Lola Leighton

Disappointing

Dropping this after 11 episodes.

Positives:

1/ What a gorgeous looking drama! It's as if someone saw one of those pretty Manhuas and decided to bring them to life. Midnight blues, lush greens and dark golds bring a beautiful aesthetic.
2/ Great costumes. I love the darker color scheme they've chosen, I myself don't like the pale pinks and blues most Wuxia's choose for their leads (meant to denote their purity) so this was a welcome change.
All well tailored to the actors with gorgeous embroidery and elegant draping. Sometimes I just pause the episode just to take it the beauty of the costumes.
3/ Great fight scenes. Crisp, clean, elegant and pack a punch. Glad they weren't just 90% pointless flying.

Negatives:
1/ The story may seem intelligent at first glance but it becomes quickly apparent that the writer is compensating for his/her inability to conjure clever plot threads with overly complex layers, and because this is often exhausting and hard to maintain, the times where the characters fall for fairly straightforward and simple traps quite jarring.
2/ While the synopsis promises a spy story with the reasonable expectation of intrigue and tension, it is actually the story of the Gongs and one man's journey to becoming worthy of the crown, protecting his "kingdom" from the external and internal forces that threaten to tear it apart. Our two spies in the 11 episodes that I've seen are mostly spending their time aiding the ML on their quests/gaining their favor. Very little spying so far.
3/ The actors seem to have been given a strange direction: Be as flat and monotonous in your delivery as much as possible. This has the effect of rendering the characters no more than rough sketches rather than fully realized people, one you can't tell what the characters are feeling at any given moment, it makes it hard to gain insight into them let alone become invested in their journeys.
4/ Speaking of the acting, I wasn't a fan of the majority of the actors. Esther Yu has one perpetual scrunched brows expression, Jolin Jin is too animated, Tian Jia Rui is too amateurish in portraying the arrogance of his character, Lu Yu Xiao's choice to act suspicious at every sentence uttered is a bad choice for her character, our suspicion towards Shanghuan Qian should've been the result of her taking seemingly contradictory actions while delivering a sincere performance at every one, instead we are left with the impression that we don't know this character at all. I've dropped this at 11 ep though so maybe that has changed.
Zhang LingHe and Ryan Cheng are fine.
My favourite despite his short screen time is actually Omid who plays HanYa Si, he acts with his eyes really well.
5/ The storytelling style chosen to tell the events of this story is detrimental to the momentum of the series. Every time one of our MCs is faced with a critical moment, we immediately flashback to the key that will save them in the present. This leads to a chopped progression. This is further compounded by the fact that this visual media is allergic to visual storytelling, everything has to be explained to the audience at the moment that it happens, everything requires an elaborate exposition. Our ML had a trial meant to challenge him and rather than have us watch him work thorough it, another character had to sit and explain how he is a kind-hearted and persistent person.
6/ The dialogue is an especially weak point. It is perfunctory pretending to be authentic. Oh, our MCs are meeting for the second time? Cue the dead parents conversation! Oh, our leads need some time together so we make their relationship believable? Have them talk about some flower!
7/ The pacing is another major issue. The series crawls to a halt by episode 6 and keeps spinning its wheels.
7/The music is unremarkable but the cue notes are insufferable. Because the writing is weak and the delivery weak, the cue notes feel like blatant emotional manipulation.


Pity, because the premise is genuinely interesting and the first episode had great potential but the execution leaves much to be desired. Because of the points mentioned above, this story comes off as artificial and lacking in any meaningful emotional depth. I struggle to discern what the purpose of the tale being told here, are there any themes being explored or is there any message waiting to be conveyed? Because based on those 11 episodes that I've watched, the raison d'être behind this drama seems to be that the writer/director wanted a Wuxia with dark costumes and that's all.

Read More

Excells within the limitations set by its storytelling's purpose

I'll begin by citing the most obvious flaw that might deter most people: The pacing.
The first half moves at a glacial pace, what could've been done in 10 episodes is instead stretched to 20. This first half is more of a slice-of-life ensemble show, we get to meet the different families that we'll follow, we get to see their dynamics within their homes (especially parent-child) and with each other (their place in the hierarchy), the cultural practices and beliefs that dominate this time period and we get to see Minglan as an underdog that hides her skills and intelligence in the name of self-preservation.
Thankfully once the second half starts (marked by her getting rid of those awful bangs), the pace picks up considerably. This is because the playing field has gotten more dangerous and requires bolder moves, and Minglan now has more power and agency to make the moves herself.

Story:
Your standard underdog female character in a harem drama. No surprising twists or deviations that make this drama standout but it is adequately engaging and entertaining.
The FL doesn’t make moves that are too smart or beyond her capability, nor is she gifted a strong plot armor. Similarly, her allies help her with skills and power that is suitable to their status.
The traps set by her enemies are simple enough (which is a positive) but dangerous enough to raise the stakes and create tension.
The ML is also given a good independent story/emotional arc that familiarizes us with him even though his love story with the FL will take a while to unfold.
The ending is a bit rushed.

Themes:
- Parents’ duty towards their children: “If you love your child, you must prepare their future”.
A nice theme to explore in a society that emphasizes filial piety. We see a range of mothers who love their children but have different visions as to what constitutes a good future, sometimes ones that run counter to the desires of said children. The skills and teachings they bestow upon their daughters (and sons) play an important role in shaping these children’s decision-making and their ability to secure a good future.
- The blood thread that ties people together:
We saw many examples of how blood relatives aren’t necessarily a boon or a treasure but often a dead weight and sometimes a malicious existence that forces many of the characters into making decisions that go against what they wish for.
- Women must be kept away from power:
Giving the sheer amount of women that misuse their power and who our "heroes" must stand against, it is hard to call it a coincidental choice on the part of the writers.

Acting:
Every actor delivers a solid performance but the older cast is a standout. The actors who portrayed the grandmother, the father and the main mother are excellent, infusing their characters with much life.
Zhao Li Ying portrays a delightful Shen Minglan, adorable and frail but whose strength and boldness emerge in critical times. The character in the second half retains these characteristics but with a more confident air.
Feng Shao Feng does right by Gu Tingye, giving him the necessary charisma and volatile air this character needs.

Costumes:
I don’t know if they were historically accurate or not (and I rarely care for this aspect) but I thought they did the required job of being consistent enough and lending a “period piece” feel to the drama. I was never impressed however.

Music:
Unremarkable for the most part. I really like “Don’t You Know” by Hu Xia and Yu Kewei though.

By any measure, it is a perfectly decent and entertaining drama with a colorful cast.

Now to the main critique:

Stories like this one are a dime a dozen. I might not have watched many but I have read many. Many mediocre, some average and some even good. Minglan is of the good variety. So it gets a 7 but no more.
My main critique of Minglan is actually a critique of the philosophy underpinning these stories.

A young girl/woman is born into a noble house where the father is neglectful and the wife/concubines are running amok. She is disadvantaged in some manner (dead legal mother, an unfavored legal mother, an unfavored concubine mother, a dead unfavored concubine mother, etc.) and thus is the victim of a grand atrocity committed by one of those rogue harem women. But our heroine is smart and resourceful, talented and special (unlike her half-sisters) so she bides her time, sharpens her claws and awaits the right time to strike and get revenge. She side-steps the traps set for her and thwarts the plans of her enemies. In the meantime, she forms a connection with the ML (usually of bad repute -could be fake or real -, of upper status, has great power and is secretly a devout monogamist who's just waiting for his one true love to commit to) who will marry her and they become a power couple. Together, they take on the other aristocratic families (sometimes even the imperial one), emerge victorious and lead a life of bliss and peace.


If one would pay attention, they will notice that our heroine's enemies are almost exclusively women and she deals them the cruelest of fates. The men, inexplicably, despite being at the top of the power pyramid and whose neglect/unfair treatment leads directly to the death of many women, receive a stern talk at most. All the ire is directed at the women. To make this ire acceptable to the audiences, to make them crave it even, the writers would often opt to portray these women in a manner that is so absurdly detached from their lived reality giving us the audience and our heroine the moral superiority by being “not trouble seekers” and thus justifying the miserable endings of these “bad” women. Whatever fate befalls these “bad” women, they have earned it.

At its very core, it is a patriarchal power fantasy.

Patriarchal storytelling portrays women's evil as an incomprehensible and unique force of nature that they are born with and leads to great chaos unless contained, thus the necessity of keeping women under strict control and subjugated. In these stories, the harem system is a perfectly acceptable and functioning system, it is these women who cause trouble by being irrationally evil. Had they been “good” women, all would have been perfect. This where our heroine steps in, she must straighten them out and get rid of these evil doers! And if your story falls within the benevolent patriarchy territory, you might see your heroine give the men a stern lecture.

The Story Of Minglan is patriarchal. Hell, we even get a mini "false rape accusations ruin men's lives".
Many of the female characters act in an illogical manner and their plans are consistently motivated by inexplicable jealousy.
Concubine Lin killing her mother makes no sense as she is heavily favored with a son and a daughter in tow.
Zhu Manniang’s motivation remains a mystery to me, I initially thought she was spy sent by Gu Tingye’s stepmother but she's not, she's just a hateful and crazy woman who abandons a man who cares for her with no prospects in view, I might have understood if she left him for a richer man but she didn't.
Lady Kang picks up a fight with a married Minglan for no good reason, they have no history nor any ompeting interests with each other. She's just Satan incarnate i guess.
Tingye's stepmother has a seemingly compelling back-story but the writer has no interest in exploring her mindset.
Cong Xing’s concubine doesn’t even try to hide her attempt to murder his wife and unborn child.

It’s one thing to have one or two characters act in an irrational malicious manner, but most of the female cast?!
I suspect the director is aware of these shortcomings, hence the reason all these actresses were asked to deliver the most unhinged-over-the-top-crazy-woman performance that they could manage (and they did very well) so the entertainment value would obscure the terrible writing for these characters.
Further exacerbating this trend, almost every woman who manages to gain some effectual power misuses it in some manner. So the need to strip her of said power becomes a moral imperative. By the end, the men are the only ones in charge.
By contrast, the men are treated as innocent lambs who only commit minor infractions like: being neglectful husbands and fathers, slapping their wives and daughters, being womanizers, visiting legal rape centers (brothels and prostitution houses), letting their daughters suffer at the hands of abusive men, etc. Whatever they might have done, it is nothing that a stern lecture and regretful look can't fix. You are forgiven. The women though? The most hellish punishment.
This is why Molan's ending didn't upset me, if that terrible father of hers gets to live happily ever after, she can at least be forgiven (she's already stuck with that husband of hers which a harsher punishment than most of the men have received).

An attempt at feminist storytelling, in other words one that is rooted in the belief that women are human beings, would have humanized these women. It would have afforded them the dignity of creating realistic events and realistic mindsets that would explain how these humans came to be this way and why they make the choices that they make, however evil they may be. It would not have glossed over the men. At the very least, Minglan would have found a way to punish her father. It is especially egregious when this drama pays lip service to women's pain and how women are positioned to be punished while the men gain it all, only to delight in the destruction of these women. Something that i also want to remark upon is the sheer amount of slurs thrown at women (bitch, slut, whore), it is very unsettling. I don't know if it's a translation choice or original to the story but it's awful.

Minglan is what benevolent patriarchy considers a “virtuous/good woman": A competent woman who saves the worst for the women, lectures the men for not being proper patriarchs who lead their women and keep them from causing chaos, and respects the institution of marriage and harem. For that, she is rewarded with the monogamist ML who loves her so much.
So you see, this is a power fantasy. One for patriarchal women who wish they could play the system and win while not making any effort to buck it. They might make some comments on how women suffer or live unfair lives, but those comments are only said to mask their monstrous loyalty to the system.

Read More

Too cringey for my taste.

A FL that puts on pointless showcases of her skills in the oddest of settings and whose true character can only be appreciated by the men (this is what the writers think is a strong well-written character), confrontational ML for no good reason, ex-boyfriend drama introduced in the first 15 minutes, cliché unsupportive family, no good foundation for the relationship between the FL-ML, cliché motivation for the FL, odd camera work and a boring aesthetic to the drama.

Not a single thing managed to grab my attention and make me want to continue. On the contrary, the execution of every other element is done in the style that I dislike most : Big but superficial and superfluous, with no discernable heart.

Dropped

Read More