Couple of Mirrors

[superborb]

A 12 ep Republican era drama with a heavily implied f/f main pair. I guess it's a bit of a murder mystery, though it's combined with a heavy dash of domestic fluff. I livetweeted it under #coupleofborbs!

Since it's so short, it's a bit difficult to summarize without being too spoilery? But we have the two female leads: Xu Youyi, a bestselling writer in Shanghai who married into a rich, well-connected family, and Yan Wei, an assassin who owns a photography studio. Xu Youyi comes off a bit naive, but I think it's deceptive: she's mostly being quiet to smooth things over because she can't do anything else. Yan Wei is very tsundere. Nearly everyone else in the show is an asshole to varying degrees.

I thought it was strongest at the beginning when they leaned into the whole 'unreliable narrator', using repeated visual imagery to complete the whole story of what was happening. It was very quiet / not much dialog during the beginning, really using those visuals to tell the story! I enjoyed that kind of thing a lot. It was also when they were most developing the setup and characters, so even the secondary characters were still interesting. I liked trying to figure out the motivations of the various characters!

It was towards the end, when it was all about the handful of entitled male characters and their manpain that it weakened. Also, it seems they did an abrupt addition of a cliffhanger to setup a season two? Weird and unpleasant. The cops were boring boring boring, I don't see why we needed so much focus on them.

While the girlfriends being domestic was very cute, I don't think it could have stretched to much more than already was there, so despite 12 eps being really short already... I kind of feel like it would have been stronger if it were even shorter and more focused? OR if there was more plot shoved in or more interesting secondary characters!

Other superficial thoughts: Xu Youyi has such a cute pout + great sajiao! (My mom didn't think the actress was very cute, to my incredulity.) The outfits / styling were very pretty, though probably ahistoric. The cat was very cute.

Overall, I really loved the beginning and middle, and though the ending was weak, I think it's still worth a watch if you're into cute f/f couples, republican era stylings, or mysteries. (And as a not-guzhuang, I can finally talk to my grandparents about it! My fam refuses to watch guzhuang shows lol.)

Rot13 spoilery CW: punenpgre qrngu, puvyq qrngu, zvfpneevntr, puvyq fbyqvrevat (va na haernyvfgvpnyyl ybj genhzn jnl)

Comments

[x_los]

is 'guzhuang' costume? looked it up but not quite clear

[superborb]

Yeah, costume drama!

[halfcactus]

Strong agree with everything! I just wasn't very interested in the... main plot? I loved the scope of the first half of the series (especially the first murder arc), and as we discussed, the smoothness of the visual storytelling. It's really a show that's most enjoyable when it's centered around the women, because the women are already so wonderfully complex, whereas the men are just... men.

I'M ALSO INCREDULOUS AT YOUR MOM?????? Immune to Youyi's sajiao! Such standards, haha.

[superborb]

Yeah, the decision to change to focus on the men was... well, there just wasn't enough depth to them to carry it.

I KNOW RIGHT?

[lirazel]

I am definitely going to give this one a try, but I'm glad to be warned re: the weak ending.

[superborb]

:)

[shati]

I agree with pretty much all of this! (Except the ahistoric part, but just because I never know that with costumes, I don't disbelieve it...)

I felt like it could have either been shorter with the same plot, or been longer and given Xu Youyi and Yan Wei's relationship more drama/more of a progression -- imo Zhou Heng sucked up all the drama oxygen, so they were pretty static from pretty early on (which was fine for a short show). I didn't get as much of that impression from what I read of the manhua, but I only read as far as was free.

[superborb]

Yeah, same about the static-ness of their relationship! I do wonder how much is just like, the desire for shippy happy times?

Oh I should... read the manhua. But then I feel like I ought to read it in Chinese and that's Effort haha.

[shati]

It was definitely the kind of effect I associate with, like, beloved side ships, and not main couples. (And they are a side ship to the plot of Youyi and Zhou Heng imploding...) I didn't try to find fic or anything, but it was endearing!

Yeah, I disliked the cops in part because they used so many words I had to look up. ;_;

[superborb]

That's a good point about the side ships!

LOL you'd think that Youyi should be the one using complicated words... being an author and all...

[cortue]

I just finished this yesterday and enjoyed reading through your livetweeting. I agree that the beginning is much stronger and the end trails off into drama with the men. I feel like the relationship between the two women becomes static because all the oxygen is taken up with dealing with all of that. (Ugh yes including way too many scenes about these police officers.) I would hope there's a second season where there is more depth to how the two main women deal with each other, when they actually get to know each other better. This season had potential for them to have more in their scenes with each other (for instance some reaction from Xu Youyi when she finds out that Yan Wei killed her friend) but they just...don't!

Also, I've never seen this thing you've done to have the spoilers be shown but it's very clever!

[superborb]

I hope the second season is good! But yeah, they didn't really explore their relationship very much, because I believe XYY that she didn't want her friend dead, so where is the result of that?!

I've been using ROT13 because I crosspost to tumblr/twitter where other html forms are not as usable, but... it is a little ugly haha.