Mirror Twin Cities (2022)

A little slow-moving overall

I am one of those who did not read the novel, so this is entirely based on my feelings after watching all the episodes of the drama.

Before I started writing this review, I was thinking what I liked about this drama, but unfortunately, except for the fact that it is in my favourite genre of Chinese historical dramas and I have watched many of them, there is really nothing that I can say I like about or find exceptional or worth-mentioning its good in this drama. If given a choice, I wouldn't have picked this drama up again.

As a whole, it was not bad, still watchable and I didn't think about dropping the drama at all at any point in time throughout watching because I wanted to know the ending, how they were going to overcome the odds to return their people to their proper homelands and the outcomes of Su Mo and Bai Ying.

However, I just found the entire drama slow-moving, be it the story, the dubbing voices of Su Mo and Bai Ying or their body language always so soft and gentle, not saying that soft body language and voices are issues, but they made the drama a little boring on top of the already slow-moving story and when it was late at night, I also tended to fall asleep watching them.

And I am sorry to their fans, but no, I do not think that their acting were good in this drama, just okay and more towards the negative. A lot of emotional scenes were not portrayed well, especially the last episode, but if I were to think again, perhaps, their characters in the drama were like that, not tending to show too much emotions, just quietly accepting everything that happened. Okay, I can accept if we put it this way.

And then the last episode. Seriously, the last episode, I guess it is probably the editing, everything to be finished by that episode so instead of showing the audience one by one what happened, they used lots of flashbacks, like Bai Ying would be standing there, staring into space, and then what she encountered earlier on would be shown to the audience for the first time and there were just too many flashbacks. I had to pay attention and watch carefully, otherwise I would have been very lost and confused, even after watching carefully, I was still a little confused.
And Su Mo dying and supposedly to become rainwater soon, suddenly appearing beside Bai Ying at the Flower Blossom tree and then when he finally dissipated into thin air, he appeared again when Bai Ying was crying by the Bi Luo sea, too much of these, really, disappearing and then re-appearing, to be honest, more than being touched, I went "huh?" each time Su Mo appeared again. And their acting weren't exceptional in the first place, so those supposedly touching scenes were not touching to me at all.

Well, I believe everyone will have his/her own subjective opinions and I'm not a professional reviewer either, but these are just my honest feelings after watching the entire drama.

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It is an okay-ish production.

A few hours since I finished this drama, and I am still reeling from the sadness of how the story might've turned out if the production quality was better. I felt sorry for everyone that was working hard for this drama but ended up seeing this mess.

But, I still enjoyed it.

I didn't feel regret spending two days straight binge-watching this drama. Why? Because I love the premise- one love for eternity?! Yup, you hook me right away.

But, it could've been better. I understood why some people dropped the drama. The selfless love that Su Mo has for Bai Ying was the reason I could power through all 43 episodes. It was selfless enough that he was willing to turn into the rain and leave her? Okay, this is me starting to gear up for a rant. Honestly, I don't understand his reasoning. The Dragon even asked what he wanted, and he could've said that he wanted to have a future with Bai Ying. But no, he wanted to become rain. I really love Su Mo. He is strong, smart, kind, compassionate, capable to lead his people, handsome (this was my first Li Yifeng drama, but my eyes always fixed on him whenever he appeared on screen), and most importantly, his love for Bai Ying is immense! But why must he inflict the pain of missing the love of her life when he knew how painful it was for him when he thought Bai Ying was dead?

But that's also the best part of this drama (at least for me). Every time we're shown Bai Ying missing Su Mo, my heart is breaking too, as if we are Bai Ying that are missing Su Mo, and wish for him to return on the screen, alive. And I think kudos to Yukee Chen for being able to bring out that yearning, and combined with the sad background music and the montage of them when they were happy together, alive, I cried too.

As a fan of fantasy romance -with sacrificial love and painful separation- it was right up my alley. And it's even better when we don't have an annoying love triangle, no unnecessary misunderstanding that causes our main couple to get separated, and we also get to see our main couple in the 'ride or die together' mode (that's why my favorite arc is the Jiuyi mountain arc).

I love everything about this drama; the acting, the OSTs, the chemistry between characters (mature, quiet relationship is kind of my taste), the characters (of course, Su Mo is the best. But I also love Bai Ying because I like she is smart, strong, and at the same time exudes grace and gentleness, and responsible. I understood her reluctance to accept Su Mo's love which is why the angst worked fine for me), and the story itself.

But it was lacking in execution. There were some unnecessary long and overdrawn shots, choppy editing (might be because of the episodes cut), subpar fight sequences (might also be because of the episodes cut), long scenes spent on side characters, also having too many unnecessary characters, and repeated flashbacks.

But still, I enjoyed watching. I like it enough. I don't regret spending hours watching this drama.

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A little more than so-so drama, started promising

I have to be honest I probably set an unusually high expectations with this drama. It started promising but there are a number of things I don't like about this drama. Before that, let me enumerate some good things about the drama that made me want to finish it.
Pros for me:
1. Setting. I love the details of the set especially in the place where they wish on flower festival.
2. Not the usual love triangle story. The third party is not annoying (prince)
3. All of the characters have serious thing to do. Im getting tired of watching arrange or forced marriage dramas so this is sort of fresh air.
4. I love how characters cooperate with each other.
5. I want to see how they'll do their task

Cons:
1. Nasheng is cute to look at but too chatty. She is cheerful by nature but too annoying in the first few episodes.
2. I don't feel the chemistry of the leads towards the end. I keep skipping their scenes. Their interaction is boring.
3. I was expecting a cold, ruthless Ml. And here they give us the typical "perfect" guy.
4. Fl becomes damsel in distress. I hate it. Hahaha. Also idk but yukee chen is boring in this drama.
5. ML was too strong. Remember he is practicing art of mirror or iirc separation because its already at the progressive stage. But then, after he suffers backlash, he will just get healed by the diviner then use power again. Illogical. I normally forgive this kind of plothole but it's repetitive. (Except the end ofc)
6. Ending is messy. On one scene he is alive then later he disappears. And then again he is there. (I think they shuffled the order of the scenes?) Why dont they just make him disappear on point?

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Underrated with Awesome Action

I want to make this review for other viewers like me who never read the novel version of a cdrama. Many bad reviews are complaining about the differences between the novel and the series. I think this is at least an 8/10, but I gave it a 10/10 because of all the low ratings given by people who read the book. The ending is also meh and not for everyone.

Story: This story focuses on Su Mo, a merman, and Bai Ying, a princess of a kingdom where the king and queen have magic powers. The story starts with background on how Su Mo and Bai Ying meet each other in a time when the mer people have been enslaved by her kingdom. The mer people have lost access to their homeland (sea) and are oppressed by the Kongsang. Soon after our lovebirds meet, the Kongsang royalty are overthrown and their kingdom is conquered by the Cangliu. Su Mo and Bai Ying and separated. Now we time-skip 100 years to see a powerful Su Mo return to bring his people back to their homeland. The rest of the story will focus mainly on Su Mo and Bai Ying fighting to regain their respective homelands ("the twin cities") by breaking through various magical seals and increasing their power. Both the mer people and the Kongsang royalty must battle against the Cangliu and their mysterious leader. The love story between Su Mo and Bai Ying is also there, but as more of a background detail.

What I like about this drama:
- Beautiful with lots of magic battles
- FL is a normal adult woman
- ML and SML get along well
- No nasty love triangle conflicts
- SFL has her own love interest and a happy ending
- The ML and FL don't have annoying misunderstandings
- The protagonists keep winning and the villains keep losing
- Decent OST

What I didn't like:
- A lot of slow motion and "dead air" that gets annoying
- The plot, especially towards the end, is messy in a lol kind of way
- The villains are very shallow and without any redemption
- Lack of detailed scenes after the cities are regained
- Boring ending that leaves me unsatisfied

You may not like this drama of you are looking for a really good love story; the romance is mostly drama-free with the couple never officially "getting together." However, their love for each other is always present and publicly known. They have tacit understandings rather than misunderstandings. This is a more mature romance, lacking flirtatious and swoon-worthy scenes.

Although I had to fast forward a lot due to excessive slow motion and dead air, I enjoyed the story and the characters a lot. Visually, this is a really well-done fantasy drama.

SPOILER - THE ENDING:

It's not for everyone. The ending is really underdeveloped and bland. Most of the characters are alone at the end. The ML has given up his life for the FL in an honorable way, becoming a Sea Deity with a dedicated holiday. The FL finally gets to live an independent life for herself rather than for the people. The twin cities are restored to their former glory and the villains are defeated. The ending is given in a pretty matter-of-fact way without much emotion. It was an ending just for an ending's sake.

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Hard Slog

The beginning of this drama was promising, even though it wasn't living up to it's high budget in terms of scene, costume and particularly, bad lighting that showed all of this. The pacing was fast, we got right into the story, but after a handful of episodes, it slowed down considerably.
The actors are doing their best, but there isn't chemistry between the leads, a character I had high hopes for in the beginning who seemed plucky and brave - Na Sheng, soon became clingy and whining and distracted by a love affair instead of a noble mission to save people's lives. It got to the point I didn't like to see her in scenes.
I came in the show to watch Liu Haikuan, and as always, he does great with what material he has, and villain is a new role for him, his character Yu Huan had surprising depths, but is was set up by the plot to never win, so you as the audience get very weary, knowing that an ending is inevitable, you stop caring about the characters and the story because the telling is so clunky and lacking suspense.

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Nice simple story that's easy to follow

My biggest dissatisfaction is the acting. I really liked the story line but the acting kind of took away the nostalgia of the moment. While Li Yifeng's acting is so-so, the character of Su Mo is icy and devoid of feeling on the outside, so Li's portrayal of Su Mo is befitting. Yukke Chen, however is very bad. Her acting is bland, very textbook, and lacks variation. She only has one expression, which is staring with those big eyes (sometime with tears and sometimes without, that's the only variation she's done here.) I really disliked the character of Na Sheng at first, but she grew on me. Kudos to Zheng Ye Chen. He was great here. I don't understand why he is not more famous.

Chemistry between the leads is non-existent. Bai Ying acts the same way towards Su Mo, Zhen Lan and Xi Jing. So if you are here for the love story, you will not go away feeling satisfied.

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Okay

Story starts with the introduction of all three main characters of the drama . How was meaning of their life changed . All three characters were shown happy go lucky type but when they knew their real identity everything was changed . Then their life had a purpose because of which they were living . I felt that there were so many unnecessary scenes which stretched the drama too much. The serious Su Mo I did like , I like the naughty character of Sumo which was shown in first episode then a serious character who hardly laugh . My favourite characters are Na Sheng and Yan Xi . They were the best . I like them more than the main leads. Sometime I skip the scenes to see them . Story was good . Can give a try.

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Weird ending

The whole story was weird cast was beautiful and the songs were beautiful but the story was weird with constant forgetting the loved one and with weird ending that I favored only mostly Yan Xi and Na Sheng in this entire story but the overall was whatever... It's sad how some potential stories are actually written very poor and the rewatch isen't even worth it...that's so sad...I can't even enjoy the drama story properly when they write the story where main male or main female die the way this Su Mo actually died and now in the end she has to wait for 100 years again for him to repeat if even real or just a spirit at all lol that is what I hate the most when I watch some drama like that and it end up not even giving me a piece of emotional scenes because when there are sufferings because of some weird story writing I am like even unable to concentrate on watching the story properly because I lose the interest...I do like when the story feature disputes and love being made in a weird place with a weird man who gradually become relevant for the girl or the girl is like a demon who will end up with a bad fate if her heart is not warmed or something such but this story was rather confusing abd dragging me into rather just capture the most important parts and not watch with utmost interest and btw my awaited part that made me be actually so much interested into even watching it at all was Su Mo with white hair because I was under assumption that because he will have white hair that the story will feature some amazing bits but it was only at the end abd was rather boring and wtf what a dissapointing merfolk story was it without any merfolk even having scales and fish tail lol it looked like a skyward sword abd heaven abd earth ring story more than a merfolks story...

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Promising start, but disappointing ending....

You know I was going to recommend this drama to my friend, and quite frankly, this story started off promising and good, I remember catching each episode as it comes out... But then..... somewhere down the road... I guess it was when after Bai Ying lost her memory... It started to go down the path that I don't enjoy...

It really honestly felt like to me that at that time, while Su Mo really loves Bai Ying (whole-heartedly), but he has also given up on her at the same time... He even said it, it's okay if she can't remember, how he feel about her doesn't change...

And NGL I rewinded their kiss scene at the bridge a couple of times, because that was a touching moment to me, and then... in the final episode, while I somewhat predicted it's going to be a SAD ending... but I still want to give it a benefit of the doubt... All was looking good... until Su Mo's hair turned white, and I am like WTF is going on...

He exhausted his powers, SO, does he have to die?! Even the Dragon god and Shi She(is that her name), asked him what's his wish, and when Su Mo said that, I'm like "!!!" Why?!?!?! Why can't he think about how Bai Ying would feel at the end of all this?! Why can't he be selfish for once!!! And just wish that there's a chance for him to get out of this so he can live together happily with her?!

I cried, I literally did when he goes to Bai Ying one last time (even if it's in her dreams or something)... And when they hugged... Okay... I knew it's not going to be a happy ending... And then we got that ending!

Which I want to question, did Su Mo really come back?! Is that really him?! Or was this all an illusion by Bai Ying?! I WANT to take this that he came back, but at the same time, there's no logic behind how he could come back, and that made me so annoyed/frustrated and sad!!

SO... in the end, all I can say is that I feel like I wasted 43 episodes of my time to have it come to this! I feel like this drama really had a lot of potential, and quite honestly, I only stuck to the end for Su Mo and Bai Ying since they're my favourite couple.... Yun Huan ending was laughable in the end, his character didn't righted himself for me (he was pretty much meh to me...).

I don't like this kind of ending, because I hate that feeling of being so surreal, I don't even know if Su Mo is back or not. I can't find any positive feels after watching this.... I really wanted to recommend this drama to my friend, but I don't even know how to tell him about the ending... I don't want to spoil it either..

P.S. I am not fond of Yanxi being the emperor at the end, at the expense of Su Mo's sacrifice when he(Yanxi) really didn't contribute anything to earned that role as the Emperor, so I HATE this. I already knew he will be the emperor, since I got spoiled on this video, but I still don't like it...

I am disappointed with this. It could be better. And sadly, I do agree that LYF is emotionless failed to portray the expressions at times; so ...... I don't know why either. Why oh why!!! T_T

P.S.S. And... if I am going to be honest... I think if Su Mo is gone... It would have been a satisfactory note, if Bai Ying joins him so at least they can be together, not separated like this....

I love Su Mo, but at the same time, I don't like why he is so cut off from giving himself a chance to be happy in the end... I hate that it was said that he won't have a chance to reincarnate because that's already set that he and Bai Ying can't be together anymore, which is why I don't understand that ending, as much as I want a miracle to happen....

This ending was really, unnecessarily cruel after all Su Mo sacrificed!!!!!

P.S.S. And I thought Miss the Dragon was bad... But this one takes it to another level with that CRUEL ending!

Next time I will remind myself to NOT get into a human x non-human xianxia genre... by the way this piss me off even more because Yanxi and NaSheng get to have their happy ending... So why can't Su Mo? When he's literally the ONLY one (seriously) that puts in A LOT of sacrifices to have it end like this?! Yeah, I blame the writers and the script, and this is not even comparing it to the novel, I am not a novel fan (since I have not read the novel...)

Am I going to rewatch this? Maybe the beginning when everything was good... but not towards the end, because it went crazy that didn't make sense to me... Am I going to recommend this to my friend? Well, better to watch something worth the time... I wasted my time on this, sadly, even when I know it could really have been better, but the end sums up everything to me, so in summary this drama was a disappointment, looking at "characters (Su Mo and Bai Ying) deserves a happy ending, got an unjustifying ending while character who contribute nothing much (Yan Xi and Na Sheng) gets a happy ending... I am not saying it's bad for Yanxi and Nasheng happy ending, but in comparison, it is just plain cruel to Su Mo, because he was the one who sacrificed ALOT to have it end like this. I don't understand why Su Mo have to give up for a happy future with Bai Ying, when he could have done it differently... It all just have it end for the sake of it being a sad ending.... I hate this kind of story writing/ending!

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Muchi potencial desperdiciado

No pintaba como una mala serie, pero hubo mil decisiones innecesarias en el guión.
El personaje de Su Mo al final era bastante insulso, no tuvo nada de desarrollo y toda la consecuencia de usar el arte del espejo/separación se desvaneció como por arte de magia. Siempre estuvo muy aislado del resto, mucho complejo de héroe. Zhen Lan lo mismo, siempre fue un 0 a la izquierda.
Yu Huan fue más de lo mismo, si lo sacas a él y a la hermana de la historia no cambia absolutamente nada. Na Sheng era INFUMABLE. Decía Yan Xi una vez más y la embocaba.
De Bai Ying no voy a escribir nada porque no merece la pena.
El final ¿?¿?¿?¿?
Pero bueno, la terminé solo porque tiene clichés que amo: amor prohibido y sacrificio. Pero muy plano todo.

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Mirror: A Tale of Twin Cities is my first Chinese drama. What drew me in were the aesthetic, the merpeople and the music. The first couple of episodes were hard to get through, but the previously mentioned things kept me watching. Later on the storyline becomes more streamlined and more enjoyable to watch.

I liked the characters, they were the main reason I watched this through to the end. I was invested in their journeys. I liked the friendships between them more than the romance though. The romance between Su Mo and Bai Ling was here and there. Na Sheng and Yan Xi were sweet together, but Na Sheng’s clinginess could get really annoying.

Other than that I loved the world the story was set in and, again, the merpeople. I’m a sucker for anything with merpeople. The costumes were absolutely gorgeous. The OST is another highlight, every song is beautiful and fits so well. The sets and the CGI, while not great, also had a particular charm.

As for the editing, yes, that is definitely the worst part of this drama. Several important things are skipped over, while less significant things are painfully drawn out. The last few episodes especially feel both too rushed and too slow. Still, I think as a whole it has enough qualities to redeem this.

If the story/the world appeals to you, it’s worth giving this drama a try.

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