The Story of Minglan 知否知否应是绿肥红瘦 is a 76-episode historical drama based on Guan Xin Ze Luan’s 关心则乱 novel of the same name. It follows our heroine, Minglan (Zhao Liying) through her childhood as she blooms into a beautiful woman and eventually marries the leading man Gu Ting Ye (Feng Shaofeng). Funny how that worked out in real life too.
Minglan is the 6th child of the Sheng family. Her mother dies early and although she is intelligent and kind, she’s not favored by her father nor anyone in her family. Through the years, Minglan hides her brilliance, hoping to one day avenge her mother. During the process, she will meet many friends and foes, including Gu Ting Ye.
Zhu Yilong from Guardian is the other male lead. I feel like we may hear the sounds of hearts breaking when he doesn’t get the girl! I’ve seen Zhao Liying in Journey of Flower and Princess Agents. Don’t get me started with the latter, I’m still disappointed with the ending, but I really like Zhao Liying’s acting and probably have a preferential bias for her dramas. This seems like a slice of life story in an ancient setting and not my usual choice. I feel confident about this though because it comes from the makers of Nirvana in Fire.
Other cast include Kira Shi Shi, Zhang Jianing, Cao Cuifen, Liu Jun, Liu Lin, Gao Lu, Wang Renjun, Wang Yinan, Li Yixiao, Chen Jin, Wang Herun, Zhang Xiaoqian, and Li Hongtao.
Release date: December 25, 2018 Hunan TV, iQiYi, Tencent, Youku (eng subs on Viki)
Vote for your favorite Chinese series in 2018.
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Anonymous
the amount of eps put me off a bit, i hope it's worth it lol i like Zhao Liying's acting and she did very well in Princess Agents (yes i hate the ending too ugh) she always do well with her costar so i'm excited to see her chemistry with her husband. pls give me a badass female lead again
Anonymous
Wouldn't it be ironic if all her CP she had with her other leading men r full of chemistry and then in Minglan with her own husband it is just plain flat that the chemistry is not as interesting?
Has anyone seen Monkey King 3?, i sorta felt their chemistry more in BTS than the movie itself, there wasn't much 'hoopla' about their CP chemistry-wise either other than saying her acting was so good that she was just too innocent and pure bcos of never seen a 'man' before.
I hope their chemistry work in Minglan for their sakes.
Anonymous
It is a possibility her CP with FSF can fail in ML…considering how hard she tries to hide anything that is FSF-related away from public. Maybe that hiding thing might makes it way all the point of affecting the drama? Because this was filmed before their announcement.
MK3 chemistry isn't great, that's true. But to be fair though, Monk isn't supposed to have chemistry in the first place so the director tried not to overdo that anyways.
I don't think ZLY truthfully had that great of chemistry with all her previous leading men, but she used media play behind the scenes. Like posting pics of Wallace visiting her. The fact that she deleted all microblogs related to those leading men, is a sign of guilt otherwise if they're clean stuff there is no need for deleting them. https://forums.soompi.com/en/topic/424827-official-feng-shao-feng-william-feng-%E2%9D%A4-zhao-li-ying-zanilia-zhao-couple-%E2%99%A5-happily-married-%E2%99%A5/?page=26
Fu Yao and Ruyi Royal Love are two big flops this year, but at least they know their dramas sucks and remained quiet. PA was annoying to another level because it sucks, not because of the ending, the entire thing was nonesense but they tried so hard to praise it hard everywhere. Pretend if ML is another flop, hopefully the ML team won't do the same thing as PA just to get their drama to the very top.
Anonymous
As for CP with her husband, well even in the book it takes a long time since Minglan is not really the romantic type. She is very practical. I have a feeling this drama will have a lot of character development and focus on the relationship among the whole cast. Also, the character FSF plays is not super liked even by some book fans just because he is rough around the edges.
I am really expecting this not only bc it is a Daylight production but the screen writers worked on one of my favorite dramas, Battle of Changsha, so I have high expectations.
JD
ZYL too overrated. (Please dont shoot me)
Not just her, wu jin yan also overrated.
I'm not haters of them, I just feel people too overrated for some actress / actors.
Anonymous
WJY is well known for her great acting but not her face or looks. She's not overrated, do you see her on the top 10 rating list every week even though she is not working? She's only well known but not to the point where everybody will go so crazy over her. She doesn't even have that many photos online. She didn't even media play about her background, or about being in relationships with her leading guys, and still managed to get popular. I have to praise that she is honestly talented without hype.
She only got 1 good drama within only 1 shot, lucky for her, she can potentially avoid the idol route already, only if she continue to choose good dramas. But doesn't seem like it, and all actors will have at least 2-3 bad dramas, no actor will be that lucky to have everything good all the time.
Anonymous
You're kidding right? Fuyao is one of the highest rated 10pm series. It's in the top 5. Ruyi was successful series online
Anonymous
Weird how people have to assume the worse for ZLY. This will be a hit.
Is it really airing this December though?
Anne J
no official date yet.. it's supposed to air after City of Family though, so fingers crossed.
Anonymous
No worries. I haven't watched WJY dramas but I agree ZLY has been too hyped the last few years. I feel the same way about TY YM DLRB ZS FSF LYF AB EXO. ZLY is an ok actress. And YM has improved and is ok too. But the hype is so huge. It's hard to be as good as that in skills. When fans love an idol, they love the idol to death. That's all I get from the hype. Like Van Gogh. Even random scribbles he put on his paper napkin will be prized. We have YM super fan(s) here. It'd be interesting to read the super YM fan reply if there's one.
Anonymous
I was so excited thinking the date is fix, alas..
And yes I’m the person who keeps asking when this will be aired in almost every fsfxzly posts T_T
Anonymous
I'm not crazy over YM, I'm probably considered a fan since I watch almost all her dramas but she is not my idol. She does have some flop dramas although most of them are watchable, which is why people always look forward to any dramas with her in it because they have more "hope" it will be good. So, she is well known for having good projects. Make sense why people speak up for her, it's not out of loving her idolness but being more fair. When she was young and very famous, negative buzz about her used to be pretty quiet, only until after she married then people start finding all problems about her, divorce rumors, cheating, even drunk rape, not being a mother, not geting along with in laws, giving too much roles to DLRB, etc. Everything! But it's all just people finding faults about her because her success is enviable.
For ZLY however most of her dramas are never really good, some are even the worst like Legend of Zu, Journey of Flower, Noble Aspiration, Princess Agents, etc. and people rate them crazy! They always look forward to her new dramas simply for the reason she is "in" there. Only Legend of Luzhen was nearly ok but people overly praised it as the best thing ever too, so it gets really irritating. Till today she is still supposed to get a break through by being in a serious drama, fans are hoping Ming Lan will be the one…they will rate it super high when it come out regardless of how it turns out like. Out of all actresses she probably did the most media play, especially by using ambiguous relationships with famous actors and men. Thankfully she has tons and tons of fans speaking up for her, she wouldn't have survive without them, and they do not even require any explanations from her for beating around the bush. She will be the best example of someone who fans love to death.
About TY, LYF, ZS they have no more hype, they were only famous for the first few years when they first came out. But for TY and LYF from what I know of, they'd never media play to gain attention, they only do interviews about "themselves" and marketing themselves appropriately. ZS doesn't try to gain attention either but she is unfortunate that her love life is a complete mess that it couldn't escape from public, at least she was willing to be straight forward and share with her fans instead of telling them a bunch of crappy lies.
AB is well hated, I don't know if people would even qualify her for an idol…
Anonymous
Ha Ha. ZYL is only a 'small' actor compared to ZLY. At least he has worked hard even in obscurity and without manufactured scandals. Overhyped? So what is ZLY?
Anonymous
To each his own. YM's and Jaywalk projects never appealed to me much. They are very feminine dramas centered around Mary Sues. Her 60+ episode dramas like to get herself paired with pop Tw idols from the Tw "Black & White" era. They are quite formulaic. The required 2 or more obsessive young male admirers with great career prospects. Typically from highly qualified family background. She'll be the sympathetic, young, underprivileged ingenue to root for. These dramas are better suited for young ladies. Though my friend's 80 yo grandma was obsessed with BBJX with similar drama outline. But I don't see the point to make 100 variations of this plot with slight tweaks. Same with TY's Princess Wei Young. TY flooded the industry with 7 dramas a year like the mediocre Legend of Fragrance with LYF. Fortunately she slowed down after her love life turned around. Although I don't like Ode To Joy or First Half of My Life plots specifically, but at least it doesn't have that Mary Sue spectacle to frame everything. The point of view of YM dramas can be condescending and very subjective. When do you ever read in the news that Switzerland is in great need of interpreters or translators after a snowstorm? When YM supposedly get flown in an emergency, the rescue scene didn't show much beyond having her quickly falling off the mountain soon after she arrived. YM's characters tend to be shown in great details, while her antagonistic characters tend to be vilified in the plot in the most blatant ways.
tbh, when I saw Interpreters, I found Huang Xuan's acting more captivating than anyone else's in that drama.
After storms, typically medical and other supplies top the list of needs. I don't recall seeing one on interpreters. Flying interpreters from China is probably silly too.
Generally, any big name actor will have anti-fans. How anti-fans have the time to be so negative is a mystery to me too.
I didn't bother watching Legend of Zu, Mystic Nine etc.
ZS was at her most watchable in Love020. Even there, she still can't help adding her deer in the headlights acting every now and then.
I find several web dramas more interesting and less formulaic. Iqiyi, Youku ones.
Some big name actors will always have a lot of fans praising their projects regardless of quality. With rationales like … why favor actors who don't have star power? If your fav actor doesn't have star power, you're liking his projects in vain. He'll never rival YM's star power etc. Err…
Anonymous
99% you'll see the usual 1 Mary Sue with 2+ obsessive guys. Not to blame only some big actors, but there is really no way out for any actor at all in china to escape that same path. YM and her team was still doing alright at least in TMOPB, thanks to the ok plot although with pacing issues. But afterwards it starts declining more and more to the point where even YM herself is declining as well, we can see all that through how badly Fu Yao is. I haven't watch her new drama with Wallace Huo, I don't know if she's branching out of the young lady roles more now as she mentioned during an interview.
I don't know what people mean by star power. My guess interpretation (may be wrong) is that you have star power if you have lots of (crazy unreasonable) fans. Star power isn't as meticulously gracious as it sounds, it's for those people who are drama queens in real life that's what it is. People like Liu Tao and Sun Li are the very top actresses but they don't have star power, people don't watch their dramas solely for the reason that they are starring in them. I don't expect crazy amount of ratings from their shows within the first 1 second, because people will not watch them like that, people only watch their stuff if the sypnosis are intersting enough and even days/weeks after when the reviews are good then people will watch. People look for quality, not idol. They may not have crazy annoying followers. But they are afterall the most respected actresses and their dignity are well formed throughout the years for their diligence in acting skills along with good behaviors. For idols, your attitude can be so bad but all you need is a bunch of foolish fans to speak up for your behavior, your dramas and acting can be terrible but you again need a bunch of fans to rate your shows and pretend to write good reviews for you. It's a no wonder why idols owe everything to fans, and they are owned by fans.
Anonymous
Yes. Some idols depend on fans too much.
Re star power. Some fans like things hip and trendy. One may not be on top of the world or near it in one's real life. But one feels good and more with it when one likes the most popular idols with a billion fans. Different people have different outlets to get inner peace, attain confidence, or feel good. Some ppl play games, some join the ZLY etc fan club
Dr Qin Medical Examiner, He Shen with Zhang Ming En and Wang Zi Xuan, Battle of Changsha, Love me if you dare, When snail falls in love, Remembering Lichuan. Don't they lack the obsessive 2nd, 3rd male admirers?
Having multiple admirers, digressing on 2nd, 3rd leads' story lines are sometimes used to maximize drama profits to compensate for the high costs they paid for popular idols like ZLY, ZH, CQE, WC, YY, DLRB. Dramas (half-)aiming for quality rely on the standard tricks less. Hopefully.
It's baffling how actors like SYL aka Peter can get so many lead roles.
Idol or not, I do feel bad when some of them seem to fall off the wagon for personal reasons. ZBB and his ex?-fans and his manager business.
The c ent world doesn't have to make the slightest bit of sense.
Unknown
can anyone tell me how many episode will be air per day?? is it daily??