skygiants | (no subject)

I've been wanting to watch Couple of Mirrors since I first heard about it -- it's laser-targeted at me in a number of ways -- but with one thing and another we didn't get around to it until this month.

Q: Okay, what is Couple of Mirrors and why is it laser-targeted at you specifically?
A: It's about a romance novel author who falls in love with a lesbian assassin in Republic-era Shanghai!

Q: Wait, really lesbians?
A: Really lesbians in the source material, a faint veneer of plausible deniability for the live action, you know the drill. A better question is, 'really Republic-era Shanghai --'

Q: Wait, is it not Republic-era Shanghai?
A: I mean, it's for sure Shanghai, but as for time period ... okay, Republic-era China did span 30 years and nothing in the narrative itself ever gives a date; we really did try to figure it out, but this was a losing game. I've put some

This is a pretty standard set of outfits for You Yi and Yan Wei -- maybe not perfect historical costuming, but I, Not An Expert, would look at this and go 'sure, 1930sish, you're going for vibes.'

The beehive/prom dress is a little more confusing ...

But not quite as confusing as You Yi's stint as a contemporary Starbucks barista.

Or whatever is going on with her best frenemy's high pony and mod little buttons.

Meanwhile, Yan Wei's usual Eponine cosplay is relatively timeless, and, obviously, I love it.

But when when she shifts to the prairie dresses and slouch beanies I do start getting some involuntary flashbacks to mid-2000s boho chic.

And I simply do not know what to do with this moment of Appa closet cosplay at all.

Real sidenote, unrelated to temporal confusion, but I don't know anything about why this man constantly wears an ascot under his turtleneck except that I do not like it.

Anyway, eventually we just decided there was a time portal in Shanghai and left it at that

Q: ... okay, well, thanks for that moderately unnecessary detour, can we get back to the lesbians? Tell me more about them please?
A: Sure! You Yi is the romance novelist, and Yan Wei is the assassin. They meet when You Yi's discovery that her terrible husband is having an affair with her best friend coincides with Yan Wei's decision to assassinate said best friend, resulting in You Yi getting accused of the murder --

Q: This is so dramatic! Why did Yan Wei kill the best friend?!
A: Yan Wei is on a murderous revenge rampage because the kid who delivered her milk once a week got killed in a hit-and-run accident. Yan Wei has a very precise sense of justice and a less precise sense of proportion.

Q: Amazing.
A: Absolutely. Anyway, then You Yi offers a huge reward to anyone who can catch the killer!

Q: Wow! Seems like a setup for a tense and dramatic relationship with a lot of secrets and lies and possible betrayal?
A: Honestly, not really! Despite the setup, the 'plot' -- which involves multiple murders and gangsters and staged car accidents and gunfights in the streets of Shanghai, and also far too much of You Yi's horrible husband and boring ex and a detective investigating murders that truly nobody cares about -- kind of exists in parallel to the romance, which mostly consists of Yan Wei rescuing You Yi from peril in between scenes of the two of them hanging out at Yan Wei's house being adorable and domestic.

Q: Would you like to describe the domesticity further?
A: You know, they spend a lot of time cooking together and play with the cat and You Yi redecorates Yan Wei's house and drags a protesting Yan Wei to come shopping with her, and Yan Wei desperately attempts to ensure that You Yi doesn't accidentally trigger any of the death traps she's got lying around the house. Classic 'stoic former child soldier raised on a brainwashing island designed to train the humanity out of her learns to re-experience emotion via romance with an outgoing high femme socialite' rom-com tropes.

Q: ....brainwashing island?
A: Yan Wei's backstory is VERY unclear but definitely involves some form of remote island child supersoldier training and also fighting in a war. What war? See above re: 'when is this set?' We Simply Do Not Know.

Q: I feel like maybe you are trying to intimate here that the plot is not entirely coherent...
A: Yeah, if this sounds interesting to you, maybe don't ... watch for the plot ...... instead, watch for Yan Wei full-body panicking when You Yi gives her a hug and wistfully imagining herself as the kind of person who could figure out how to hug back!

Q: All right, but it's got to end tragically, right?
A: In fact it does not! The show ends with the two of them living happily together raising an adorable baby! Yan Wei is still performing various implied assassinations, which does not impact their happiness whatsoever, although occasionally the detective who's been investigating them -- who also nobly helped get Yan Wei off the hook for the one murder she didn't commit -- pops around to mutter dire warnings about finding evidence to convict Yan Wai for the murders she did commit and then ask about the health of the baby. In like the last two minutes there's a preview for a hypothetical (as-yet-unconfirmed, I think?) season two in which various dramatical things will presumably occur and not stick, but generally they're completely fine, and good for them!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

china_shop

And I simply do not know what to do with this moment of Appa closet cosplay at all.

HEEEE!

From:

skygiants

I guess if you're a murderer who has just gotten away with murder, it's kind of funny to walk around in a jacket with two arrows pointing right at you like 'HEY HERE IT IS, THE MURDERER.'

From:

sovay

Meanwhile, Yan Wei's usual Eponine cosplay is relatively timeless, and, obviously, I love it.

I think I own that jacket.

From:

skygiants

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've seen you wear it!

From:

starlady

Wouldn't it have to have been the Sino-Japanese War?

But yeah, I agree, it looks like the costume department just gave up sourcing period looks at a certain point.

From:

skygiants

It's almost definitely not the Sino-Japanese War because her commanding officer is an English-speaking white guy who expresses concern about her decision to leave [unspecified war] and return to her own country ...

Also the other heroine is very excited about selling her book novel rights in Japan and everyone is excited to help her with this, in a way that strongly implies China and Japan are not currently at war -- she has several very friendly business meetings with Japanese publishing executives!

From:

aurumcalendula

I'm glad I'm not the only one with temporal confusion re: when it's supposed to be set! (like there's a calendar for 1931 in episode 10, but Yan Wei's flashback scenes don't look like WWI or the 20s)

Someone said they're planning for three seasons, which I'm hoping is true!

Edited Date: 2022-02-02 10:50 am (UTC)

From:

skygiants

I'm impressed you spotted the 1931 calendar -- that's more of a temporal clue than anything we found! At one point we were desperately googling phrases like 'European Wars 19th Century' to see if we could find any plausible non-WWI contenders ...

That would be so delightful, I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Everything in that tweet looks very promising >.>

From:

aurumcalendula

tbh I probably only spotted it because I was trying to pin down when it was supposed to be set - for a while I was thinking the late 40s. There's a few 30s movie posters in the background too (the 1932 movie Dance Team the 1933 version of The Last Trail, iirc).

IKR!

From:

shadaras

Oh, thanks for that link! :D I'm fascinated by what it has to say about the next season(s)!

From:

troisoiseaux

Oooooooh I need to watch this immediately.

From:

skygiants

It's very quick! Twelve episodes, goes down a breeze!

From:

shadaras

oh man I'm so excited that you watched this, your commentary is always a gift <3

I don't know anything about why this man constantly wears an ascot under his turtleneck except that I do not like it.

I KNOW it's so awful and on the occasions where he didn't wear it my friend and I were like "wait I can see how he might look attractive (in other shows/stylings) now I guess".

Yan Wei has a very precise sense of justice and a less precise sense of proportion.

beautiful and accurate description of her <3

occasionally the detective who's been investigating them -- who also nobly helped get Yan Wei off the hook for the one murder she didn't commit -- pops around to mutter dire warnings about finding evidence to convict Yan Wai for the murders she did commit and then ask about the health of the baby.

I loved Mr Detective Man. Every single conversation he had with Yan Wei about "You know I know and you also know I can't prove it" was incredible.

I've seen someone say that there's some amount of confirmation that s2 will get filmed, but who knows when/if it'll be aired.

The final episode of s1 is just an incredible series of tropes and ridiculousness that, you are correct, is definitely something to watch for the gay instead of the plot. xD It's great, though!

From:

skygiants

We kept trying to figure out if ascot/no ascot had some kind of bearing on his characterization but could not decipher the code, whatever it was ... we hated the ascot but also it got to the point where we started feeling vaguely disconcerted if we could see any part of his neck. SCANDALOUS, INAPPROPRIATE FOR WORK.

My favorite Mr. Detective Man scene is the one where he walks in to interrogate Yan Wei and instead spends twenty minutes posing dramatically for headshots. I hope he enjoyed the results!

My favorite part of the final episode of s1 (aside from the truly incredible amounts of domestic fluff) was Chekhov's gangsters coming back in the plot at last ... 'where are they?' we kept asking, for the prior six or seven episodes. 'Does the gangster boss still think his guys are out there just biding their time?' APPARENTLY, YES.

From:

shadaras

xD SCANDALOUS! indeed!

Oh, yes! That Mr. Detective Man scene was great! I also hope he enjoyed the photos. :D

Right, yes, Chekhov's gangsters, that sure did happen. I'd almost forgotten about them because of the sheer amount of Stuff going on. When watching, I basically had assumed that was a dropped/completed plot thread and so I was very surprised that they came back at the end! (I was watching 2ep/wk with my friend, so plenty of time to forget older plots.)

From:

osprey_archer

The still shots of the costumes are absolutely sending me. The Eponine cosplay! The Appa cosplay! The brief interlude as a modern-day barista, because WHY NOT I GUESS. Which can only be the explanation behind Brainwashing Island, too: if you are going to have a highly trained assassination then WHY NOT make her a child soldier whose training was supposed to leach out all of her humanity. Who would dare to miss such an opportunity?

From:

skygiants

My favorite thing about Brainwashing Island is that what we see most is soldiers/traianers/whatever telling her that she cannot have and will never have friends as setup for a ~~lesbian true love~~ REALLY IMPORTANT FRIENDSHIP appearing in her life....

From:

douqi

love your commentary! also sun yihan has been seen wearing the appa cosplay coat irl, for reasons known only to herself.

re: source material, the live action is actually the original work. the manhua (very gay) is the spin-off, as is the novel (not very gay).

From:

superborb

The costuming department said, sure, we probably can't reuse the appa cosplay coat for another production, you can have it...?

From:

skygiants

asjdf;lkdsj does one think that she took the coat, or that the costume department were like 'crap we didn't plan anything today, bring something from your closet and we'll roll with it?'

Oh, interesting, thank you! I was completely under the impression that the novel came first and then the show and manhua were both spin-offs from there.

From:

lirazel

So I was super excited about this one, but then I watched the first episode or two and found it really, really boring and draggy? Would you advise pushing past a certain point to get to the good stuff?

From:

skygiants

hmmm, I would say episode 4 is really where it starts to pick up if you're watching for the You Yi/Yan Wei relationship (which IMO is probably the only reason to watch) -- if you get there and you don't think it's worth it to push on just for that dynamic (an extremely reasonable decision also) then jump ship no guilt!

From:

lirazel

That is helpful! I wanted to watch it for the ship, but I just found the first episode so draggy! Gorgeous, but draggy.

From:

nineveh_uk

That sounds splendidly bonkers, though I think I would be shouting at the TV too much to really appreciate it.

From:

skygiants

It was wonderful to watch in company, we were convulsed with laughter shrieking at each other and the TV when anything particularly nonsensical happened!

From:

nineveh_uk

Some things really need watching in company for just this reason!

From:

bloodygranuaile

I am terrible about watching TV shows but I am intrigued; where is this showing/how do I watch it?

From:

aurumcalendula

You should be able to watch it here

From:

bloodygranuaile

Thank you!

From:

skygiants

Yes, as

aurumcalendula said, it is easily accessible on YouTube! I hope you enjoy if you watch (and, as noted above, it definitely is a bit of a slow start.)

From:

chestnut_pod

Thank you, as ever, for your inimitable services in watching and reading things I will never consume and allowing me to enjoy them vicariously through you.

(I… kind of… like the Appa coat?)

From:

skygiants

It is not that I dislike the Appa coat in and of its own merits, but I do wonder where ... it was acquired ..... in 193?'s Shanghai ......

We ended up theorizing that the arrows were meant to troll the detective who knows perfectly well that she committed various murders but is unable to prove/prosecute it. 'Look! It's me! Your suspect! RIGHT HERE. :D"