Final review/rating: Romance of a Twin Flower (2023) - Cute chemistry squandered by a patchy and unevenly paced plot
This is 6.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼
Overall rating: 6.5 Stars Plot: 6 Stars Acting/cast: 7 Stars Couple chemistry: 7 stars Music: 7 Stars Re-watch value: 6 Stars Enjoyment factor: 6.5 Stars |
Romance of a Twin Flower (2023) is what happens when you have great leads with great chemistry who are handed a bland script that is not particularly well plotted or paced. It starts well, but drags in the middle, and limps to a rather predictable ending. In my view, there was probably only enough plot to satisfactorily fill a 24 episode drama, so 38 episodes was always going to be a bit of a stretch.
That said, Peng Xiao Ran's plucky Ji Man and Ding Yu Xi's boyishly attractive Ning Yu Xuan had me rooting for this CP right from the start, so this may be one to watch if you are fans of both or either.
SPOILERS AHEADS
Too many cooks scriptwriters spoil the broth plot
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| Peng Xiao Ran as Nie Sang Yu |
For a spoiler free synopsis, read mine 👉here. In summary, the drama starts with a dramatic cliff top scene in which Nie Sang Yu, jumps from a cliff after cursing her husband Ning Yu Xuan to a life of loneliness and despair. Nie Sang Yu is not a nice woman - infamous for cruelty (she whips servants to the bone for mere nothings etc), and her in name only marriage with Ning Yu Xuan is an unhappy one as Nie Sang Yu's one sided infatuation is not returned.
Flash forward in time, Ning Yu Xuan finds his 'wife'. But when she regains consciousness, 'Nie Sang Yu' has lost all her memories, and her personality is entirely different. Cheerful, kind, and with remarkable business acumen, the new Nie Sang Yu is full of good ideas for establishing a cosmetics business empire and is determined to divorce Ning Yu Xuan to regain her freedom. Is she even the same person? (Spoiler, of course not - it's all in the name of the drama Romance of a Twin Flower). And of course, as Ning Yu Xuan gets to know the new version of his 'wife', and as she gets to know him, the bickering duo find themselves falling in love.
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| Peng Xiao Ran as Ji Man |
Throw in the secret of 'Nie Sang Yu's true identity (she is actually Ji Man, twin sister of Nie Sang Yu), the ups and downs of establishing a business, enemies within (concubine Wen Wan creating havoc), and enemies without (political enemies trying to take down Ning Yu Xuan ie. evil Royal Uncle and his henchman Ling Jian Xing), as well as a star-crossed lovers plot (because Ji Man's real father may have murdered Ning Yu Xuan's father) and you have the ingredients and potential for a gripping plot.
Problem is that the drama was written by 8 (yes 8!!) different scriptwriters, and it shows in the lack of cohesion and the variation in the quality and momentum of the writing.
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| Cute CP chemistry |
The first third of the drama was fantastic - there is suspense because the audience wants to find out who 'Nie Sang Yu'/Ji Man is (and what happened to the real Nie Sang Yu) and there is also a delightfully chaotic romcom energy with the bickering/flirting between Ning Yu Xuan and Ji Man, which Peng Xiao Ran and Ding Yu Xi absolutely nail with comedic flair. There were definitely great laugh out loud moments - for example, Ning Yu Xuan's antics in the casino with Ji Man in episode 11, which had peak hen-pecked husband energy😅 and Ning Yu Xuan summoning all his courage and confessing his love to his wife only to open the door to find her maid there instead, in episode 14😆
Problem is that one (or some) of the 8 scriptwriters did not understand how to maintain momentum and suspense in storytelling.
Ji Man's true identity is evident to the audience by episode 7 and suspected by Ning Yu Xuan by episode 10 then confirmed in episode 14, and to Ji Man herself by episode 16, but after some heightened drama and an exciting prison rescue scene in episode 16 (yay!), the drama fizzles and goes round and round in circles...
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| Miss Shui and Gui Bai💕 |
You would think there is plenty of drama to be mined from the fact that our CP's respective families may have irreconcilable bad blood between them (it's always a no in dramaland to marry the child of the murderer of your father).
But instead, after a sweet confession scene in episode 21, nothing noteworthy seems to happen for ages. I wouldn't have minded if the drama then gave us lots of fluffy romance, but instead the drama detours into the ups and downs of Ji Man's cosmetic business (which, quite frankly, was a bit boring), the trials and tribulations of some of the many side characters (such as Ms Qian and her good-for-nothing gambling brother) and other side CPs whom, with the exception of Gui Bai and Miss Shui, I had no interest in. None of this perceptibly advanced the plot.
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| Concubine Wen Wan: the greenest tea |
To make matters worse, the drama gives way too much screen time to the scheming antics of Concubine Wen Wan, who keeps reemerging just when you think you won't need to see her again. It's clear they did this to try and add drama, but it was also deeply frustrating because it makes you wonder why Ning Yu Xuan lets her run riot in his household to scheme and hurt everyone and doesn't do anything about this menace until episode 26 when both his IQ and EQ are supposed to be high.
The reveal about the supposed murder of Ning Yu Xuan's father by Ji Man's father is also dragged out as long and as boringly as possible across episodes 27 to 30, at which point Wen Wan re-enters the fray with a new identity, ready to create yet more havoc and having joined forces with evil Royal Uncle and Ling Jian Xing. To be honest, I nearly dropped the drama at episode 15 because the drama was beginning to drag and they decided to have Wen Wan re-enter, and then again at episode 30, with Wen Wan's return. Why couldn't she just "exit, pursued by a bear"?
The last 10 episodes head for melodrama and angst, but also in dragged out fashion (eg inclusion of a business competition that added little) before it is finally cleared up that Ning Yu Xuan's father was not killed by Ji Man's father and the CP marry in episode 35. But the drama just limps on... throwing us another fall from a cliff at episode 37 and then some noble idiocy from Ji Man who decides to stay 'dead' for Ning Yu Xuan's career. Episode 38 finally reunites the CP after a 1 year time gap, and another wedding (this time with loved ones present), but by then I was more than ready to say goodbye to this drama.
On faulty characterisation
No criticism of either of the leads as I think both Peng Xiao Ran and Ding Yu Xi did their level best with what they were given. However, it does need to be said that the characterisation of Ning Yu Xuan and Ji Man left much to be desired.
I get that we are in romcom territory, but still. Ji Man is written as a modern female entrepreneurial type with plenty of brains and healthy self-respect, but then there is also a lame love-at-first-sight explanation for why she and Ning Yu Xuan are the OTP which makes her come across as rather superficial and not particularly bright. I mean, she sees the man once across the equivalent of a crowded room and then decides, without even having spoken to the man, that he is her one true love and goes cross-country to the Capitol to find him. She doesn't even know that he is already married till she gets there (in time for his second 'marriage' with Concubine Wen). And then there is the 'ick' factor that he is technically her brother-in-law.
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| Han Shuo in The Romance of Tiger and Rose |
As for Ning Yu Xuan, he's at times incredibly IQ and EQ high, but as I've said, it just sits badly for both that he lets Concubine Wen remain a festering source of havoc for so long, especially when they are not truly married and he knows exactly what she is up to.
And although Ding Yu Xi is absolutely charming, the role of Ning Yu Xuan is far too similar to his Han Shuo in The Romance of Tiger and Rose (2020) which was pretty much a perfect romcom, which Romance of a Twin Flower (2023) decidedly is not. This is not helped by the fact that the drama chooses to style Ding Yu Xi's Ning Yu Xuan so similarly to his Han Shuo that he might as well have walked on straight from that drama's set. This makes it hard not to draw comparisons between the two dramas.
Final thoughts
🐼: Romance of a Twin Flower (2023) started well, but alas, the cute chemistry of our leads is squandered by a patchy and uneven plot. The drama would have benefitted from some judicious editing (and maybe the use of less than 8 scriptwriters). There was really only enough story for 24 episodes, and the drama got very draggy midway through and never recovered the momentum of its sparkling beginning as it limped to its conclusion.
This is probably one you will watch with judicious use of the fast forward button, unless you are a die-hard fan of Peng Xiao Ran and/or Ding Yu Xi.
6.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮
