Just felt like making this to chat about the recent GL cdrama Couple of Mirrors, and to recommend the series to anyone who hasn’t seen it.
I felt like the show was a solid 9/10 overall. The story is a romance/drama/mystery with a fair bit of action and the overall plot was engaging and interesting, even outside of the two leads interacting, which we don’t get to see too much of until the latter half of the season (especially the last few episodes).
The story is set in republican shanghai (ie republic of china), although don’t watch the series for historical accuracy, its definitely not a period piece or even close. The two leads Xu You Yi and Yan Wei have very good chemistry as characters, and a lot of cute moments together, although there are also a lot of serious or angsty moments as well.
The thing I was most curious about before I started the show was about just how gay the series was actually going to be. I was actually pleasantly surprised with how much they were able to get away with in the show. Of course there’s no outright confessions of love, or kissing, but I think the show makes up for the lack of physically intimate moments with plenty of emotionally intimate moments. The show (with a few minor exceptions) did a good job not baiting the audience, and although they weren’t allowed to say it openly the mutual love that developed between the two leads was very obvious and plain to see. We don’t get to see too much of them together at first, but it makes sense in the context of the larger plot and their relationship was naturally fleshed out over the course of the series.
Xu You Yi in particular was performed spectacularly, just from the minute facial expressions and what she said (or didn’t say) you could really get a sense for who she was and how she was feeling at the time. Both leads develop a lot throughout the story, with and it’s really cute to see the cold detached Yan Wei open her heart to Xu You Yi as they grow closer together.
