Night of Love With You (2022)

Since this is a 9-minute per episode mini series, I went into this drama with pretty low expectations. I was trying to find something to pass the time with, so I tried one episode and instantly got hooked. The episodes flew by and before I knew it, I had binged half of the drama in a single sitting. It also became my all time favorite short web drama!

The story is about comic book characters becoming self-aware, so right off the bat it reminded me of Extraordinary You and W: Two Worlds, but it still manages to be original. This drama occasionally pokes fun at C-drama cliches and never takes itself too seriously. In fact, the drama is an altered adaptation (kind of like a parody) of a very corny romance novel that actually exists in real life.

Story follows our FL who is a self-aware comic book actress. She has a lot of experience playing the female antagonist in different comics, and since she retains the memories of each comic, her actual personality is cunning, smart and anti-heroish. (Seldom do we see smart female leads in these kinds of Asian dramas, so this point alone is enough for this drama to score high!) She is tasked to play an antagonist again in a new comic, but when she is thrown into that world, a system error occurs and she ends up become the female lead instead, all the while retaining her self-awareness and villainous personality. Due to the mishap, the male lead (I denote him as OG-ML) which she is supposed to romance with is temporarily incapacitated, and she crosses paths with the male antagonist (ML in this drama) instead. Since both FL and ML have villainous personalities, they start playing 4-dimensional chess with each other and always correctly guess each other's intentions. Not only do they have chemistry, they're pretty much the same kind of person, like a match made in heaven. I really enjoyed their interactions. Feelings of love happen early on but naturally, unlike many dramas with rushed and half-baked romance lines. They even came up with a good excuse to add kissing scenes that can be explained by the plot.

In the later half of the drama is where the suspense kicks in and it kept me at the edge of my seat after every episode. I really could not predict what would happen next with all the plot twists. The drama ticks all the right boxes. And even though it's short, it never felt rushed or shallow. It probably told a better story than a lot of full length dramas.

I recommend this drama to anyone who likes fantasy romance. There's literally no reason not to try this - it's short so even if you end up not enjoying it, it's not a huge waste of time.

Positives:
- We get to see romance between two villainous characters, which is very uncommon
- We have a smart and cunning FL who can defend herself
- Plot makes fun of drama cliches (even FL points out how cheesy some of the plot is)
- Unpredictable twists and turns, engaging from start to finish
- Liu Xie Ning's acting really stands out

Negatives:
- Why in the world is this drama so short, when some way shxxier dramas get 30+ episodes?
- Characters are paper-thin, they have no backstory except the several lines of description given to them by the comic
- Certain plot points make no sense at all, such as the knife stabbing scenes in the drama
- The logic of the comic world is unclear and inconsistent, causing problems to arise and get resolved out of the blue without a convincing explanation. This is one of those dramas that are not to be taken too seriously.

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Antagonists in love?

So, listen here, the story goes like this:
Qiqi is a character in the comic-world, who has always played the female supporting role (antagonist) and thus is very experienced in that. But due to a system error, in the next comic she is sent to, she mistakenly has to play the part of the female lead instead, which she is not familiar with at all. Because of this sudden realization, she accidentally injures the male lead of the comic, making him unconscious for some time. During those days, as the comic-ML is down, the main story of the comic can't start, and is instead changed and dragged out by the comic's supporting female lead chasing the female lead. Qiqi, trying to escape the situation, runs right into the arms of Leng Yehan - the male supporting role (antagonist). She feels safe with him, because she is aware he doesn't have a love-story in the comic, plus she knows his secrets, with which she threatens him to help her during this period of time. With this unplanned connection, a new love-story evolves.

The quality and acting were pretty decent for such a short drama/mini drama. There were also lots of fun scenes that made me laugh out loud, as well as some adorable ones. But I'm most surprised about the very interesting story-line. There are currently lots of short C-Dramas coming out, in which the female lead time travels, or is pulled into a drama-, book- or comic-world. But "Night of Love With You" still felt fresh. I was entertained throughout the whole drama, I binged it within a few hours.

What I also loved are the Main Leads of the drama (Qiqi and Leng Yehan). Qiqi was not cutesy, nor over the top. I actually found her pretty cool. Although she had to abide to the story of her comic character, she let us know her thoughts about those annoying clichés used in dramas/comics, haha. I also loved Yehan. Although he changed after meeting Qiqi, he didn't take a complete 180 degree turn. Some character traits of his stayed through the whole drama, which I'm glad about. Fortunately, Qiqi only had to act FL-like when the comic-ML was around, so with Yehan she could be herself xD I also really love the ending! <3

Don't be scared off by the Love Square tag. It wasn't that bad, plus it's essential for the story. That's what made the story interesting. I also loved how some characters were forced to certain key-events of the comic, and got conscious of it. Pretty cool.

Still, I have lots of questions. Given the short length, they focused on the relationship of the characters most. Otherwise they could have made it a full length series and focused on all aspects here. Like… what is outside the comic-world? Why is Qiqi aware of the comic-world and plays her role in different comics, while other characters don't? What are the rules and tricks in the comic world? They could also have dug deeper into the character's stories, etc etc...

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