#i'm skipping over the part where this is allegedly a prequel to my monster-in-law because that makes less than zero sense

[accidentalrabbit]

HEY RIVAL, I LOVE YOU

(short film)

Vietnam 2021

RANK: B

A-pairing: Duong x Phuc

Other character(s) i enjoyed: Chau

Overall review:

Hey Rival, I Love You is probably the most interesting application of a love triangle with girl antagonist that i've seen in a BL, which surprisingly helps make up for a myriad technical sins the show commits.

The plot: Chau dates Duong. Chau dates Phuc. Duong and Phuc find out she's playing both of them, and then while plotting to expose her cheating, they fall in love and end up cheating on her. It's a true chaotic bisexual love triangle, and it gets splashed all over social media when they all start exposing each other. They both dump her (obviously) and start dating without her baggage killing the vibe. The end!

This story has solidly decent acting with a hit-or-miss script, shows off good character interactions with a surprising amount of suspense, and actually makes me enjoy the antagonist girlboss Chau simply because she's evil in a new and interesting way (and also is very funny whenever she feels cornered). Duong and Phuc have solid chemistry.

That's really all i have to say about the overall content, in terms of what i liked about this short film. It's fairly basic, but i enjoyed it! Now, that being said,

I had a good time, but:

Not gonna lie, she's looking kinda rough. Similar to the problems of other low-budget pandemic-era Vietnamese projects, Hey Rival, I Love You suffers from dodgy audio, spartan set design, and a dearth of extras. (Unless everyone here goes to the world's most exclusive school, there should probably be more than like eight students.)

The writing and editing also fail to impress, which is a little bit disappointing for a short film that already has tighter margins for wasted moments or nonsense explanations. It's kind of egregious that Duong and Phuc spend any time arguing about whether or not to expose Chau in the second act, because it's the reason they get together in the first place and there's really no reason not to, which the film confirms when she catches, records, and outs them. Then they expose her anyway, because duh. (It would have been funnier if, at the end of act two, the three of them exposed each other at the exact same time, and then in the third act they'd have to figure out a way to navigate the fallout together. But we hate to see a girlboss winning, i guess.)

Conceptually, there's still a lot to love here, and i do enjoy it! Unfortunately, the follow-through (for understandable reasons) leaves something to be desired.

Character(s) entitled to financial compensation: Everybody at this school getting whiplash from the drama between these three. Imagine getting this absolutely scalding tea watching their Instagram stories in homeroom. I'd be inconsolable.

Conclusion: This is one of the worse shows, technically speaking, that i've seen, and yet it has a charm about it that i'm willing to buy into despite its flaws. The writing has its moments, the actors do more or less enough with relatively little, and the leads get a happy ending. There are worse ways to kill thirty minutes, and i don't regret this one.

And up next i'll take a second look at Second Chance (2021) to see whether it really deserved a first one. (It did i'm sorry for being rude.)