Led Astray by Love (2022)

A short Chinese GL with potential if only it could have been longer

Thank you once more to Douqi for the splendid work done subtitling this show and making it available internationally. I watched this show with the 52 minutes full version that puts all of the episodes together. As far as I know this is the version with the uncensored first half, but be aware if you go watch the series on Kuaishou that it is an even more censored version.

Anyway, let's get into it. This show, like pretty much all of Chinese GL, is made of very short episodes. This sadly affects the story. The story of this show with Pei Shuangyi transmigrating into the manhua she's currently reading as a young ingenue who accidentally and unknowingly befriends the ruler of the city she's in, Xiao Yi is nothing new. The vibe, especially at the beginning (as much with the pacing as with the relationship between the two), feels very similar to Legend of Yunxian, but more as a pseudo-historical than a xianxia drama.
In addition to just the relationship between the two women, the show tries to integrate a classic of historical drama with a power hungry court member who wants to overthrow the leader. It tries very hard and in the last third almost succeeds. But the first half of the story especially has issues with time jumps and the like that require a big suspension of disbelief. To put it another way (and it is a problem with the structure of the show and its limited time and budget), the story beats are presented, but there is not much meat to it. Character A doesn't know how to do something so character B helps her. We have half a scene of teaching and the scene after Character A is suddenly the best at it. There is a list of plot points to go through and we go through them without much development or transition.
That being said, if you take this story for what it is and are willing to put the work and forgive them for those issues, it is a pretty ambitious story and they do manage, especially in the climax at the end, to give us something interesting.

I quite like all of the actors who did a good job with what they were given. The directing was very classic, but worked for what they were doing. The costumes are overall pretty good (althoughsome really didn't work for me like Xiao Yi's light purple gown that looked too much like a cheap costume) and work for the setting. They manage to film on actual sets meant for historical dramas which helped with the believability of it all. The use of the music was also well done, it added to the story and they even managed to have a flashback that made sense for the story and didn't feel unnecessary or like it was taking too much space.

I know I say that almost every time I review one of those shows, but it really makes me want to see what the team could do with more time and budget (and less censorship, but that's another issue).
At only 52 min total, it is the length of a regular drama episode, but you get a whole show. If you want to watch a short historical GL and you don't mind watching a show that feels like it should have been at least twice as long (and everything that involves), then I had a good time watching this show and you probably will have too.

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