Mysterious Love 2 (2023)

Sizzling Hot

After watching The Romance of a Twin Flower, I find myself watching seemingly yet another twin flower drama with Love of Replica. The latter drama is full of suspense, mysteries, hot romance, and action. Both the main male and female actors are good looking with good acting skills, and their chemistry sizzling hot. With only 16 episodes, all the episodes are packed with clues and action that eventually lead to the unfolding of all the mysteries.

Lu Jinyan’s (Tsao Yuning’s) father was involved in an accident and is now lying in a coma. He suspects his father’s accident is malicious and related to Xu Yongyu (Li Yatian), a despicable ultra wealthy tycoon surrounded by bodyguards, who would do anything to get what he wants. To investigate, Lu Jinyan gets himself hired by Xu Yongyu as a bodyguard for his beloved daughter, Xu Xixi (Yilia Yu). Lu Jinyan doesn’t like Xu Xixi because she is mean and nasty, typical of a spoiled brat as a “da xiao jie” (大小姐). But Xu Xixi is sick with an incurable disease and her father goes all out to find a cure for her.

On that fateful day, Xu Xixi gets into a car accident. The car she travels in plunges into the sea. Lu Jinyan risks his life and saves her. When Xu Xixi wakes up, she appears to have lost her memory. She doesn’t recognize anyone in her household including her bodyguard and her father. Her total change of personalities puzzles everyone, but Lu Jinyan immediately realizes this is not the actual Xu Xixi.

Lu Jinyan used to be in the military, so his bare hand combat skill is second to none. He is intelligent and calm, thinks fast, and doesn’t talk a lot. He later learns that the rescued Xu Xixi is actually An Yue, a woman who looks exactly the same as Xu Xixi. Assuming she is Xu Xixi’s twin, Lu Jinyan finds out Xu Xixi’s father tries to capture An Yue and his intention is not friendly. No one understands why Xu Yongyu loves a sickly daughter and yet wants to hurt another daughter who is in perfect health. Fearing harm for An Yue, Lu Jinyan and friends protect her from the father.

An Yue’s personality is totally different from that of Xu Xixi’s. An Yue is nice, kind and very lovable. Quickly Lu Jinyan falls in love with her. His love is passionate, at the same time he’s tormented because he knows he has broken his code as a bodyguard. He protects her with his life and always stays close to her wherever she goes. An Yue can’t help but falls in love with him at first sight because he saves and cares for her; he is also very attractive and oozing with male hormones. At this point, the plot thickens: who is An Yue? Why is she here? How is Lu Jinyan’s father involved in this? Each character holds a secret.

I have never watched Tsao Yuning’s and Yilia Yu’s work. Tsao Yuning’s portrayal of the cool and hunky Lu Jinyan is very believable; many viewers salivate over him. Yilia Yu has a mature woman look. Beautiful and sexy with large, soul-hooking eyes, she plays Xu Xixi and An Yue very well with distinctive different personalities. Without knowing, like Lu Jinyan, viewers can discern which character Yilia Yu is playing at a particular moment because she successfully exudes the qualities of each character. The other cast members are just as good, portraying their respective characters convincingly. In particular, the side couple with a love triangle is lovely and interesting.

This drama has nothing to do with a previous drama, Mysterious Love (2021), acted by the same main couple. It (the previous drama) is not a pre-requisite to watch this drama.

Love of Replica also produces a number of very good and memorable love songs, each played at the appropriate moments to accentuate the romance and love of the all the couples in the story.

My Verdict

This is an unexpectedly enjoyable drama to watch. Full of suspense, mysteries, and action, with a romance that is heart-pounding and suggestive. There is a lot of skinship for the main couple that whets the viewers’ appetite for more. Yes, this is a drama with the formula of mystery, action, and sex. Great story.

Enjoyable watch! Don’t miss it!

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Crackle, Pop, Sizzling Chemistry; Good Acting, But too Many Plot Holes in the Script

Didn't know the cast at all, heard it had good chemistry from the leads and was convinced after seeing a short trailer that I should give this a go. It was essentially crackle, pop with good acting but an all over the place script with a ton of confusing plot holes.

Pros: This was a short drama that basically ran on the absolute sizzling chemistry of the leads. From episode one when LJY first rescues his charge and understands she's not the original XXX but someone else, their connection is instantaneous. I can definitely say these entire 16 episodes ran on when the leads would have their moments together. Their make out sessions and eventual getting together did make you question whether you needed to let some cool air into the room; flames were lit. Also loved his fight scenes, they were very well choreographed.

What I didn't expect is that for a serious plot like twins or clones switching and the big bad wolf trying to kill everyone to save his supposed daughter, it had a fairly decent amount of comedy. And it was real humor, like LJY's jealous streak over AY (the umbrella thing, crushing the water bottle, punching dude in elevator), or the absolutely hysterical condom box reveal and then as I called it the "radioactive period," there were moments when you would double over with laughter. Even though LJY was technically her bodyguard, he went above and beyond his own job description for AY. Though we know she fell for him when she laid her eyes on him, he was not far behind though it took him a bit longer to admit it. Once he determined she was his woman and that was fairly early on even before he admitted it to himself, that was it. Stick a fork in him....dude is done! As the story progressed, them learning they had in fact met as children made them actual soulmates in this slightly futuristic world.

Great acting on the part of the FL as she had to play two completely different people and personalities. You knew when they were together in a scene or apart who was whom; so that was a job very well done there. We had a great support cast though not a great second couple and I'll speak about that below. Initially I thought of XXX as a second antagonist to her father because of her sheer nastiness, but in the last 3 episodes she really opened up and we really found out her true feelings. Her father trapping her at home and being a literal Guinea pig had in fact shortened her lifespan and caused her immeasurable pain. But he was too blinded by his own power and what he wanted to do that even when the truth about AY and XXX was staring him in the face, he was still determined to kill everyone in some BS revenge. He was loathsome and despicable but it made him a good villain.

TS, DBF, JC, even the other bodyguard Dayu who came to LJY's defense time and time again even in the end, were a great group of friends that worked together to get to the bottom of all of the mysteries and get justice for their friends. I loved how once they all met, they immediately and almost seamlessly became this singular unit of people. Even when the plot seemed to start to unhinge, as long as there was a steady flow of them, it was good.

Cons: The storyline was all over the place and yes, I understand only 16 episodes but then why create a love triangle for the second leads? Shoving DBF in between JC and TS was so weird and unnatural. Then to turn JC into a wimp just giving up on his love being all chivalrous and stepping back? It felt unnecessary and just threw that whole thing off balance. I didn't feel any chemistry between DBF and TS. They were great as friends for each other and everyone else. JC's ending up in a tent in the mountains with a pooch he found after all he'd been through instead of with the woman he really loved was a total copout. It felt like the writer gave up on him altogether.

The OSTs should have stayed in one language or another. And they were thrown into places that either required light instrumentation like the actual love scene in 12 or a rock ballad in 14 when LJY was single-handedly fighting off a slew of bodyguards. When the man is kicking ass and there's a slow love ballad playing, it throws the scene.

Too many very ridiculous things happening like LJY and AY going to the underground lab, the place has cameras everywhere and y'all didn't think you would be seen or caught? Or that it was a trap in the first place? For a smart and aware bodyguard and former soldier, that seemed out of character for him. Or his father waking up from like a multi-year coma and then arriving in a wheelchair like a saving avenger only to sacrifice himself for the cause at the end? Even with the most futuristic technology, there's no way he would look completely healthy in 15 minutes; it was laughable at how absurd it all was as they were very obviously racing for the finish line. Should have made it 20 episodes and flushed out a better ending. The amount of plot holes like that were too many to write. Oh and don't forget the head scratching scene after the last episode's credits.

Would I recommend it? Only for the "skinship" as the jargon goes or really awesome chemistry of the leads as well as the close friendships that either already existed or were made and the comedy. The rest was ok.

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