the drama queen

I put the show on hold and came back and now i’m fully at the body swap episode and i dislike it so much. Like if it’s a quick body swap, maybe for like 20 minutes for comedic effect then i’m fine with it but 2 episodes of them being in each others body just feels so out of place.

For example, when he found out who she was marrying, i wish that conversation was had while he was in his own body. I wanted to feel how angry he was and I thought the scene would be more emotional since it was such a big deal that she had to turn him down. But instead, the scene felt goofy with him being in her body. Idk I just think body swaps are one of the worst tropes for me. I’m going to continue watching since it only happens for 2 episodes but I really hope newer kdramas don’t get the same idea.

I just wanna say that the vibes of running man lately have been so good! Maybe the PD change was needed, even though I didn’t mind the PD before! I mainly watch for yeeun and i was honestly so sad to see her get so much hate when she tried so hard but i feel like things are slowing down now! I also watched Whenever Possible with Jaesuk and it’s so sweet how they talked about how when Yeeun was having a hard time on running man (due to all the dumb hate), all of the members called her to check up on her and offer kind words! That is so sweet! You can tell how much the members love and value yeeun and that makes watching this show so much better. I’m hoping the show lasts a few more years with her on the cast because it has become a ritual for me now on Sundays to tune in and see my running man family and makne Yeunie!!!

okay perfect thank you!

can someone spoil me when they switch their souls back? (i’m on episode 2 but i know they’re going to switch souls soon). Is it like a back and forth between episodes or do they switch only one time? I’m not a big fan of the soul switching plot so i’m just wondering if that takes up 90% of the show or if it’s a little fun sidetrack.

question for people who are already caught up

Guys.. question.. does the goofiness of this drama go away? I literally had to stop within episode 1 because that was just way too over the top. I’m not a fan of rom coms, i prefer romance/melodramas so do things get a bit more serious or is it this unserious throughout the whole thing? Because I literally can’t get immersed…

Jaegyu reminds me so much of San from ATEEZ

So after 3 days, I have finally completed this. It definitely doesn’t deserve the 1/10 i gave it 4 years ago but it’s not hitting like a 10/10 for me. This was a solid 7/10! For me, that’s still good but nothing memorable. It was just simply a nice little watch to past the time. The biggest problem for me was that this show was so agonizingly slow that I had to use a recap website to get through 90% of it. I came out of this absolutely LOVING Ming Lan though!! I hated how docile she was at first but then understood that she had to do it because of her status. Plus we still got to see her being ruthless which satisfied me. Gu Ting Ye was SO cute omg. A man that was always so loving towards his wife was so nice to watch!! Especially when in the beginning, he was more of a “playboy”. But to see him fully devoted to MingLan was beautiful. The family aspect of this show was definitely my favorite part though. Minglans relationship with her grandma, her maids, her husband, her friends & even her husband’s daughter was so beautiful!! Those were the only reason I rated this above a 5!!

But yeah, if it weren’t for the really slow slice of life aspect, this would’ve been a perfect 10 for me but i couldn’t take the slowness. That's just my own issue though, i'm never a fan of slice of life dramas. I need angst and drama or I will literally start zoning out (which happened multiple times during this show). I’m just glad that I finally am able to say that I finished watching “The Story Of Ming Lan”, after it has been on my dropped list for so many years!!

It was shocking but it took so long to build up to it and idk I wish I could explain what I mean by "killing point". Like in newer dramas, we get dramatic music/slow mo shots and like the build up makes you feel tense. But here, this show is so natural that even the revenge felt natural. Like it felt like just another day for Minglan. Which there's nothing wrong with that ofc, since thats probably the charm of the show, but for me, i'm into the dramatics. I want to feel like i can't wait to see what happens next. IDK, maybe I sound crazy but I'm just used to the over the top drama when it comes to revenge plots like these. (For example; The Double or Legend of Zhang Hai)

I’m at episode 33 now! However, it’s still not above a 5 for me right now. Mainly because i’ve had to use a recap website just to get through the episodes. It’s a very intriguing story but the dialogue is very slow and there aren’t any “killing points” to this show so far. The best parts for me that I enjoyed was seeing minglan play in that game with the horses and also watching tingye while he was in the army. Other than that, it’s been a little bit of a hard watch but now with minglan starting to get her revenge, the story is picking up a bit! Hopefully now I can actually fully watch and not just skip through by reading the recaps!

Also, throughout the show, he ends up becoming way more scared of her and how clever she is. He can never beat her in a fight with words and admitted that arguing with her makes him feel dumb. The strangle part may look bad but you’ll feel better when you see the rest of their marriage trust because I went through the same thing lol.

When I first watched this, that moment honestly had me thinking of dropping it because i absolutely do not condone men putting their hands on women, BUT then i had to remind myself that they are enemies. Even though they’re married, she is still apart of the clan that caused his brother & father to die. He said multiple times before that moment that he wanted to not only kill her but also kill her entire family. EVEN while still married, he spoke about how he still wanted to get his revenge on the Qiao clan, even though they were husband and wife. so At that point, i don’t think he cared about being respectful towards her. Plus, He’s a general and the lord of a city. He’s known to get his hands dirty, no matter the gender.

What made me feel a bit better is after he did that, she completely proved him wrong and went off on him for basically insulting her intelligence. Outside it may seem like she was apologizing but she was actually letting him know that shes smarter than he thinks while also undermining him in front of his other generals.

i tried to watch this drama maybe 4-5 years ago and it was around the time when i first started watching dramas. Back then, dramas like this were extremely boring. One where there are too many characters and just slice of life household dramas. But i kinda wanna give this a new shot, after seeing so many dramas over the years! Let’s see if my opinion has changed or if this is deserving of the 1/10 i rated it 4 years ago!!

So the story was great but there were only 3 things that i didn’t like which bumped my rating down from a 10 to an 8!

1st: The time skip. That’s nothing too crazy but I wasn’t really a fan of the starting the show in the future and then 2 episodes in were suddenly transported back to the past. Of course the “past” had a great story and it was really nice to get to know wei yings backstory, but I wish they would’ve just started the first episode from the past or even just had the future be a tiny snippet in episode 1. As a new watcher, it was really confusing to get introduced to bunch of new characters and engrain their names in my head, only for us to go back to the past and meet a slew of new characters and not see our other characters (mainly the disciples) until ep 33. Wasn’t really a bad thing just more frustrating for me.

2nd: The (lack of) Romance. So i know this is a “censored BL” which means we should take this as a bromance but they also made it very obvious that the 2 MLs felt something romantically even if it wasn’t said. I know that’s the whole point but it was also really frustrating. In the beginning, you had Wei Ying chasing after Lan Zhan like an elementary school kid with a crush and then in the end, you had Lan Zhan doing the chasing after Wei Ying. There were also moments that I just wanted to scream at my screen “WHY WONT THEY JUST KISS??”. For example, when Lan Zhan got drunk and gave Wei Ying the 2 male chickens (in my opinion it reminded me of the 2 ducks that are present during korean weddings) & then both of them carved their name on that pillar. Also, the day right after that, Lan Zhan asked Wei Ying if he said anything weird while he was drunk and Wei Ying teased him by going “You said you like…” and trailed off and Lan Zhan got so afraid as if he was worried that he confessed his feelings. Like COME ON, it was so hard to watch this and think “they’re just bros”.

And finally

3rd: The Jin Ling storyline.
This one isn’t super big or anything, i’m just really disappointed that we didn’t get a REAL wrap up with his nephew. Like they built this whole thing up where Wei Ying & his nephew were getting along & then Jin Ling stabs Wei Ying when he finds out who he was but then once the truth comes out that it wasn’t even Wei Yings fault for what happened to his parents, Jin Ling didn’t even get the chance to apologize. It really irked me because I was enjoying the Uncle/Nephew dynamic between the two of them and i would’ve loved to see him ask for forgiveness from his other uncle but we got nothing :/

But yea, those are the only things that bothered me about this drama. Other than that, great show and a great watch over all!! 8/10!!


P.S: JUSTICE FOR WEI NING! My poor baby, he was the victim throughout this whole show. Half his soul got snatched when he was a child, then he was always sick growing up so people bullied him, then he turned into an almost ghost puppet and went wild and killed people he didn’t want to kill, then his sister died and he was used by other people as bait by putting nails in his brain and finally at the end he was able to walk his own path but omg. My poor baby was used by EVERYONE in this show, even Wei Ying! I’m glad Wei Ying realized at the end that he couldn’t let him keep following him forever but ugh, i just wish the best for Wei Ning. Ironically, he was the purest soul in this show!!!

Okay so after 2 days, i’ve completed it! My rating is a solid 8/10! Great show with a few things that bothered me but nothing too crazy!! Spoilery review below.

No problem! c:

Okay, if you’re okay with spoiling then here it goes:

There’s a plot point in the show where an evil guy from a different sect who was obsessed with linglong (in this weird hate/love thing he had going on) that managed to separate linglongs primordial spirit from her body and create kind of a spiritual clone of her. Her clone ended up “being with” the evil man and they were a couple. But linglongs body was still back at her sect and her friends fought hard to return her primordial spirit to her body. When it returned, people around her ridiculed her for being with the evil man even though it wasn’t her fault as she had no control over what happened. People also ridiculed minyan for wanting to stay with her when she was “tainted”.

So that’s why I said it’s complicated but beautiful because for the first like 15-20 episodes they flirt and make each other jealous and it’s very obvious that they like each other but then that happens to her and it ruins things for a while but when she recovers, he still wants to stay by her side no matter what.

if we’re still talking about the second couple, their relationship is complicated but beautiful. The only thing i can say without spoiling is that minyan has been loyal and has only had his eyes on linglong from the beginning. I can’t comment on skinship because i was mainly focused on the main couple but i do remember the secondary couple having a beautiful romance story with a lot of ups and downs!

linglong and minyan are the second couple!!

i have been putting off watching this since i started watching dramas 4 years ago because of all the drama that was surrounding it plus i’ve never watched a BL before (even though this one is apparently censored). However, I have nothing left to watch that is highly rated and this keeps popping up so i’m finally going to give it a shot. I just want to enter a new fantasy world and get attached to some new characters. Super excited!! I will come back to this comment and leave my review depending on if i complete it or if i drop it!!