Mirror: A Tale of Twin Cities (2022)

A Background Story Review

P.s. this review focuses more on the background story, hope that others can grasp what's going on better.

Mirror: A Tale of Twin Cities (镜双城) is a xuanhuan drama, adapted from the novel with the same title, 镜·双城by 沧月 (Cang Yue). The novel is broken down into 6 series: Su Mo, Bai Ying, Zhen Lan, Na Sheng, Yan Xi, and Yun Huan. But their stories are all correlated. Mirror Twin Cities drama adaptation focuses more on the story of Su Mo and Bai Ying.

A little background story for those who didn’t read the novel nor watched the donghua yet, the story takes place in the Yunhuang continent. In Yunhuang continent, there are 6 countries (Kongsang, Cangliu, and more). 7000 years earlier, Kongsang destroyed the sea kingdom. The previous sea emperor made a pearl to preserve his power and bloodline; and 7000 years later, a mermaid unaccidentally swallowed the pearl. Thus, Su Mo was born.

In Yunhuang, the mermaids were tortured and enslaved. A mermaid’s tears will turn into pearls, the mermaids were forced to cry; and if they cannot try, their eyes will be gouged out. Mermaids were tortured, forced to break their tails, and sold as a commodity and slaves. Both Su Mo and his mother are also very miserable. His mother has her hand and leg amputated and turned into a human swine. Su Mo was also tortured, and in order for others not to have his eyes, he gouged his own eyes. So Su Mo itself is a very dark character and he hates Kongsang people.

Mirror Twin Cities drama narrative centers around Su Mo and Bai Ying. Su Mo is a merman who also bears the identity of a sea emperor, he has the responsibility to bring the mermaids back to the sea. Meanwhile, Bai Ying is the eldest daughter of the Bai clan who has the responsibility to marry the Kongsang’s crown prince. The drama story timeline takes place when Kongsang was invaded by Cangliu, and after the sea emperor resurfaces again and wants to bring the mermaids back to the sea.

The first few episodes of the drama tell the flashback of what had happened 100 years ago. It has very weird and fast pacing, everything is thrown at you so sudden that you might need some time to process what’s going on. And you also won’t feel their chemistry yet. But stay and keep watching, it gets better! It has a pretty average script, but it has gorgeous landscape shots and CGI! But the editing and set are lacking, there is a lot of choppy editing especially during their fight scenes. The fight scenes are beautifully choreographed, but the shots and choppy editing makes it hard for people to understand whats actually going on. In addition, the set is also poor, this is a S+ project but the set looks like its a low-budget project. The "real" locations such as forest, houses, mirror tower were still okay but some like the sea kingdom, underwater scenes are poorly executed

Mirror Twin Cities is led by Li Yifeng (Su Mo), Chen Yuqi (Bai Ying), Zheng Yecheng (Zhen Lan), and more. This drama is Li Yifeng’s comeback historical drama after almost six years. Li Yifeng's portrayal as Su Mo is right on the point. A lot of people may say, “his expression stays the same”. But that’s what Su Mo was like, he is a cold and emotionless man. And also Li Yifeng looks REALLY GOOD in a historical drama. Meanwhile, Chen Yuqi's portrayal as Bai Ying was fine, she did improve a lot from her previous projects. But I can’t help but to notice that she has almost the same expression throughout the whole drama (except when she’s crying). Last but not least, Zheng Ye Cheng acting in a historical drama never disappoints, from his fighting scene, articulation, looks, everything is superb. Zheng Yecheng is also really commendable for being able to portray two totally different characters

In addition, Mirror Twin Cities also has an amazing OST lineup with star studded singers! And I love how there’s a specific OST designed for each character and situation that’s happening. The line up for Mirror Twin Cities OST includes:
1. 念归去 - 周深
2. 无惧 - 阿YueYue
3. 爱若无声 - 毛不易
4. 不为喜欢 - 张碧晨
5. 我是你的雨 - 银临
6. 相思不相忘 - 利胜
7. 风月唱 - 锦零
8. 问酒 - 姚晓棠
Sung by Zhou Shen, Mao Buyi, and Zhang Bichen, you can expect how much angst this drama has.

As someone who has read the novel, I’d say the drama has changed around 80% from the novel, especially character-wise. In the novel and donghua, Su Mo is a very cold and ruthless character. In the novel, Su Mo has no real feeling for Bai Ying at all. All he did was use Bai Ying to overturn Kongsang and try to rebuild the sea kingdom. It was only after Bai Ying jumped the tower, did he realized he was long fallen for her. However, in the drama, he is someone whose more emotional and compassionate (not that it is a terrible thing). For instance, during episode 1, you can see Su Mo as a bright young man helping other mermaids passionately, but that was not the case in the novel. Going through torture and betrayal when he was small, he was a dark and cold character. But in the drama, Su Mo has a straightforward attitude towards his love for Bai Ying. All in all, the drama focuses more on the romantic side of the story. If you have read the novel or watched the donghua, you may find the whole Mirror Twin Cities character deviate from the novel or donghua, except Zhen Lan. But when you are watching the drama, just try to forget the novel and donghua.

If this drama premieres after The Longest Promise (Xiao Zhan and Ren Min), the audience would probably grasp better whats going on.

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Worth watching !! cant get over the love story between SuMo and BaiYing

I saw there are so many negative review for MTC and I wanting to give my own honest review on this Drama.

Honest review/opinion from me:
This is my first time writing long review so please excuse my English if there is grammar error or wording mistake. I believe because MTC is an adaptation from a famous novel by Cang Liu/ there will be 2 different group of audience for this drama. One is those who love the novel and come to see the drama / the other one is those who love the cast or wowed by the preview and waiting for the drama.

From the beginning the start the marketing of MTC / I have always been looking forward to this drama because of the amazing cast. I love LYF / Yukee and ZYC. MTC also have a very strong lineup of supporting casts.

Story line beginning and ending:
It is indeed a slow start because the writer wanting to show us how Sumo and Baiying met 100 years ago and what happened between them that lead to the destruction of Kong Sang. From Novel fan perspective / they have hated the beginning because of the way writer has changed the story. For audience who hasn’t read the novel they try to find ML and FL chemistry because of the strong love story first 5 eps try to portray. People often complained that it doesn’t make sense they fall in love “true love” just like that. What they don’t know is / Su Mo / Bai Ying and Zhen Lan has been brought together one more time by fate of what happened to them 7000 years ago.

The story does get very interesting from Eps 9 to 36!! It explained a lot of things and slowly the pieces come together as of the real reason on where the problem started. Eps 36-43 felt a bit rushed and I believe they cut a lot of scene that make it looks like the series is not properly done. However this might also be due to the censorship matter in china.
I also felt that it will be more interesting if they put more fighting scene and don’t just cut it half way. CGI can be improved too. They should show more sword skills fighting from Baiying/Xijing and Yu Huan. I also felt that the scriptwriter focus mostly on Sumo and they let Zhen Lan down !! Zhen Lan has been portrayed as a weak CP from beginning to the end and I expect him to do much better. Same as Bai Ying / the scriptwriter pretty much made SUMO carrying the whole team by himself as he is always there to do the hard work.

Acting from FL and ML and other supporting casts:
LYF did a good job portraying Sumo. I don’t know why I think he did a superb job. Su Mo character is a very complicated character. LYF acting shows the different of playful and witty Sumo when he first met Baiying and he changed to more quiet character / less cheerful / less smiling after Qing Chen captured threaten him and his clan. Then he shows the real Sea King vibe when he come back 100 years later.

Yukee- her acting indeed a bit weird in MTC and I can only understand why after re watched this drama. Bai ying carried such a huge burden and she always feel guilty that the destruction of Kong Sang happened because of her selfishness. Being someone who always wants to lead a free life Baiying felt very “restrained” and unable to express herself. I think this is one of the reasons why in first few eps / Yukee was just staring or standing like she is thinking of something. It is not easy to portray this character so I still appreciate Yukee for taking this roles.

ZYC and other supporting lists did a great job !!

Ending:
I can’t get over the ending for 3 days and then after re watching I decided to treat this as HE just because Zhen Lan mentioned about Sea God will be back..

So far I personally enjoy this Movie very much and love the cast. I don’t agree with such a low score of 3.9 in Douban. I felt that score is way too low and there are so many worse dramas out there compare to MTC. LYF/Yukee/ZYC all did wonderful job and it is a hard work to begin with. The novel adaption aint easy !! I appreciate all the actors and I will continue to support MTC xx

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