双镜 | Couple of Mirrors
27 Feb 2025 21:36![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinSo I finished watching this on Monday and omg, yes, I like it. (12 episodes, 45 min each, engsubbed on YouTube)
Yan Wei is my fave, my blorbo, my precious little meow meow who can do no wrong. I think the bad-at-human-ing murder dumpling who just wants to become a normal person is amazing and I want her to have all the nice things in life. Xu Youyi is maybe the only instance of sajiao that's worked for me so far, and I absolutely loved the dynamic between them.
I also liked how the various side characters oscillated/changed position with narrative expansion between antagonist and villain. The thriller-y/murder mystery plot was good as well, and kept me engaged throughout.
Okay, let's start with the one thing that did not work for me: The ending. Though mostly it confused the fuck out of me. WTF happened? Why on Earth would Yan Wei kill Xie Yifan, who is off in Beiping? I understand that for censorship reasons they might not have been allowed for Yan Wei, murderer, to walk free, but honestly that whole stated motivation of "like you, I'm leaving my past behind" ergo turning herself in didn't work – she'd already left her past behind and become a normal person. I'd rather have heard Yan Wei explain her past to Xu Youyi and then have them have the final "no secrets between us" reconciliation-conversation.
(Also I really disliked Xu Youyi trashing her typewriter. Go back to your writing! Maybe start writing books about women who leave shitty men, idk. Just ... keep doing what you love, even if you have a kid now.)
On the major secondary characters, I liked how Jiang Bin (detective dude) alternated between a sympathetic antagonist and an ally of our protagonists', before becoming something of a frienemy to Yan Wei. ("'The one that got away' except Holmes-Moriarty rather than romantic" is not a dynamic I saw myself being into, but apparently I enjoy it!) I also thought the gradual reveal of more and more of Zhou Heng's faults was well done – from just cheating with one person, to a murderer and attempted baby kidnapper.
Also, well, it's set in/around 1931 (internal timeline is ~1½ years; can't recall when in there I saw the newspaper headline). Shanghai will be invaded by the Japanese in 1937. I now want to read a war epic about what happens when war comes back for Yan Wei that I do not have the cultural competence to write.
(And WTF conflict did Yan Wei fight in? She's canonically 20, so born ~1911, and the conflict would've happened in the (late) 1920s. Her comrades are European. Most of the notable fighting in the 1920s that comes up was rebellions/warlord stuff in China, which obviously doesn't fit. I know it's probably a made-up fictional nonexistent conflict, but still. I wanna knoooow.)
Fanwork status: Will vid this. I have three vid ideas already.
Also I think I will want to make myself a Yan Wei icon.
Yan Wei is my fave, my blorbo, my precious little meow meow who can do no wrong. I think the bad-at-human-ing murder dumpling who just wants to become a normal person is amazing and I want her to have all the nice things in life. Xu Youyi is maybe the only instance of sajiao that's worked for me so far, and I absolutely loved the dynamic between them.
I also liked how the various side characters oscillated/changed position with narrative expansion between antagonist and villain. The thriller-y/murder mystery plot was good as well, and kept me engaged throughout.
Spoilers!
Okay, let's start with the one thing that did not work for me: The ending. Though mostly it confused the fuck out of me. WTF happened? Why on Earth would Yan Wei kill Xie Yifan, who is off in Beiping? I understand that for censorship reasons they might not have been allowed for Yan Wei, murderer, to walk free, but honestly that whole stated motivation of "like you, I'm leaving my past behind" ergo turning herself in didn't work – she'd already left her past behind and become a normal person. I'd rather have heard Yan Wei explain her past to Xu Youyi and then have them have the final "no secrets between us" reconciliation-conversation.
(Also I really disliked Xu Youyi trashing her typewriter. Go back to your writing! Maybe start writing books about women who leave shitty men, idk. Just ... keep doing what you love, even if you have a kid now.)
On the major secondary characters, I liked how Jiang Bin (detective dude) alternated between a sympathetic antagonist and an ally of our protagonists', before becoming something of a frienemy to Yan Wei. ("'The one that got away' except Holmes-Moriarty rather than romantic" is not a dynamic I saw myself being into, but apparently I enjoy it!) I also thought the gradual reveal of more and more of Zhou Heng's faults was well done – from just cheating with one person, to a murderer and attempted baby kidnapper.
Also, well, it's set in/around 1931 (internal timeline is ~1½ years; can't recall when in there I saw the newspaper headline). Shanghai will be invaded by the Japanese in 1937. I now want to read a war epic about what happens when war comes back for Yan Wei that I do not have the cultural competence to write.
(And WTF conflict did Yan Wei fight in? She's canonically 20, so born ~1911, and the conflict would've happened in the (late) 1920s. Her comrades are European. Most of the notable fighting in the 1920s that comes up was rebellions/warlord stuff in China, which obviously doesn't fit. I know it's probably a made-up fictional nonexistent conflict, but still. I wanna knoooow.)
Fanwork status: Will vid this. I have three vid ideas already.
Also I think I will want to make myself a Yan Wei icon.
no subject
Date: 2025-02-27 21:47 (UTC)It's a very fun show, and I look forward to seeing the vid(s) you create for it! :)
no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 12:39 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-02-28 00:45 (UTC)I'm assuming the ending was partially sequel bait (I swear I heard rumors that there were plans for two more 12 episode seasons, but I don't think anything has came of that). tbh I'd assumed Highlight for spoilers! *Xu Youyi wasn't the one who trashed the typewriter and a sequel would involve Yan Wei rescuing Xu Youyi and her son from someone.*
no subject
Date: 2025-03-01 12:54 (UTC)The sequel plot you propose makes a lot of sense! I'll just adopt that as my interpretation of intent (but completely ignore the last ~5 min plotwise unless and until the sequel actually manifests). It would also be nicely symmetric, I think, to have Yan Wei team up with the law for Xu Youyi, when Xu Youyi did so for Yan Wei's sake in the original. (Also this would let them play 5D chess with the censors and have Jiang Bin go "She's a criminal so this is fated not to be" when his underling points at Yan Wei, giving them Plausible Deniability Tragic Het they could point at while Yan Wei and Xu Youyi sleep in the same bed lol.)
no subject
Date: 2025-03-02 01:15 (UTC)A relatively popular fan theory was that Yan Wei would 'earn' early release by volunteering to fight and/or do something suitably risky in the Sino-Japanese war.
Highlight for spoilers!*FWIW the novel ends on a cliffhanger with Yan Wei assassinating an unnamed high official, and the manhua ends with Yan Wei being released from prison and reuniting with Xu Youyi after a timeskip.*
no subject
Date: 2025-03-08 07:50 (UTC)