Love Of Replica Review

I watched Love Of Replica (为你逆光而来) because of the leads’ previous collaboration in Mysterious Love. I thought this is a sequel but I was wrong. This is a totally different story which you can watch as a standalone drama. If not for Mysterious Love, I don’t think this would have been enticing enough for me to give it a go. Even then, I have been procrastinating on starting this until a few days ago. For whatever it is worth, I have put down my thoughts on this drama in my Love Of Replica review below.

My rating: 6.5/10
Episodes: 16
Type: Romance, Action
Aired: April 2023
Images Credit: Douban Movie

The Cast Of Love Of Replica

• Tsao Yu Ning as Lu Jin Yan
• Yilia Yu Yue as Xu Xi Xi / An Yue
• Wu Hao Ze as Ding Bei Fan
• Tu Bing as Tian Sui
• Zhang Guan Sen as Jiang Tian Cheng
• Wang Shu Yun as Xu Meng Yun
• Li Ya Tian as Xu Yong Yu
• Athena Yang as An Ye Mi
• Zheng Yi Ming as Zhang Jing Chuan

Main Characters

Lu Jin Yan

Jin Yan is a bodyguard to a new pop star named Xi Xi. He is serious and uncompromising in his duty. While he appears as professional and capable, Jin Yan is a mysterious figure who has his own agenda in taking up the job.

Xu Xi Xi / An Yue

Xi Xi is an up and coming celebrity and the only daughter of a wealthy businessman. She is an arrogant and hard to please woman who is prone to tantrums and abusive towards her staff.

An Yue is a woman who has lost her memory and who looks exactly like Xi Xi. She has a much kinder and gentler personality than Xi Xi. An Yue also has a good voice and can sing well which Xi Xi could not.

Supporting Characters

Ding Bei Fan

Ding Bei Fan is An Yue’s childhood friend and they come from the same fishing village. An Yue is like a younger sister to him. Ding Bei Fan is astute and straightforward.

Tian Sui

Tian Sui is Xi Xi’s manager. She is career-minded and works hard to promote Xi Xi. She has interest in Tian Cheng.

Jiang Tian Cheng

Tian Cheng is Jin Yan’s best friend and work partner. He also runs a BBQ restaurant. He is friends with Tian Sui and has feelings for her.

Xu Meng Yun

Xu Meng Yun is a celebrity and Xi Xi’s rival in the entertainment circle. She is a jealous and evil-minded woman who will not hesitate to resort to underhanded tactics to step on her rival. Tian Sui is also her ex-manager.

Xu Yong Yu

Xu Yong Yu is Xi Xi’s father. He is a very rich businessman who is paranoid about his daughter’s safety. He is also ruthless and unforgiving towards those who have failed to protect Xi Xi.

An Ye Mi

An Ye Mi is An Yue’s mother. She is a very strict parent who doesn’t allow An Yue to have much freedom.

Zhang Jing Chuan

Zhang Jing Chuan is an actor and Xi Xi’s work partner. He is an opportunistic guy who sees being with Xi Xi as a means to get publicity.

Synopsis

Xi Xi is the spoiled daughter of a rich tycoon and a celebrity. While trying to flee from the paparazzi, the car she was in met with an accident and fell into the sea. Her bodyguard, Jin Yan, who was in another car jumped into the sea to save her. Although Xi Xi survived the accident, she has lost her memory and doesn’t seem to be the same person as before.

At the same time, Jin Yan also has his own agenda in being Xi Xi’s bodyguard. He is investigating a case that is connected to his father and that led him to be a bodyguard in Xi Xi’s family. As Xi Xi slowly regains part of her memory and Jin Yan learns she is not who she claims to be, danger lurks around the corner as her identity is at risk of being exposed. While they are attracted to each other, will they be able to trust each other enough to unearth the mystery of her background since she looks exactly like the real Xi Xi?

Love Of Replica Ending & Recap (Spoilers Alert!)

Love Of Replica has a happy ending. Xu Yong Yu has gone desperate in order to save Xi Xi although he learned that she was a clone created to save his own biological daughter. Xi Xi was his life and when his plan was stopped by Jin Yan and his friends, he became agitated. It got worse when Xi Xi died before the surgery could begin. Xu Yong Yu then wanted to self-destruct the building which he had rigged with explosives. Everyone survived the scare and explosion except for Jin Yan’s father. Xu Yong Yu and the doctor involved were arrested.

2 years later, Jin Yan got the news that Xu Yong Yu had died in prison. Ding Bei Fan and Tian Sui are still together and they are a loving couple. She is also well-liked in his fishing village. Tian Cheng is happy being alone camping. Jin Yan proposes to An Yue in the cinema that they frequent. She said yes and the last scene is of them kissing.

However, don’t stop the drama there and let the credits roll. There is an easter egg scene after that to tie Love Of Replica and Mysterious Love together. The second female lead in Mysterious Love will appear. She is a novelist in the earlier drama and Love Of Replica is simply a story that she has written by using her friends (Jin Yan and An Yue) and boyfriend (Ding Bei Fan) as the characters. There is also a hint that a next book or season awaits.

When Did The Couple Get Together?

Jin Yan and An Yue got together in Episode 6 after he denied ever liking Xi Xi. He also made it clear to An Yue that he has never regarded her as Xi Xi’s substitute. In fact, he likened An Yue to a beam of light in his dark world. They started dating then.

Is There A Breakup?

An Yue broke up briefly with Jin Yan in Episode 8 when she learned that his father was involved in the case and had been in contact with her mother. She thought that Jin Yan was using and deceiving her. She forgave him after he brought her to see his father who was in a coma and explained his situation. They reconciled after he apologized and promised to protect her unconditionally.

When Did An Yue Regain Her Memory?

An Yue knew she is not Xi Xi as early as Episode 3. But she cannot remember what had happened to her. Fragments of her memories came back in Episode 6 at the site of the accident. She recalled then that her mother may have something to do with Xi Xi’s disappearance.

An Yue fully regained her memory in Episode 16 while lying on the operating table to be sacrificed to save Xi Xi.

Xi Xi And An Yue’s Connection

Both women were thought to be identical twins and Xu Yong Yu’s daughters. Jin Yan found out about it in Episode 5 after he secretly took An Yue’s hair to do a DNA test. More of the story is revealed in Episode 7 after An Ye Mi died. She had left behind a message for An Yue to tell her about her background. After An Yue and Xi Xi were born, they discovered that Xi Xi has the cancer genes in her DNA. Their mother also died of cancer shortly after their birth.

Xu Yong Yu became paranoid that Xi Xi would also die of cancer like his wife did. Hence, he hired An Ye Mi to lead a team to seek a cure for Xi Xi. The team members included Jin Yan’s father. When Xu Yong Yu found out that they could sacrifice An Yue to save Xi Xi, he wanted it done. An Ye Mi was unwilling to see the healthy twin die to save a sick one. Hence, she told Xu Yong Yu that the medical project had failed and An Yue had died. In actual fact, she had took away An Yue to raise her as her own daughter.

A year ago, Xu Yong Yu found out that An Yue is still alive. He wanted to restart the project to cure Xi Xi. Someone had been contacting An Ye Mi about it and he turned out to be Jin Yan’s father. An Ye Mi then made plans to switch Xi Xi and An Yue’s identity as that was the only way to protect An Yue’s life.

Plot Twist

The plot twist is revealed in Episode 15 after Jin Yan’s father woke up from his coma. Xu Yong Yu had captured Jin Yan and An Yue to start the surgery to cure Xi Xi. Jin Yan’s father turned up and told Xu Yong Yu that An Yue is his daughter while Xi Xi is the clone. The team made a mistake with the markings during their research and Jin Yan’s father found out about it. The project’s original intention was to create a clone as the sacrificial lamb to help Xu Yong Yu’s daughter to get rid of her cancer genes. But the clone was mistakenly identified as the real human and vice-versa. Jin Yan’s father kept quiet about the mistake when he saw that the 2 girls were being well looked after separately by Xu Yong Yu and An Ye Mi.

Furthermore, Xi Xi’s cancer was a result of Xu Yong Yu’s constant push to make her undergo tests after tests to find that elusive cure. Xi Xi actually hated those tests and control over her life. She wanted to die with dignity which was why she cooperated with An Ye Mi to switch her identity with An Yue.

Side Couple

There is a love triangle for the side couple. Tian Sui and Tian Cheng are attracted to each other although they were friends all along. She only confessed her feelings to him in Episode 9 after learning that he and Jin Yan were buddies. She knew he had secrets that he wasn’t willing to reveal but expressed her feelings anyway. However, he rejected her. Tian Cheng loved Tian Sui but kept his feelings hidden because of a shrapnel lodged in his brain which could be life-threatening. He and Jin Yan were army comrades and he shielded Jin Yan during a grenade attack which resulted in his condition.

Ding Bei Fan was also interested in Tian Sui and worked as her assistant to try to pursue her. He consoled her after Tian Cheng’s rejection. Ding Bei Fan wanted Tian Cheng to explain his rejection to Tian Sui to clear the air between them. But Tian Sui had placed Tian Cheng in the friend zone by then.

Tian Sui only knew about Tian Cheng’s condition in Episode 12 when the latter collapsed and required emergency surgery. After his discharge from the hospital, he went to see Tian Sui to bid his farewell. He intended to leave the city after he had helped Jin Yan to solve Xi Xi’s case. Ding Bei Fan thought that Tian Sui would choose Tian Cheng over him but expressed his feelings anyway to get it off his chest. But she chose him instead.

Love Of Replica Review – Not As Good As Mysterious Love

Personally, I find Love Of Replica to be pretty boring for the most part. The excitement only comes in the last 3 o 4 episodes with a plot twist to give viewers a bit of a surprise. But overall, the poor screenwriting shows with plot holes here and there. This is definitely not a high budget solid drama to make you feel that the story is worth your time. It is better than My Lethal Man in terms of the number of plot holes but the way to attract eyeballs is the same – good chemistry laced with skinship.

What made me sit through to the end is the short length. With just 16 episodes in total with some episodes being only 30 minutes long, this makes the drama easier to digest. Yes, there is curiosity in terms of the mystery which should also help you to complete the drama. But it is not exactly a riveting production which will make you glued to the screen either. It is a kind of drama that you just want to reach the end quickly so that you will get the answers that you want and move on to the next title.

Love Of Replica doesn’t have the same fast pacing as Mysterious Love. As this isn’t a quality production, I would think a faster pacing will make it easier to hook viewers. The second couple’s love triangle slows down the pacing somewhat with their story and I doubt many viewers would find them interesting. The chemistry just isn’t there to make them watchable. So, what drives the show is mainly the anticipation for the main couple to start dating for the required steamy scenes.

Skinship Sells

Just like My Lethal Man and Maid’s Revenge, Love Of Replica relies mainly on the sparks and passion of the leads’ romance to give it legs. Take that away and this will become a really mediocre production. The leads managed to get viewers all hot with their first project and they used that same formula for this one. There is nothing wrong with recycling what works. So, if you enjoyed their chemistry in Mysterious Love, you would probably like Love Of Replica as well as long as you are not too fussy about the plot.

I have to say that this 2 really know how to kiss for the camera and they are not shy about it compared to some other onscreen couples. After all, the kisses are the highlights of this drama just like in Forbidden Flower. It is not like Road Home whereby the romance is peppered with a lot of sweetness. The romance here doesn’t have a strong foundation to it. With its short length and focus on the mystery part as well, there is no time to properly develop the emotional side of the romance in the drama. The physical side of the love will take precedence to push up viewership and this is what you will get when you watch.

Plot Holes

Plot holes will be something that you will need to put up in Love Of Replica. The actions of the female protagonist’s father is bizarre to say the least. Why would the protagonists’ parents involved themselves in the villain’s project when they are presumably good people is also not explained. In the last episode, it is laughable how a man who had just came out of a long-term coma could appear so bright and alert.

Basically, if you pay a little attention, you would be able to detect the plot holes. It is just a matter of how much they will annoy you. Perhaps if you don’t have high expectations on this drama and are just watching it for the leads’ chemistry, then they might not be a big impediment to your enjoyment. But if you like better written storylines and more logical plots, then you might just end up rating this rather poorly.

Acting

I feel that Tsao Yu Ning and Yilia Yu are merely reprising their earlier roles in Mysterious Love as their characters in both dramas are somewhat similar. So, they really have nothing new to offer viewers. It has nothing to do with their acting skills. They are fine as Jin Yan and An Yue in the drama. In fact, Yilia Yu did reasonably well to portray 2 characters with different personalities in Love Of Replica. You can tell the 2 characters apart with the actress’ expressions and body language.

But It just so happened that their roles in both dramas seem similar and hence, there isn’t room for them to show viewers something different. There isn’t any character growth written into the story either. Therefore, this is just not the type of drama that enables actors to really showcase their acting prowess. So, if you have watched Mysterious Love, just expect more of the same from both leads.

My Verdict – Good For Fans

If you are a fan of this couple, then Love Of Replica may be worth your time. It may also be watchable if all you care about is the passionate romance. Otherwise, you are not missing anything much if you give this a miss. As for the mystery part, there is a plot twist which is nice but the overall story is scarce of details and not anchored in reality. It is not an in-depth drama that will answer all your queries but I guess sufficiently entertaining to pass time when you have nothing to watch.

It has some action and the fighting scenes are reasonably well done in a simple manner. Just don’t expect big budget explosions and car crashes as the drama has none of those. It focuses more on the investigation and romance with steamy kisses to sell the drama. You will also be served with the hero-catching-the-falling-heroine cliche which happened a few times throughout the 16 episodes. This slow-mo catch and hug with both staring into each other’s eyes will seem romantic to some but feels overdone to me with the repeats.

For this Love Of Replica review, I would give it a score of 6.5/10. I don’t think it is awful to watch but just not up to par if you are looking for a quality drama. Thus, it is relegated to the category of ‘watch if you have nothing else to do’. If you are just interested in their intimate scenes, I think watching their clips on YouTube will probably suffice rather than spending your time on all the 16 episodes.