[Mainland Chinese Drama 2018] The Story of Ming Lan 庶女明兰传 / 知否？知否？应是绿肥红瘦

[hello210]

1 minute ago, minglan1 said:

Yeah they should have got a younger and better looking guy for her.Maybe he doesn't have much screen time so they didn't invest a lot for this character.

I think that’s probably true because there were BTS pictures of ML interacting with her sisters after marriage but none of Rulan’s husband. 

[tomo74]

29 minutes ago, jewelsc said:

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Granma is like a dragon, she was so pissed when Da Niang told her what Madam Liang had suggested that ML marries her 6th son as the main wife while Molan as the concubine, she is basically 'shouting' that she was the one who raised ML and nobody in hell is going to marry her  ML off but she!! You gotta love  granma !

 

Grandma is the best , for me, she is the best character in this drama, love you Zǔmǔ (have to copy paste from google translate hahaha...)

[linhlinh111]

7 minutes ago, jewelsc said:

They should at least cast a better and younger looking guy for Rulan (i like her this Rulan eventho in the novel she didn't seem all that nice)

I like Rulan both in the drama and in the book. She might look spoilt and shallow but actually she was more mature than what's shown. Like she said women would be very stressful once married, so she just tried to live as carefree and fun as she could while still living with her parents. She was never blinded by the glamour of status and money, she never got jealous of ML bc she was more admired than her, she understood her shortcomings and she was waiting for the one who loved her for who she was. I never imagined a character which I didn't care and kinda dislike at the beginning turned out to be one of those I like most. She had grown so much since she got married and tbh I'm impressed.

[fra8]

19 minutes ago, m0us3y said:

From the trailer it seem like GTY was jealous after seeing QH and ML together, alone. 

In the novel (as mentioned by another chingu), it was written as GTY was jealous because ML showed the true side of her, as ML was angry with QH and showed it. As his wife, ML was always the perfect wife that never raises her voice, never angry. But GTY wanted to see the true side of her which has all emotions. 

 

However in the drama, I'm not sure they are keeping that as we can see that ML loses her cool with him more than she ever did with QH. And I think GTY is happy because he gets to see the real her. So I'm suspecting he really is jealous. In the trailer, towards the end, he asked her "if you get to choose again, would you still have married me??" 

I get why they might change even if I enjoyed that sl. in the book qh wasn’t a serious contender, she never loved him so it made sense gty wasnt worried about this. Here we and gty saw her love. She gave him up because of others but she had feelings. So it’s natural that gty and the viewers wonder if she were happy with gty or if he still were her second choice. They had to clear this.

[linhlinh111]

Ep 31: OMG the scene between QH and his wife was so forced I felt sorry for him. I wonder if she knew what her mother had done?

[minglan1]

19 minutes ago, hello210 said:

I think that’s probably true because there were BTS pictures of ML interacting with her sisters after marriage but none of Rulan’s husband. 

I am just waiting to see Molan,Da Niang,Hong Sheng and 6th Master of Liang's reaction when ML finally reveals her true wit and refined sensibility post marriage with GTY.I hope I get some scenes where they recognize how they misjudged her.

[ForgottenSoulx]

4 hours ago, fra8 said:

Yes I agree. It makes the story less compelling. There is a balance between showing her intelligence and capability and making her do things that are out of the context and even ooc (in comparison with the book). 

I think  that the general idea is to make her amazing and make her overshadow everybody. 

 

5 hours ago, linhlinh111 said:

I don't know but I have a feeling that the drama is buffing ML too much. From being in charge of the Sheng family (did not happen i the book and very unreasonable, ML was just a shu daughter) to proposing the divorce of her cousin (did not happen in the book and very unappropriate bc ML was not yet married and just a relative, Shulan grandma was the one who proposed that) and now helping the emperor? She did things that were very unfit to her position and it made everyone around her look useless, thus destroy the logic of the story. But I think maybe bc she is the main lead so the drama has to make things more about her somehow.

 

Totally disagree the drama had to show her being intelligent by doing stuff and its not OOC or out of context because this is the drama not the book its a adaptation to a clone/copy.

 

Also its quite annoying people bringing history like this family is based on history or the characters based on characters in history when they are not. 

 

Its called the Story of Ming Lan of course the story is supposed to be about her and shes supposed to overshadow everybody as the lead.

 

4 hours ago, leeza77 said:

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I like the drama more than the novel. Buffing ml's role was what required to make it more interesting. And helping shulan for separation was done discreetly not publicly. And the title of the drama us "the story of minglan" so, of course everything revolved around ML. 

 

 

Totally agree.

 

4 hours ago, dito said:

 

 

Making her more involved in domestic matters she had no business interfering which show her intelligence is still acceptable to a certain extent...if you forget historical accuracy and logic. But getting involved into political matters??? At least leave something for our main lead to do. Poor guy has done nothing but get beat up by his dad, schemed against by his family, betrayed by his lover, and rejected by half the families in the capital.

 

I mean why are people even thinking of history when none of the characters are based on history??

 

She never even got involved in Political matters she passed a message along.. WOW the political matters she got involved with, back then all girls were just useless and stayed in door's right?

 

Anyone who knows Chinese history know's there are out liars and strong female in literally every dynasty. If there are strong female's at the top there would be strong female's in household's as well you just never heard of them.

[hello210]

17 minutes ago, linhlinh111 said:

Ep 31: OMG the scene between QH and his wife was so forced I felt sorry for him. I wonder if she knew what her mother had done?

QH’s wife seems like she could be one of those undercover crazies that look demure/innocent on the surface but is really psycho. I don’t know why, but that’s the feeling I got from that character in the first polo match. I don’t think she’s as sheltered as QH was. And it seemed most people knew but “didn’t know” what her parents did.

[jewelsc]

16 minutes ago, linhlinh111 said:

I like Rulan both in the drama and in the book. She might look spoilt and shallow but actually she was more mature than what's shown. Like she said women would be very stressful once married, so she just tried to live as carefree and fun as she could while still living with her parents. She was never blinded by the glamour of status and money, she never got jealous of ML bc she was more admired than her, she understood her shortcomings and she was waiting for the one who loved her for who she was. I never imagined a character which I didn't care and kinda dislike at the beginning turned out to be one of those I like most. She had grown so much since she got married and tbh I'm impressed.

Thanks for that about older Rolan, i guess she's her own person, actually i should've rephrased by saying i didn't get to read pass the english translated novel so only read when she was still a kid so i figured once they got an attitude like that as a kid, it'll not be much diffrnt when they grow up  .

[frenchfan]

3 hours ago, mooose said:

 

In the drama, it looked like he was tired of her already. He was a playboy with a lot of experience.  It would have been hard to become his main wife withoit entrapment.  Marriages are arranged by the parents and Madam Liang definitely did not want her. 

Indeed.  Both her and her mum blackmailed the Sheng family to approached Liang family for marriage and Liang matriach said she wanted Minglan and was never interested in Molan because she could see through her scheme.  I mean what future is there when your own mother n-law doesn't like nor respect you?  Her mum is really a terrible mother.  Fancy encouraging your own daughter to trap a man and purposely spread the news. I mean, has she no shame?  But I must say that I am impressed with everyone acting.  So much emotion even for Molan and her mum.  Grandma fircely protecting Minglan from being sacrificed like a sacrificial lamb and you could see the way the story opened up.  I like Changbai's wife.  She is very pretty.  Hualan too is very pretty.  

[jewelsc]

9 minutes ago, hello210 said:

QH’s wife seems like one of those undercover crazies that look demure/innocent on the surface but is really psycho. I don’t know why, but that’s the feeling I got from that character in the first polo match. I don’t think she’s as sheltered as QH was. And it seemed most people knew but “didn’t know” what her parents did.

I too wondered if she knew what her mom did but somehow i get the feeling she doesn't but she is very happy

[hello210]

6 minutes ago, jewelsc said:

I too wondered if she knew what her mom did but somehow i get the feeling she doesn't but she is very happy

I think it depends if they made her character like the one in the novel. If they did, then she knew about it. We’ll see as the drama goes along.

Spoiler

And her karma was getting a similar death during the revolt (From novel spoilers). I think she was the only bad or evil wife he had out of the 3 in the novel.

 

[frenchfan]

40 minutes ago, tomo74 said:

If she isn't favored from her husband, she wasted her mother's secret tricks lol, guess crying and sweet talk only works for a decent stupid man not a playboy sorry for being so sarcastic, this is the chance for me to slap slap her and her parent since they annoyed me for along time, I can't wait to watch that episode and I'll scream "eat that s***", once again sorry for my rudeness

I know right.  I laughed when I saw Lin niang "fainted" when they were summoned by Sheng Hong, main wife and all the servants were there.  Then Sheng Hong said "take her away" and she miraculously regain consciousness.    You could see that the 6th son of Liang is a rake.  He is not going to change and Molan will have to constantly fight for a place.  Poor Molan.  She told Changbai's wife that they will have to pay her respect now that she is marrying into the Liang family (being higher ranked than hers) and she was smirking about getting ahead of her sisters especially Ruolan.  I wanted to slap her then.  

[tomo74]

4 minutes ago, frenchfan said:

I wanted to slap her then.  

Molan can save her money for make up since her cheek naturally coloured by getting so many slaps

[zenya22]

51 minutes ago, m0us3y said:

Spoiler

 

The version I saw never talked about the strategem of war?? 

I went back to watch the part again and I basically went 

ML: Er ship, why are you still a foot soldier?

GTY:  Yo, are u saying my position is too low?

ML: no way, I just feel that if you want to be promoted, you came to the wrong place. 

GTY: Why do U say that? 

ML: Although Youyang has disturbances, it's temporary and there's no military battles. You come here you can't really achieve military merit. If U go to the front line would u not get promoted faster?

GTY: do U know why I'm not at the front line?

ML : has to be U are too proud and offended ur superior. 

GTY: I did offend my superior but not because of my behaviour. 

ML: then it's because you achieved victory too quickly and blocked someone's path. Am I right? I thought I'd go back to capital and go under Gu army

 

And then GTY mentioned about wanting to gain merit and honours by himself for himself. 

And ML said she admires him?? 

 

 

@m0us3yYou are right. I think what I saw was the raw unedited version where she says something like you achieved victory and instead of "blocking someone's path" she said something like "and opened a path" + something else that sounded like a strategy or maybe it was just my version of interpretation. Sorry... guys .... but even in this edited conversation she is reading him correctly. 

[m0us3y]

56 minutes ago, fra8 said:

I get why they might change even if I enjoyed that sl. in the book qh wasn’t a serious contender, she never loved him so it made sense gty wasnt worried about this. Here we and gty saw her love. She gave him up because of others but she had feelings. So it’s natural that gty and the viewers wonder if she were happy with gty or if he still were her second choice. They had to clear this.

Good point. I concur. 

She clearly still has lingering feelings for QH now so it would be good to clear the air about who she truly really love in the end. 

Especially if GTY really did "con" her into the marriage...

[m0us3y]

2 hours ago, linhlinh111 said:

She was mean and hateful but she was not evil (her mother was) so that was enough of a punishment. The wedding was just the start. She was married off in a shameful way so her marriage wouldn't be peaceful.

 

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Her husband was a playboy. She spent most of her time fighting with concubines, had a few miscarriages and gave birth to all daughters, later the Sheng family was distant and didn't help her at all with her troubles, her mother could never return to the main house. But she got the status she wanted, although that was not exactly the life she was expecting. In the end she was the most pitiful of the 4 daughters, even got jealous with Rulan (Rulan married the man that was supposed to be betrothed to her but she detested him cuz he was just a poor student)

 

I like Rulan. I think she has a different attitude and maturity. 

Either she knows she's not as scheming and as manipulative as the 2 sisters or she simply doesn't want to be; I can't really tell for now (only still up to ep 28 )

 

But she always wanted a simple life.

As she said to the mom, better marry down to someone who won't bully her and make her life hard, and be happy, than marry up to get the status and be more influential on the outside, yet to suffer all mistreatment inside and be miserable. 

 

Ive always thought that itself is a type of maturity. That being happy is more important than being powerful but miserable. 

 

 

36 minutes ago, zenya22 said:

@m0us3yYou are right. I think what I saw was the raw unedited version where she says something like you achieved victory and instead of "blocking someone's path" she said something like "and opened a path" + something else that sounded like a strategy or maybe it was just my version of interpretation. Sorry... guys .... but even in this edited conversation she is reading him correctly. 

@zenya22There's an unedited version?? 

I thought the version on Viki is already the full one! Where did u watch that? *Jealous*

 

But yes. They both have the ability to read each other pretty well. That bit I agree

[danatepe]

Did anyone notice Gu tingye in ep 25 suddenly have a bread .when he was talking with his daughter he doesn`t have one.then suddenly at the fight scene he have it.or was it the lightning

Still at ep 28.Glad the Ml finally let go of QH.let`s move forward then.

i really love the conversation between GTY and ML . it shows how understating the two of them will be.can`t wait to see their develop of their relationship in the upcoming eps.

also in ep28 GTY said "In all matters, look ahead.light yourself a good future.was he hinting to the marriage?

 

[hello210]

28 minutes ago, danatepe said:

Did anyone notice Gu tingye in ep 25 suddenly have a bread .when he was talking with his daughter he doesn`t have one.then suddenly at the fight scene he have it.or was it the lightning

Still at ep 28.Glad the Ml finally let go of QH.let`s move forward then.

i really love the conversation between GTY and ML . it shows how understating the two of them will be.can`t wait to see their develop of their relationship in the upcoming eps.

also in ep28 GTY said "In all matters, look ahead.light yourself a good future.was he hinting to the marriage?

 

 yeah, GTY got himself a slight shadow/stache...he didn’t have it the first time they stopped but had like their version of a 5 o’clock shadow when they stopped again showing a little time has passed.

   It’s very foreshadowing that during each of ML’s major crisis, he was there at the closing...first time he told her she must cherish herself. This time he told her to look ahead. 

[zenya22]

51 minutes ago, m0us3y said:

There's an unedited version?? 

I thought the version on Viki is already the full one! Where did u watch that? *Jealous*

 

@m0us3yWhen the  subs first come out, they are not edited on the spot, the editor deadliftdiva_548, later edit the version and usually put in Viki that the subs are edited. The editor is also is kind enough to give information about back stories when she edits. That is whom I got the story of Princess Pinyang in the embroidery of ML's mom and info on the strategems from. Now, I see in the comment section that people also give information such as given by soompiers.