Embrace in the Dark Night (2024)

Guilty pleasure but so brainless

Okay, so I have to admit, there are way too many plot holes here for there to be any coherent story tbh. Most of the things make no sense, are quite brainless and make you lost. Half of the story is just the leads making out (hence, guilty pleasure) but the acting by Jesse and Tian Yang is top notch.

Also, it gets quite repetitive. In the sense, majority of the story entails FL doing stupid shit (one after another) and the ML saving her. There's nothing new. The suspense gets lifted early on, so you're just left wondering as to who will win this game. So many things do not make sense. So, do not watch this for the story.

However, do watch this for the chemistry. The leads are fantastic together and for people out there who seek skinship, this is it. Though, mind you, the romance is also very very toxic and abusive. If it was happening to anyone I know, in real life, I would 100% report it for harassment, lol. Have fun watching, shall you do that!

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Sexy romp ... if you like being thrown around like a rag doll and grabbed by the throat

If you park your brain at the door and ignore 2024 sensibilities on toxic behaviour, you could probably overlook everything wrong with this modern mini drama and be swept away by the over-the-top bodyguard romance melodrama that tries to be glamourous and sexy. It's an entertaining romp that doesn't require a lot of time commitment or brain cells, and I had to check myself and consider how I wanted to evaluate the show.

Playing to a sultry soundtrack that sounds an awful lot like Billie Eilish, Embrace in the Dark Night pushes the boundaries on what you would traditionally see in C-dramas when it comes to sexual innuendo and tension. (Pretty certain I saw a blurred wall of pink bondage/BDSM paraphernalia!) (So much innuendo! Blink and you'll miss the tongue!)

That's all fine and good, except these mini dramas have also normalized aggressive alpha male characters who make it a regular habit of pushing and pulling female lead character around like a rag doll and grabbing them by the throat. These so-called "alpha males" might seem sexy at a glance, but who really wants to be constantly pinned against a wall, thrown onto a bed or sofa, held against their will, or grabbed by the throat over and over and over and over again, for a kiss? Ugh. I'm sorry, this is neither romantic or "normal".

Embrace in the Dark Night is chock full of this. Yet, compared to other mini-dramas, especially the Republican Era genre where super toxic love/hate relationships are ubiquitous, this doesn't even feel particularly toxic somehow? Maybe this is the desensitization at work. And to be fair, Xu Zheqing's character is otherwise quite protective. But the actress, Gao Rongfang, certainly puts up with a lot of choking in general (even if fake), and a strangulation scene with a villain that looked unsettlingly real.

You may have seen Jesse Ren (who reminds me a little of Wang Ziqi and a dash of Bai Jingting) and Gao Rongfang playing supporting roles in full-length dramas; their acting is fairly decent here and they certainly have enough chemistry to keep the heat level elevated.

The overall story isn't terrible for this genre of melodrama; I didn't mind the less exciting, but sweet, secondary couple; and the production values are pretty good (was it costly to film that chase scene abroad?). But the execution and script could have been a lot better. I laughed at the use of Teslas, since its hackability has been a point of contention among EV enthusiasts and security experts. I couldn't help but wonder if this was an actual product placement or an unauthorized use of the brand, lol.

Despite its issues, I get it -- viewers aren't looking for reality. Audiences want to escape into a fantasy world of amped up sexual tension and unrestrained kissing -- plot-holes and red flags be damned.

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Stilted is best word to describe this mini drama

I watched this minidrama after heavy promotion on Youtube especially that bold trailer. If someone asks me to describe this drama in one word, I'd say 'stilted' is apt. Stilted acting, stilted character growth, stilted romance, stilted plot.

What I liked:
1) Qiao Fei characterisation - She is one of two characters that I like in this mini drama. Despite having less screen time, actress Zhang Ya Meng managed to give life to what could be a 2-dimensional character. I like her take charge nature, which is contrast to Female Lead Wen Xi.
2) Ren characterisation - He is the other character that I like in this mini drama, ever since his first appearance in the women's boutique. He is resourceful assistant to Male Lead Zhe Qing but he is his own person.
3) Qiao Fei - Ren romance - I prefer their romance to Zhe Qing-Wen Xi romance. Better chemistry & execution of their love story. It's cute that Ren felt challenged by Qiao Fei's remark of not dating younger men.

What I disliked:
1) Wen Xi characterisation - Gosh another damsel in distress. It's good that she came out of the "helpless girl shell" after her sister's accident. However her way of solving her sister's accident wasn't smart. She should have partnered up or "used" Zhe Qing.
2) Zhe Qing-Wen Xi romance - Gosh I cannot stand the manhandling! Some may find Zhe Qin's aggressiveness as hot but to me, it's just wrong. His moves were unnatural and stiff to the point of assault. Even most of kissing scenes were hard to watch because there were too much push factor rather than pull factor in their dynamics. Wen Xi never seemed to enjoy kissing.
3) Plot - just messy. I don't understand why Wen Xi was kidnapped in the first place. She was a nobody. Wen Hao's situations (being a whistleblower and having a secret romance) made this drama interesting but they became lost momentum once Wen Xi's romance developed and the villain had more screen time.

Favourite scene
When Wen Xi was drunk and Zhe Qing wanted to confirm her identity. What a smart way to validate your suspicion!

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Started with a bang and ended with explosion and confusion

PLEASE DONT BELIEVE THOSE 9.0 reviews! this drama is horrible! started interesting but slowly got abusive and manipulative.

1) the female lead is plain dumb! She tries come up with her own plans thinking they will work and doesnt consider danger as an issue , like she is naive in a lot of situations . She probably one of the dumbest female leads also getting manipulated the male lead.
2) The male lead fail to communicate and trust the female lead, like if he has just told the female lead maybe they could og work together.. It was the male lead bailing the female lead ass' every single time! Also he is very controlling a bit too sensual?
3) The bad guy is played pretty well where you hate him. He was abusived by his father which made him turn into a two face person .Like seemingly innocent but also a psychopath

The only good thing was the steamy romance but too much and always forced feels a little to much .

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The story is nonsensical, but the leads' chemistry makes up for it

The problem here is that this is a super low budget drama, and therefore the plot is rushed and weird. However, the leads' chemistry is so good that it oddly makes up for the bare bones production and story. It's like an AI wrote a script with the primary objective being to put the leads in as many tropey, contrived situations as possible. And then the actors were so good and had so much chemistry, it made the astonishingly bad script almost passable.

If you ignore the story and production values, it's watchable. I hope the ML and FL actors get bigger (better) dramas because of this one.

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