I watched Love At Night (夜色暗涌时) mainly because I saw the reviews about the main couple’s raging chemistry. For a romance drama, great chemistry between the leads is always a major plus in boosting viewership. I’m also familiar with the actress after catching her in a few dramas including a historical one in Stand By Me which was aired a few months earlier than this one. So, I had no qualms giving this a shot and I have no regrets spending my time on it. But this is hardly a masterpiece either as explained in my Love At Night review below.
My rating: 7/10
Episodes: 30
Type: Workplace Romance
Aired: November 2021
Images Credit: WeTV
The Cast Of Love At Night
- Zhang Yu Xi as Xu Qing You / You You
- Liu Xue Yi as Mo Ling Ze
- Zhao Yuan Yuan as Fang Qi
- Gu Zi Cheng as Xu Wei
- Li Zi Feng as Fan Yun Xi
- Chen Peng Wan Li as Wang Ji
- Li Si Qi as Lin Si Yu
- Tian Yuan as Tang Xi
- Kong Lin as Mrs. Xu
- Guo Qiu Cheng as Mr. Xu
- Zhang Ke Yuan as Gu Da Yan
Main Characters
Xu Qing You / You You
You You is the Director of Operations in an e-commerce retailing company called Lemi. She is 30 years old and a career-minded woman. You You is beautiful and capable. Her fiancee is a corporate lawyer and they have been dating for 10 years.
Mo Ling Ze
Ling Ze is a poker-faced senior investment executive who just started work at Shangger Capital. He is very good in arranging deals and seeing the investments succeed. While Ling Ze rarely smiles, he still attracts a lot of female attention due to his good looks. He is also a guitarist who plays for a band in a bar during his free time.
Fang Qi
Fang Qi is You You’s best friend from young. She is an Investment Manager at Shangger Capital and Ling Ze happens to be her boss. Fang Qi can be brash and candid. She is also a divorced woman and actively looking for love.
Xu Wei
Xu Wei is You You’s younger brother. He is an art graduate who has just returned from abroad and working in his friend’s art studio as a teacher. Xu Wei is secretly in love with Fang Qi and has felt this way for a long time.
Supporting Characters
Fan Yun Xi
Yun Xi is a successful corporate lawyer and has occasional dealings with Shangger Capital. He is also You You’s fiancee. Yun Xi can be manipulative and revengeful to get what he wants.
Wang Ji
Wang Ji is an Investment Manager and Ling Ze’s subordinate at Shangger Capital. He is loyal to to his boss and would also help him to deal with annoying female pursuers.
Lin Si Yu
Si Yu comes from a rich family. Her father is the Chairman of Golden Capital which is Ling Ze’s previous employer. She has a crush on Ling Ze and is openly pursuing him. Si Yu is young and immature.
Tang Xi
Tang Xi is the owner of an investment firm and Ling Ze’s ex-girlfriend. She is a tough woman who knows what she wants and goes for it.
Mr. & Mrs. Xu
Mr. and Mrs. Xu are You You and Xu Wei’s parents. Their father is a law professor and Yun Xi was his favorite student. Mr. Xu is hotheaded and always wants his children to follow his ways which results in quarrels at times. Mrs. Xu is the more understanding and amicable parent.
Gu Da Yan
Da Yan is Xu Wei’s best friend and owner of an art studio. He is also Xu Wei’s love advisor although he has never been in a relationship before.
Synopsis
You You is a busy career woman who suddenly finds out that her fiancee has cheated on her. She has been in a relationship with Yun Xi for 10 years and they are on the verge of getting married. Feeling depressed, she got drunk at a bar and meets Ling Ze who sets her up in a hotel room for the night. You You thought she had a one night stand with him. The situation becomes awkward for her when she bumps into Ling Ze at work. Ling Ze works for a capital firm which is investing in the company You You is working for.
After a short period of time, Ling Ze finds himself falling for You You and makes his intention known. She doesn’t like him after their first few encounters but gradually, she could feel herself being attracted to him. However, Yun Xi manipulates her into giving their relationship another chance and she becomes torn between salvaging the 10-year relationship and walking away for good.
Love At Night Ending (Spoilers Alert!)
Love At Night has a happy ending. Ling Ze proposes to You You and she accepts. The last scene is of them kissing before the credits start to roll. Prior to that, You You actually proposed to Ling Ze first at the end of Episode 29. At that time, he could lose his career and all his money to pay compensation for the losses suffered by his employer following the exposure of his relationship with You You. He was accused of exchanging investment favors in return for sex.
You You felt that they should face everything together but Ling Ze didn’t think that the timing was right. So, he rejected her proposal instead. In the meantime, he worked hard to resolve the crisis and successfully did so by the end of the drama. He made a deal with Shangger Capital’s investor to work for him in return for the investor’s continued financial support for the firm. The losses could then be avoided and he would not need to pay compensation. But the condition is he would have to work abroad for 3 years which he eventually managed to cut it down to a month.
When Did You You And Ling Ze Begin Dating?
You You was concerned when she heard that Ling Ze was involved in an accident in Episode 9. She rushed to the accident scene and they hugged each other. But she was still hesitant then due to her relationship with Yun Xi. She then broke up with Yun Xi at the end of Episode 9 and informed her parents about it in Episode 10. She quarreled with her father over it and moved out. Coincidentally, she ended up as Ling Ze’s neighbor in Episode 12.
You You and Ling Ze got together in Episode 16 after he confessed and kissed her during a company team building trip. But she wasn’t comfortable to go public about their relationship. Si Yu found out about it in Episode 17 when she saw You You kissing Ling Ze. You You admitted to Fang Qi that she is dating Ling Ze in Episode 19 while Xu Wei found out about it from Fang Qi in Episode 22.
Ling Ze met You You’s father in Episode 27 and managed to win him over after a drinking bout. Their romance was fully exposed in Episode 29 due to Yun Xi’s scheming before the drama ends with a wedding proposal in Episode 30.
What Happened To Yun Xi?
Yun Xi is the one who spread the rumor that Ling Ze traded favors for a relationship. When Ling Ze managed to resolve the problem, Yun Xi’s role in the saga was also exposed. In the end, he cancelled his contract with Shangger Capital and could no longer represent the firm. When he ran into You You, he apologized to her. She told him to look ahead instead for a better future.
The Side Couples
Fang Qi allowed Xu Wei to stay at her place after he quarreled with his father in Episode 11. Xu Wei confessed to a drunk Fang Qi in Episode 16 and she kissed him before falling asleep. However, she brushed it off the next day. He confessed again in Episode 17 when she wanted him to move out. She wanted to avoid complications in their relationship and insisted that she only sees him as a younger brother.
Fang Qi rejected Xu Wei yet again in Episode 18 before finally accepted him as her boyfriend in Episode 20. You You found out that they are dating in Episode 21. Mr. Xu saw Xu Wei kissing Fang Qi in Episode 28 and objected to their relationship. But he was shown to have accepted their choice in the last episode. Xu Wei is also making a name for himself in the art scene and got an invite to participate in a prestigious art expo.
Si Yu finally let go of her obsession of Ling Ze in Episode 19 after numerous rejections. She got to know Wang Ji in the process of chasing Ling Ze and started to develop feelings for him. She accidentally fell and kissed him in Episode 22. They got together in Episode 27 while on a movie date.
Love At Night Review – The Chemistry Saved It!
Nothing in Love At Night really stands out except for the leads’ chemistry. This is a typical romance drama that uses exes to create problems for the couple as part of the plot. You will also have an immature girl pursuing the male lead despite his firm no. Hence, this production will not give you anything groundbreaking with its recycled themes.
The only reason why this drama remains addictive is the main couple’s chemistry. If there is one thing that the screenwriters did right, it is to heighten the undercurrents between the would-be lovers. With their sizzling chemistry, those undercurrents become more obvious and you will then be tempted to follow their story. Of course, this couple also look very good together. Some pairings just don’t have that lovers’ vibes such as the one in Fall In Love With A Scientist. For Zhang Yu Xi and Liu Xue Yi, you would not have this problem at all with their matching visuals.
Half-Baked Subplots
Love At Night starts off with the girl already in a long-term relationship. It might be a little different from the usual rom-coms as this lasts for about one-third of the drama. The good thing is they don’t get a lot of screen time together and the relationship is shown to be on the rocks to set the stage for the male lead to woo her. Hence, it is not annoying in that way but you will need to wait for more than half the drama before the main couple get together.
As the focus is on the romance, the subplots end up being half-baked. The jealous ex angle is not fully developed and ends in a very anti-climatic way after leading viewers up that path in the earlier episodes. The way the business problems are resolved are depicted in a very simplistic way with no details given. You will just be told that the issues are settled after the male lead is shown going from one meeting to another to resolve the business crisis created by his girlfriend’s ex. So, don’t expect this to have a heavy business feel like My Bargain Queen or Something Just Like This.
Personally, I don’t even think the jealous exes are necessary for the drama if they are not going to do it properly. This could have been shortened to 24 episodes. The leads’ chemistry could have been utilized to make this drama incredibly sweet just like You Are My Glory rather than dishing out a poorly developed revengeful ex subplot to the viewers.
Side Couples’ Screen Time
The second side couple actually takes up quite a bit of screen time in Love At Night. Theirs is an older woman and younger man romance. The girl is 8 years older and I guess this provides viewers with a clear contrast to the main couple. If you like them, then this drama will have more to offer. But if you don’t, you will be constantly clicking the fast forward button because they appear quiet often in each episode.
For me, this second couple is not an attractive one. It is not done right with the way the guy is being depicted. He appears as clingy and immature although some may find him sweet with the way he takes care of the girl’s daily needs such as meals. He is like the guy in My Fated Boy but way more timid and childish which is why this couple doesn’t resonate with me.
The third couple doesn’t have a lot of screen time and their romance is not really explored in detail either. But the girl is kind of irritating to watch at times with her immaturity and arrogance. I don’t think viewers will care much about their romance anyway which is why their screen time seems like a filler to lengthen the drama.
Acting
fBoth the leads did a respectable job playing their roles. Zhang Yu Xi is not a new face in this kind of romance drama. She also had great chemistry with Ryan Ding in Intense Love which is a fairytale-like rom-com. In Love At Night, she displays the same natural chemistry with her co-star and oozes confidence and allure as a pretty senior executive.
Liu Xue Yi was also in Love And Redemption and Ancient Love Poetry. Maybe that was why I couldn’t recognize him at first as those were historical dramas. He possesses charisma in Love At Night and portrays himself to be confident, smart, and stylish to fit the character perfectly.
When the 2 leads are put together, they are a pleasure to watch. They look like real lovers which increases the overall romantic feel of the drama.
My Verdict – A So-So Drama
Basically, Love At Night is an average drama. If you have watched enough of Chinese romance dramas, you would know that there are much better ones out there. But this is still watchable because of the oozing chemistry of the leads and the healthy and matured relationship depicted. There is no breakup once the couple got together with a good dose of communication and trust. However, it still can’t run away from the cliche jealous exes and parental objection.
The other positive trait about this drama is that the main characters are rather smart people. Perhaps the female lead is silly to consider getting back with a cheater in the beginning but at the very least, she knows when she has to make a clean break. I don’t find them annoying and the couple’s growing attraction towards each other helped me to continue on after the first few episodes.
This is not a drama that you will watch for the plot. Just like Once We Get Married, you watch this for the feel good factor brought on by the fluff and sweetness of the main couple. So, for this Love At Night review, 7/10 is already a generous score to give. If only they had improved on the kisses to make them more passionate, this could be a more entertaining watch. After all, this is a matured romance given the age of the characters. As it is, the kissing scenes are rather tame if you compare them to You Are My Glory and Love Is Sweet. I just find that it is a pity that they failed to fully make use of the leads’ great chemistry to up the notch in terms of the romance.
Overall, I would still say give this a go. It is just 30 minutes per episode. If the side couples bore you, just skip them and you can then complete it even faster. Then, you can just savor the main couple’s sweetness to make this worth your time.
Reveiw my little princess of zhang yuxi☺️☺️ just love her ❤️