to death. That's really unrealistic for a multitude of reasons and just feeds into negative snake stereotypes. Beyond that, I was disappointed that the snakes weren't present at all in the story beyond a certain point.
AND HUH, why does Wu Suo Wei in turn manipulate his friend to sleep with Guo after being upset before because his friend manipulated him?! Especially problematic, because Jiang Xiao Shuai has most certainly experienced trauma from being taken advantage of before. He CLEARLY hasn't learned his lesson of communicating openly with other people.
The side couple is very adorable and wholesome and Jiang Xiao Shuai's backstory was really sad and well done. TBH I like them more than the main couple. They just have overall better vibes and a lot less drama.
Yue Yue is quite annoying, but she's supposed to be and doesn't get too much screentime XD. It would be cool if she weren't such a one-dimensional, stereotypical gold-digger character, but it didn't bother me all that much (as she is not that important to the overall story). I don't like that she's kind of stupid; c'mon, give her at least a few positive traits.
I also feel like generally all the characters could've been more dimensional, as you certainly had the time to with a 24-episode run-time.
All in all, I think "Revenged Love" is a very entertaining BL with quite a lot of good moments. You definitely need to go into it with the right expectations so you don't end up being disappointed. Even though I liked most of the plot, some events in the story really bother me.
ACTING/CAST - 8/10
The acting is quite good most of the time, but sometimes they fail at conveying big emotions. They could've portrayed feelings of hurt a little more convincingly (e.g., Chi Cheng's emotional outburst in ep. 17). Chi Cheng's actor especially tends to do those weird, blank, head-empty kind of faces sometimes, which look just kind of stupid, tbh.
I don't like how the slightly spicier scenes are edited. Like, can't you hold on for just one second and not cut to a different perspective/panning shot (for reference: beginning of ep12)? Just CHILL for a second, please. AND WHY are they sometimes suddenly shown upside down?
Other than that, I like that not every episode ends with an insane, over-the-top cliffhanger.
MUSIC - 10/10
I loved the OST. It has some really memorable tracks. I also loved that some of them get incorporated in the story itself by being sung by the characters in some scenes.
REWATCH VALUE - 7/10
I doubt that I'll ever rewatch this show as it's quite long for my standards. But overall it's a good show that you could certainly enjoy multiple times as it's really entertaining.
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