I watched 24 eps and I got so frustrated that I dropped this drama. Ming Yi is supposed to be the heroine but…
Of course, I totally understand that this wasn’t your cup of tea. I’ve started so many dramas that people love but couldn’t finish due to mood or some weird reasons (like too much blood spill). Overall, I’ve found that C-dramas don’t dwell on things: once the conflict is resolved, everyone just moves on. It’s different from K-dramas, which, for me, tend to process emotions longer. I wonder if that’s why it sometimes feels like the characters in Cdramas move on as if nothing happened. FWIW, I did see the impact of their miscommunication on their relationship. They take the time to rebuild and build better in the end.
I come from a place where I try to understand Ming Yi for not telling Ji Bo Zai about her identity and the poison.…
I agree with a lot of your analysis. I also like your take on MY taking responsibility, it’s so true. She is a warrior, and she wants to take control of her life and choices, ready to bear the responsibility for them, even if, for us as the audience, it looks like she doesn’t have to.
I’ve been rewatching the drama (some scenes) after reading many of the conversations here as well. What I think happens is that there are a lot of clues from Ming Yi about her hesitation and struggle. She’s not fully in, and it’s clear that she’s debating. JBZ loves her, he fell for her since the wedding and even more after she told him she cared for him in the pool. He went to his master and said something like, “Finally, someone cares for me.” But he was so jealous of MX, and therefore two things happened: (1) He missed the clues of MY’s inner struggle and thought she was torn between him and MX. (2) Because of that, he kept reassuring her and giving her time to choose, hopefully him. But since he missed those clues, he was blindsided until he finally took a step back and put two and two together. And he had a lot of clues to put things together.
For the audience, though, we know that MY is MX and that she is poisoned. So we see this relatable, in-love guy who has suffered a lot, and this strong, conflicted girl who is trying to take control. I understand why some people support JBZ and feel frustrated on his behalf. Simply because we know the truth, it feels like “when will it be revealed?” and sympathy for JBZ overweights understanding of MY struggles. Of course, it is my assumption if I try to put another hat on and understand other watchers. MY’s struggles are portrayed beautifully though and are very evident to me in every scene. I think that’s why I found her choices understandable when watching the first time.
I come from a place where I try to understand Ming Yi for not telling Ji Bo Zai about her identity and the poison.…
It's true. Besides 27 and her "mom" (which doesn't even count), he is the first person to get to know deeper her other half. It must have been indeed very confuding and hard for her. I wish it was explored a bit more.
I come from a place where I try to understand Ming Yi for not telling Ji Bo Zai about her identity and the poison.…
I was surprised by his reaction while watching. I get that he was upset and that his whole world came crumbling down, but I was expecting something more nuanced, like “show her your pain” instead of “punish her away right away.”
I come from a place where I try to understand Ming Yi for not telling Ji Bo Zai about her identity and the poison.…
It’s also sad that he fell in love with only half of her identity. He didn’t know her past well, and all of her story he could only understand after the fact, which, I think, made him love and respect her even more. She, on the other hand, had the full picture of him and his life (besides the birth story, of course).
I come from a place where I try to understand Ming Yi for not telling Ji Bo Zai about her identity and the poison.…
Yes, those are also my thoughts. She even said at some point, “I am prioritizing myself,” so loving him is indeed a byproduct, something she will keep doing, but she won’t let it change her plans.
About miscommunication in the middle of the drama:
I come from a place where I try to understand Ming Yi for not telling Ji Bo Zai about her identity and the poison. The more I think about it, it comes down to this: she loved him. Very much. She was willing to withstand torture to keep his secrets. But she didn’t trust him with her life. So she took the search for the cure into her own hands instead of telling him and relying on whether he would give it to her or not.
No it's a very happy ending and the way they wrote their relationship is very enjoyable even if it has usual tropes…
Interesting! I think I might have missed this pattern, but I haven’t seen many C-dramas. Now that I think about it, in The Prisoner of Beauty, the FL was quite accountable for her actions.
Somehow, I feel that in Love in the Clouds they both used each other. He also used her and technically put her in danger. His plans just unfolded earlier in their relationship, and the FL was clever enough to realize he was using her. Since we got to hear her thoughts, there wasn’t really a need for a formal apology from his side. He gave her gifts instead, and she jokingly said, “are you apologizing?” So she gave him an easy way out, because she understood his actions.
He knew she was lying about her identity, and she even asked if he poisoned Ming Xian twice I think. So honestly, I was surprised by how big of an issue he made out of her wanting to take the cure. He knew she had approached him for a reason and was smart enough to see it coming. I was also surprised she didn't communicate and also that it seems she would rather die but communicate. But I think I can understand her having her pride and not wanting to be weak and him wanting to trust.
So, I didn’t feel like it was a dynamic of a righteous ML and a cunning FL — more like two smart people who started off using each other, but her actions hurt more because they had fallen in love by then.
better than prisoner of beauty and all the blockbusters?
I would say better than prisoner of beauty, but they are also quite different. Also fwiw, fighting scenes in love in the clouds were better than other xianxia I saw
I’ve been rewatching the drama (some scenes) after reading many of the conversations here as well. What I think happens is that there are a lot of clues from Ming Yi about her hesitation and struggle. She’s not fully in, and it’s clear that she’s debating. JBZ loves her, he fell for her since the wedding and even more after she told him she cared for him in the pool. He went to his master and said something like, “Finally, someone cares for me.” But he was so jealous of MX, and therefore two things happened: (1) He missed the clues of MY’s inner struggle and thought she was torn between him and MX. (2) Because of that, he kept reassuring her and giving her time to choose, hopefully him. But since he missed those clues, he was blindsided until he finally took a step back and put two and two together. And he had a lot of clues to put things together.
For the audience, though, we know that MY is MX and that she is poisoned. So we see this relatable, in-love guy who has suffered a lot, and this strong, conflicted girl who is trying to take control. I understand why some people support JBZ and feel frustrated on his behalf. Simply because we know the truth, it feels like “when will it be revealed?” and sympathy for JBZ overweights understanding of MY struggles. Of course, it is my assumption if I try to put another hat on and understand other watchers. MY’s struggles are portrayed beautifully though and are very evident to me in every scene. I think that’s why I found her choices understandable when watching the first time.
Somehow, I feel that in Love in the Clouds they both used each other. He also used her and technically put her in danger. His plans just unfolded earlier in their relationship, and the FL was clever enough to realize he was using her. Since we got to hear her thoughts, there wasn’t really a need for a formal apology from his side. He gave her gifts instead, and she jokingly said, “are you apologizing?” So she gave him an easy way out, because she understood his actions.
He knew she was lying about her identity, and she even asked if he poisoned Ming Xian twice I think. So honestly, I was surprised by how big of an issue he made out of her wanting to take the cure. He knew she had approached him for a reason and was smart enough to see it coming. I was also surprised she didn't communicate and also that it seems she would rather die but communicate. But I think I can understand her having her pride and not wanting to be weak and him wanting to trust.
So, I didn’t feel like it was a dynamic of a righteous ML and a cunning FL — more like two smart people who started off using each other, but her actions hurt more because they had fallen in love by then.