Yes, I Am a Spy (2023)

Perfectly watchable short form rom-com

This was not the easiest show to follow but it was a fun little watch.

Zhang Xiaohua is a rookie spy who was given her first real mission and is pretty psyched about it. She needed to assassinate a traitor to the royal spy network/association that she's a low ranking member of. There's also money forgery stuff involved.

She maybe sort of succeeds but was held up and foiled by the ML, Luo He. He's a hot shot second in command of a group of bandits. He chases her and she only gets him off her back by saying, "while you were dealing with me, my target is dead!" But was she really?

Then Xiaohua is told that she needs to go integrate herself with the bandit group because they have a super secret list of spies and it'll be a huge problem if that list gets exposed. So now she's pulling out all the tricks trying to get Luo He to take her in. She's a pretty shoddy actress and he's not getting fooled so she settles on pretending he kidnapped her to fool his assistant instead.

She tries lots of unsuccessful things to try and find the list once she's there, including a very unsuccessful seduction of the bandit boss who has a jealous wife. Luo He takes lots of chances to flirtatiously try to get her to come clean about who she is and what she's trying to do.

It honestly kind of lost me and wasn't super interesting at this point. I found the actress grating in how she overacted the comedy and I was just not getting what anyone else's motivation was.

The first big twist/turning point (SPOILER):
Oh but wait! Luo He is actually a seasoned, higher ranking royal spy! They're actually on the same side, he's actually just been undercover this whole time and he wants the list too. But how can two spies trust each other?
(END SPOILER)

There's actually a few more twists after that, but the first one was when I started being more interested in the plot. The romance was cute. The comedy was pretty bad and felt pretty forced. But the twisty plot actually got more interesting, which was nice.

Unlike many shorts, it does have a Happy Ending and is totally wrapped up at the end. I didn't think any of the actors did a stellar job, but I think it was perfectly acceptable to tell what ended up being a somewhat interesting story with a cute romance. I also enjoyed the music.



Random favorite part: her messenger bird is a chicken.

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I love Wang Xuan since coming across him in Who Rules the World. He acts well and he has this different kind of charm but this project isn't for him. The FL ruined this series for me. It would have been good at least if she portrayed the character better. The director worked hard to make this humorous but it backfired due to the Female Lead not fitted for comedic role.

The bulk of my rating is meant for Wang Xuan and the production staff for their hard work. Scene set is beautifully done and wardrobe is good.

If there is a separate rating for Female Lead, and director, it would be 2 for the effort.

Rewatch value is zero for me. I don't recommend this series to be worth the subscription fee but if you can watchvit for free then it can be a time filler while waiting for a good one to air.

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