Love Me If You Dare (Chinese: 他来了，请闭眼; pinyin: Tā Lái Le, Qǐng Bì Yǎn;) is a 2015 Chinese romantic suspense drama, starring Wallace Huo, Ma Sichun, Zhang Luyi, Wang Kai and Yin Zheng, based on the novel of the same name by Ding Mo.
Fresh out of university, foreign language major Jian Yao (Ma Sichun) applies for a temporary summer job as a translator for the eccentric and reclusive Bo Jinyan (Wallace Huo), a criminal psychologist and former University of Maryland professor, who lives in a rumored ghost house at the top of a hill.
Acing the interview and getting the job, she soon finds herself doing much more than just translations when the two of them get dragged into investigating a local serial murder case, and after Bo Jinyan becomes a consultant for the police, she continues to act as his assistant, accompanying him to solve even more cases and eventually falling in love with him even as an extremely dangerous serial killer with an unknown interest in Jinyan and a connection to Jinyan's past starts to threaten their lives and the lives of those close to them.
The show, with 24 episodes, can be found on Viki
with English subtitles.
Not to be confused with the French film Jeux d'enfants, whose English title is also Love Me if You Dare.
This show contains examples of:
- Alone with the Psycho: Unavoidable, given the content of the show.
- For one, Bo Jinyan's backstory of having once been kept captive and tortured by a serial killer for an extended period of time while he was in the United States.
- Then happens to Li Xunran, who is kidnapped by Xie Han and tortured/hypnotized for a while.
- Also happens to Jian Yao, who also gets kidnapped by Xie Han as a test for Bo Jinyan, followed by Bo Jinyan saving her and thus being alone with Xie Han himself.
- Artificial Intelligence: Fu Ziyu gifts one to Bo Jinyan in his car. Its name is Andy, and it's noted to be as talkative and fond of nagging as Fu Ziyu himself.
- Bait-and-Switch: Occurs a few times, especially at the end of the show, like when it looks like Bo Jinyan has killed Jian Yao to pass Xie Han's test, but it was really all a faked set-up to gain Xie Han's trust.
- Also, the reveal that the real Big Bad was actually Yin Ziqi's fiancé all along, and not actually Xie Han.
- Also, the very end, when Bo Jinyan and Fu Ziyu are murdered by Yin Ziqi's fiancé after his surprise big evil reveal speech, but then the screen cuts to black and the show backs up to reveal that it didn't actually happen that way because the FBI and Bo Jinyan figured out it was him already.
- Batman Gambit: Pulled off by Bo Jinyan a couple times as he tries to outmaneuver the Flower Cannibal, like when he chooses to save his sister's fiancé instead of Li Xunran, having correctly deduced that the options he was being given were fake and Li Xunran wasn't even saveable at this point anyway.
- Betty and Veronica: A mild version of this, given that Jian Yao's two potential love interests are Li Xunran, her wholesome, kind, boy-next-door childhood friend, and Bo Jinyan, her rich, aloof, eccentric genius of a boss.
- Big Bad: Xie Han, who is behind the very first case that Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan work on, and has been watching Bo Jinyan behind the scenes, waiting for a chance to interact with him for a very long time.
- And then it turns out that Xie Han isn't even the biggest bad, and the real Big Bad was actually Yin Ziqi's fiancé all along.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: Bo Jinyan's obsession with eating fish.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Somewhat describes Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao's relationship.
- Celibate Eccentric Genius: Bo Jinyan is mocked by Jian Yao's coworkers for being this—and he is this (until he gets with Jian Yao, anyway).
- Cool Car: Andy, Bo Jinyan's custom-built car, which has an AI installed courtesy of Fu Ziyu.
- Hypno Pendulum: Used on Li Xunran by Xie Han to try and brainwash him into doing deeds for him.
- Insufferable Genius: Bo Jinyan, who is a complete and utter dick to everyone, including his friends, is this in spades.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Despite his high IQ, Bo Jinyan's EQ is practically non-existent, which is why he literally has no friends other than Fu Ziyu.
- Jekyll & Hyde: "Simon" (Bo Jinyan's normal English name) and his alter-ego "Allen".
- Mission Control: Fu Ziyu, as the team hacker genius/computer whiz, is this to Bo Jinyan.
- Motive Rant: The final confrontation between Bo Jinyan & co. and the Big Bad has one of these.
- Plucky Girl: Jian Yao.
- Sherlock Scan: Jian Yao passes the initial interview by successfully doing one of these on Fu Ziyu, easily deducing that he's pretending to be Bo Jinyan and impressing the real Bo Jinyan, who was using it as a test and was watching from the side.
- Shipper on Deck: Fu Ziyu is a big one for Jian Yao and Bo Jinyan, constantly trying to give them advice on how to get with each other.
- Sibling Rivalry: Bo Jinyan doesn't exactly get along great with his step-sister, Yin Ziqi, to the point of even refusing to verbally acknowledge her as his sister.
- This is apparently partially due to the fact that in the past, Yin Ziqi dated Fu Ziyu just to try and get closer to Bo Jinyan (who at the time was estranged from his family), and though Fu Ziyu doesn't hold it against her and has moved on, Bo Jinyan still holds a grudge against her for hurting his friend.
- Sleuth Dates Cop: Jian Yao (Cop) and Bo Jinyan (Sleuth) count as this since Jian Yao joins the police force after agreeing to continue working as Bo Jinyan's assistant (and eventually becomes his girlfriend).
- Team Mom: Fu Ziyu, who gets a lot of joy from taking care of other people and is mockingly referred to as "acting like a mom" by others quite frequently, is a male version of this.
- Two Siblings In One: A mild version of this. Bo Jinyan actually had a twin brother who died in the womb and was named "Allen", which also is the name of his bloodthirsty, psychopathic split-personality.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Li Xunran, Jian Yao's childhood friend who's had a crush on her ever since they were kids, is this.
- Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Bo Jinyan and Chen Mo, his pet turtle.
