Zai Ci Ren Sheng (2025)

Mr and Mrs SMITH - Not the average : "travel into the world of the VR game " trope.

The story: FL & ML are 2 badasses rival business investors In Real Life. They got trapped in a Virtual Reality Game. And their mission is to eliminate each other basically. FL is team SML , she must eliminate ML and ML goes against SML. How is it going to end up?

Like for Mr and Mrs SMITH, the leads have a strong opposition. And good news, this is not the average : "travel into the world of the VR game " trope.

Well... Bravo to the writers of this mini drama and also to all the cast and crew because they never seize to surprise me throughout the whole show. Of course, there were some clichés and tropes but some of them were criticized and ridiculed by the Leads themself. Make it a fun and caricatural watch and frankly I never got borred. Sometimes I guessed were the story was heading but there was always some surprising elements that kept me hoocked. This drama was the only salvation from a drama slump, and I am grateful for that.
Although the Leads are surrounded BY NPC (Non Player Characters). They still treat them as real humain beings who struggle in their mission and build their life choices after choices ; actions after actions. I liked this existensialist approach of what human beings are. This is also why I loved the way ML and FL respected the NPC's lifes and decisions. At some point we viewers forget that those NPC are just lines of codes because the heroes treat them as equals. It was beautiful.


Pros :
- Ruthless and badass FL .
- Smart and cunning ML.
- FL is like an anti heroine, and ML is also an anti hero.

- Good side characters and good side stories as well. That's a plus.
- Good CGI.
- No stupid Breakup.
- Multi dimensional characters and this is delightful to watch. All the characters have a back story that can explain why they are the way they are. Positive or negative, This adds a human touch and makes their struggles more real.
- Character development for almost all the characters. A breath of fresh air. Everybody finds his purpose and everybody find solace in something they value in this drama. So this is another good point that makes it more enjoyable.
- The OST is really gorgeous.
- Good morals.
- Cinematography, acting, costumes, makeup, hairstyle... Everything was well crafted.

Cons:
- The grand mother's wig looks so fake. *Laughing*
- In the middle of the drama, the pacing was slower. But this is not really a flaw, considering that it was the psychological war between ML and FL in accepting that they love each other. It was totally normal to slow down the pacing.
- The business talks could have been better. But I am nitpicking. This show was so well crafted. I have difficulties finding flaws.
- Kisses are not so great, although chemistry is fine.

Overall:
This is one of the best mini dramas I watched to date. It was very entertaining and I was addicted to it as it aired.
The two heroes are equally strong and their battles of wits were the most enjoyable to me.

So, if you like strong characters and enemies to loves tropes with a sprinkle of thought provoking questions like : what is really a humain being ? Is he the sum of his actions or is he defined by his pre-existing essence ?
You might like this drama as much as I did.

Happy watching. (>_^)

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It's not extraordinary, but it's interesting.

In a sea of ​​modern cdramas releases that seem like the "same old story again" - since 2024 - "Live Or Love?" comes with a very different and interesting proposal.

To be honest, I didn't have high expectations, but I ended up being surprised. The drama is fun.

Getting straight to the point, I believe that the highlight of the drama is the intrigues and "survival games" within the plot. Besides the two MCs, it is not known who are NPCs and who are real people, so this is interesting to watch.

In addition, the MCs' chemistry is very good, at least in the "teasing" phase. After that, we end up losing some of the tension between them

The drama is a little confusing in some parts and silly in others, especially in the SFL part, but, overall, it is worth watching for the fun.

For those who, like me, missed some drama related to e-sports, it's a crumb

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