My Lethal Man Review

I wasn’t planning to watch My Lethal Man (对我而言危险的他) but the attention it garnered surprised me given the not so popular cast. Hence, I can’t help but gave it a try out of curiosity. The 24 episodes total also nudged me to get onboard with most episodes being only 30 minutes in length. While I wasn’t expecting much, the not so heavy time investment seemed to make it worth the while. So, how did it go overall? My Lethal Man review below will explain more on this Chinese drama and what I think about its watch value.

My rating: 6.5/10
Episodes: 24
Type: Mystery Romance
Aired: January 2023
Images Credit: iQIYI Taiwan Facebook

The Cast Of My Lethal Man

• Li Mo Zhi as Shen Man Ning / Zhuang Xin Yan
• Fan Zhi Xin as Yan Xing Cheng
• Li Yi Zhen as Tang Lin
• Chang Zhe Kuan as Lin Mu Fan
• Li Xin Ran as Rao Mei Na / Na Na
• Wang Xu Dong as Fang Xiang
• Qiu Ding Jie as Yuan Shuai
• Li Zhi Fan as Zhuang Jia Kai
• Zeng Yun Zhen as Zhuang Cai Xuan
• Liang Guo Rong as Zhuang Cheng An / Grandpa Zhuang
• Li Bin as Lin Guang Yi

Main Characters

Shen Man Ning

Man Ning is a final year art student in an Italian university. She is a gentle and courteous young woman who is on the timid side. She has an ordinary family background and is brought up by her father, Shen Hong Liang, who runs a small transportation company. Her mother died when she was young.

Yan Xing Cheng

Xing Cheng is a mysterious man who is looking for a missing woman. He appears as someone who is not to be messed with. He is smart and a quick thinker but can be ruthless against his enemies.

Supporting Characters

Zhuang Xin Yan

Xin Yan is the granddaughter of the wealthy Grandpa Zhuang who owns LH Group. She bears a very close resemblance to Man Ning in terms of appearance.

Tang Lin

Tang Lin is the CEO of Xilin Fashion Studio which is involved in the jewelry and accessories business. Her brother is the owner of Liu Guang Group which is LH Group’s competitor. Tang Lin grew up being indulged by her brother and has no qualms in scheming to get what she wants. She has feelings for Xing Cheng.

Lin Mu Fan

Lin Mu Fan is a jewelry designer with his own studio under LH Group. He is close to the Zhuang family as his father is the family’s long-time butler. He is a good man who tries to do what is right.

Rao Mei Na / Na Na

Na Na is Man Ning’s best friend and an animation art student in Italy. She and Man Ning grew up together. Her mother and Man Ning’s father are very close to each other as both are single. Na Na is expressive and forthright.

Fang Xiang & Yuan Shuai

Fang Xiang and Yuan Shuai are Xing Cheng’s underlings. They are loyal to him. Fang Xiang is a hacker with an amiable personality while Yuan Shuai is a fighter who is reserved and unsociable.

Zhuang Jia Kai

Zhuang Jia Kai is the grandson of Zhuang Cheng An. His mother is the second daughter of the family. Zhuang Jia Kai is arrogant and ambitious. He wants to be the heir to the family’s business but is impulsive and unethical.

Zhuang Cai Xuan

Cai Xuan is Jia Kai’s mother. She doesn’t get involved in the day-to-day running of LH Group and seems more interested in doing charity work.

Zhuang Cheng An / Grandpa Zhuang

Grandpa Zhuang is the Chairman of LH Group which is involved in the jewelry and luxury goods business. He is old and in poor health. He has 2 daughters. Mei Xuan is his eldest daughter but has been missing after an accident for a number of years while Cai Xuan is his second daughter.

Lin Guang Yi

Lin Guang Yi is a butler at the Zhuang household and Grandpa Zhuang’s personal aide. He has been with the family for a long time. His son is Lin Mu Fan who grew up among the Zhuang children.

Synopsis

Zhuang Xin Yan is the heiress to LH Group. But she has been sent abroad since she was a kid by her grandfather as a way to protect her after her father died and mother went missing following an accident. Xin Yan has always been a target by nefarious parties who want to control LH Group. She is hunted while in Italy and happens to be at the same location as Man Ning who bears a striking resemblance to her.

As a result, Man Ning is abducted in a case of mistaken identity. Xin Yan feels bad about it and goes out of her way to save her. While trying to escape from the kidnapper, they get involved in an accident. Xin Yan shields Man Ning in the crash and dies. She asks Man Ning to help her to get back LH Group in her last breath.

When the injured Man Ning wakes up after the accident, she meets the mysterious Xing Cheng who pressures her to assume Xin Yan’s identity. As Man Ning feels obligated to repay Xin Yan for saving her, she agrees to follow Xing Cheng back to the Zhuang family. Man Ning pretends to be Xin Yan and introduces Xing Cheng as her fiancee. But danger lurks as her identity risks being exposed by enemies. Forced to rely on Xing Cheng for safety, Man Ning also begins to fall for him.

My Lethal Man Ending & Recap (Spoilers Alert!)

My Lethal Man has a happy ending. Man Ning and Xing Cheng managed to gather the evidence to confront Cai Xuan about what she had done to his parents. She refused to admit it at first. But Lin Guang Yi turned on a recorded message from Grandpa Zhuang who had died earlier. Grandpa Zhuang wanted Cai Xuan to realize her mistake and mend her ways. He knew all along that Cai Xuan was the one who tried to kill Mei Xuan and her family. He gave her a chance as he had lost Mei Xuan and didn’t want to lose another daughter.

Cai Xuan went berserk after watching the recording. She admitted her crimes and the fact that she wanted to destroy the Zhuang family. She even took Man Ning hostage at one point. Mei Xuan then showed up to calm her down and convinced her that she has always been cherished as a member of the family. Mei Xuan didn’t die in the accident 17 years ago but was heavily injured which seemed to have impacted her brain/memory. She had been living at the welfare home before Tang Lin’s brother managed to track her down.

With the villain exposed and Xing Cheng reunited with his mother, the last scene shows him and Man Ning sitting at the beach. They proclaimed their love for each other and learned that they should cherish their loved ones after what they had gone through.

When Did They Get Together?

Man Ning and Xing Cheng got engaged in Episode 8 at Grandpa Zhuang’s suggestion. She also has developed feelings for Xing Cheng and felt that he is the only one she could rely on in her situation. After the engagement and various dangers that threaten Man Ning’s safety, Xing Cheng also started to fall for her.

They officially got together in Episode 16 after Man Ning turned up to object to Xing Cheng’s engagement to Tang Lin. She did this after learning that Xing Cheng had risked his life to save her from drowning. He abandoned Tang Lin at the engagement ceremony and left with Man Ning. They became a happy and loving couple until Man Ning’s father’s past doing forced Xing Cheng to break up with her in Episode 20.

Man Ning went back to Xing Cheng in Episode 21 to save him from suicide and offer him solace after he felt utter despair for failing to get justice for his parents and sister. They reconciled and slept together in Episode 22.

Is There Any Breakup & Love Triangle?

Xing Cheng ended his relationship with Man Ning in Episode 13 after he reassumed his identity as Mei Xuan’s long lost son. With that move, Man Ning’s pretense as Xin Yan was no longer necessary and she was free to go back to her life. Xing Cheng wanted to stabilize LH Group and agreed to a marriage of convenience with Tang Lin who has feelings for him. However, Xing Cheng still loves Man Ning deeply. He even risked his life to save Man Ning in Episode 15 and subsequently abandoned his engagement to Tang Lin.

After the couple reconciled in Episode 16, Xing Cheng again broke up with Man Ning in Episode 20. This is because his investigation showed that Man Ning’s father was the truck driver who caused the accident that took away his parents’ lives.

Xing Cheng’s Identity

Xing Cheng revealed his own background in Episode 13 after Man Ning’s identity was at risked of being exposed by his enemies. He is actually Mei Xuan and Yan Li’s son. His real name is Yan Yi. Xin Yan was his younger sister. He followed his parents to do a branch inspection overseas 17 years ago while Xin Yan stayed home as she was ill. But they got involved in an accident with an oncoming truck while abroad.

His father was killed on the spot while his mother was reported missing. She was presumed to have fallen into the sea. Xing Cheng survived the crash but was taken away by a man and flung into the waters. He was saved and grew up in an orphanage overseas. He hid his identity to avoid being a target all those years. Xin Yan was also sent abroad by Grandpa Zhuang for the same reason.

Man Ning’s Father’s Background

Man Ning’s father, Shen Hong Liang, was working overseas as a truck driver 17 years ago to earn more money for his wife’s medical treatment. He was offered the best doctor and money to treat his wife in exchange for bumping into Mei Xuan’s car. Shen Hong Liang was told that the people inside the car were deceiving an insurance company. All he needed to do was to bump their car slightly with his truck.

Xing Cheng found out about Shen Hong Liang through Fang Xiang’s investigation into the money trail. Shen Hong Liang did check the account once but the money was untouched. His wife died at about the same time from illness 17 years ago. This story is revealed in Episode 20 when Man Ning brought Xing Cheng home to meet her father.

In Episode 23, Shen Hong Liang told Xing Cheng and Man Ning that he backed out at the last minute and avoided the accident. But another truck did the deed instead. He was at the scene and witnessed the crash.

The Villains

There were 2 separate villains in the attempt to kill Xin Yan which also ended up dragging Man Ning into the mess. While Zhuang Jia Kai ordered Xin Yan killed, the one who finished off the task was Cai Xuan. Xin Yan and Man Ning were already getting away from the kidnapper who abducted the latter. They were then subsequently hit by an oncoming truck.

Similarly, when Shen Hong Liang didn’t carry out the task to crash into Mei Xuan’s car, another truck appeared to finish the job. The actual villain hid behind another to cover her tracks and she was Cai Xuan. Xing Cheng and Man Ning figured this out after talking to her father in Episode 23.

Cai Xuan wanted revenge due to her hatred for the family. She was Grandpa Zhuang’s illegitimate daughter. She felt unloved by her father and thought that she had been unfairly treated in a harsh manner compared to Mei Xuan. Hence, she was jealous of Mei Xuan and her happiness. This was revealed in Episode 20 during a quarrel between Cai Xuan and Grandpa Zhuang which resulted in his death.

Side Couple

Na Na ended up with Fang Xiang. She initially liked Yuan Shuai but the latter kept rejecting her and asking her to stay away from him. He did like her but knew that his friend loves her more. Furthermore, he didn’t want to get involved in a relationship as he had a single-minded mission to help Xing Cheng uncover the villain. He told Na Na so in Episode 21. Yuan Shuai also reminded her that there is someone else who is really concerned about her and that is Fang Xiang.

Fang Xiang confessed his feelings to Na Na in Episode 22. She agreed to his request to be his girlfriend then.

My Lethal Man Review – Plot Holes Everywhere

Simply put, My Lethal Man is like a story that is lifted off from a trashy romance novel. It has similar vibes with Maid’s Revenge but with a longer story and more mystery. The whole drama is peppered with weaknesses with questionable antics by the male lead especially in the beginning. So, the first few episodes will have the male lead choking, bullying, and threatening the female lead into giving in to his demand to assume his dead sister’s identity. I won’t be surprised if some viewers choose to drop this after watching these scenes because treating a weak woman this way is just so wrong no matter the reason.

However, once you get over this part of the story, the harassment will stop to be replaced with the romance. This is what gives the drama legs as the relationship between the 2 main characters is filled with very sweet moments and steamy kisses here and there. I suppose this is what makes viewers go ga-ga over this production while the script itself actually leaves a lot to be desired.

Logic Goes Out The Window

A word of warning if you choose to watch My Lethal Man is that you should switch off your brain once you get onboard. This is because there will be scenes that defy logic and the story also does not make sense at times. The weirdest one that you have to get past is that the male lead fell in love with a woman who looks exactly like his dead sister. She is even a suitable recipient of his late sister’s eyes in an organ transplant! Perhaps the fact that the siblings have been separated for 17 years makes it less iffy but it is still a little kinky to me.

Because the plot holes are all over the place, you just have to learn to ignore them after a while. For instance, a jealous third party can demand that the female lead signs a business deal with her and brings her to the company’s vault. There is no reason given why she should agree but well, she did. These kind of inconsistencies and stupidities are littered throughout the drama.

Basically, the whole screenwriting and story execution are very poorly done. They don’t seemed to have the whole process properly planned out or even cared to do so. Hence, you can’t watch this for the plot. It will leave you flabbergasted. You just need to be sucked in by the romance and everything else will then matters not.

A Hot Romance

Many viewers will find the romance in My Lethal Man alluring. In fact, it is a kind of sinful indulgence to find sweetness in such a love story! After all, the man is lethal and ruthless in the way he forced his way to get the woman to submit to his demand in the beginning. Thus, it is a little dark that way with a very domineering and dangerous man.

You will get scenes that will leave you feeling hot and flustered with a liberal dose of seduction, tenderness, love proclamations, and kisses throughout. These scenes are the life of the drama and without them, I think the whole production would have been a total flop. Therefore, you need to be able to enjoy the romance to get watch value out of this drama. Otherwise, you will be cursing why you started this in the first place.

The question of whether you will enjoy the romance will then depend on your tolerance level for ruthlessness in the male lead and weakness in the female. To be fair, it gets better later on and the female lead also becomes stronger. But personally, I don’t find anything romantic about the guy’s antics although their sweet scenes are a pleasure to watch.

Acting And Chemistry

The only actor who stands out in My Lethal Man is Fan Zhi Xin. He is not someone that I had paid attention to in the past although he has had supporting roles in dramas like Our Secret and Time Flies And You Are Here. In My Lethal Man, he does look lethal as required with an intensity that will leave an impression on viewers. Fan Zhi Xin managed to give the character a dangerous vibe which is consistent with the story. He can also turn into a softie for the tender moments which should leave fans screaming for more.

This is only my second time watching Li Mo Zhi after A Camellia Romance. She is about 6 years older than Fan Zhi Xin in real life and she does look slightly more matured in terms of visuals. But her chemistry with him is still palpable which is why the drama could sustain many viewers’ interest. Their interactions are sizzling and kisses steamy. Just like Mysterious Love, the producers simply maximize the use of physical intimacy to spice things up to cover for the inadequacies of a low budget production.

My Verdict – Trashy But Might Be Addictive

To cut a long story short, My Lethal Man is simply trashy. But that doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it because reviews have shown that many people do like it. It has a horrible script and plot execution but you might still get hooked because of the magnetism of the domineering and lethal male lead. You know that it is bad and cheap and won’t be anywhere near those quality dramas like Meet Yourself or even Flight To You. But you will still follow along anyway because the romance is addictive.

Personally, I don’t find the drama to be great and I don’t think I will miss anything if I give it a miss. I guess I’m way too old to see a man who puts a woman through danger as romantic. So, this isn’t my cup of tea. But if you can freeze your brains and just enjoy the ridiculousness of it all, then you will have a different take on this title. For me, a good romantic drama is more than just sweet moments thrown at you to get your attention. The story can be short and fast-paced but it has to make sense. This one fails on that score.

Hence, for this My Lethal Man review, I would rate it 6.5/10. It is a low budget flick and won’t pass muster for those looking for a well-written plot. But it does have a whodunnit mystery element to it which helped me to cross the finish line although the plot twists raise more questions than answers. The romance is the one that will make or break this drama and you will have to give it a try to see if it is up to your taste.