The Story of Minglan

[azdak]

I’ve just finished episode 64 of The Story of Minglan and it was a corker. The series hits a narrative kink of mine I was only vaguely aware I had – probably because it’s a trope more common in the breach than the observance – in which a man falls in love with a particular woman, decides he’s going to marry her, bends all his resources and willpower to this end - and then discovers, on succeeding, that you can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. It isn’t a forced marriage. Minglan does, after initial reluctance, consent, but it’s not what you’d call enthusiastic consent. To her, marriage is an unavoidable social obligation, not a matter of love. She’s got to marry someone, bear his children and run his harem, and since he’s gone to all this effort, it might as well be Gu Tingye. She’s an affectionate, considerate, clever wife, who grows increasingly fond of her husband, but there’s a part of her she’s had to keep locked away for most of her life, and she doesn’t trust her husband enough to reveal it to him. Gu Tingye, though, once caught a glimpse of the real Minglan, (at a polo match, since you ask) and his inability to coax his wife into being that person, passionate, loyal and utterly fearless, causes increasing friction in their marriage. Minglan, meanwhile, believes that her husband’s devotion to her is temporary infatuation and that eventually he’ll start installing concubines, so she guards her heart very carefully indeed. The concubine thing is a not unreasonable expectation, as Gu Tingye’s scheming relatives are constantly attempt to stuff concubines – some willing, others less so - into his household. Eventually, his aunt gifts them with one MInglan feels it would be dangerously impolite to refuse, so much to her husband’s horror, she accepts her (Gu Tingye is the only man in Ancient China who actually wants to be monogamous). In a scene that is both funny and rather awful, Minglan shuts him up with the new concubine, saying “Consider this your wedding night!” leaving him to sit sullenly in the dark, fully clothed, waiting for his wife to send a message to rescue him, until the poor concubine eventually falls asleep. Minglan never does send the message. Gu Tingye never sleeps with the concubine. He keeps going to sleep in his study instead, but it doesn’t help. Minglan won’t take off her docile mask, won’t be jealous of him (expressions, of jealousy are, as she knows only too well, a concubine’s trick for manipulating men), she won’t call him pet names (ditto), and she doesn’t understand what he means when he asks her despairingly if she loves him as Gu Tingye or only as the Marquis. All he can do is try to derive scraps of comfort from the few occasions when he pisses her off enough to garner an angry glance. Spontaneous emotion! Yay! I didn’t like Gu Tingye much for an awfully long time, but I have enormous sympathy for him here, as I, too, have had quite enough of Minglan’s performative docility and want to see her true hardcore self emerge for once.

And then, finally, in episodes 63-64 it happens! A crisis occurs and a very pregnant General Sheng Milan comes charging in, sword quite literally in hand, to save the day. And her husband misses it all! He’s away on a salt taxation mission! He only arrives in time for the mopping up operation because Minglan’s sister-in-law has written to her husband (who is also on the salt tax mission) asking him to come asap (and sending - sensible lass – 6 fast horses to speed things up). In the emotional aftermath, Gu Tingye asks Minglan why she didn’t ask for his help, doesn’t she trust him? And Minglan, irritated by his persistent obtuseness, says no, she doesn’t, as a Marquis he’s got too much to lose for her to involve him in such risky defiance of social convention. It’s all rather wonderful, although I also look forward to the inevitable scene where Minglan finally feels she can let down her guard with him and be her true self. Right now, though, there are still another 8 episodes to go, she’s got a baby to give birth to, and those salt farms won’t tax themselves!

Comments

[lizvogel]

That is a narrative kink that I could definitely get on board with, though I don't know that I'm up for waiting 64+ episodes for a payoff on it. (I suspect I thoroughly lack the patience for c-dramas in general, which is a pity as they're so pretty.)

[azdak]

A LOT of patience is required for this one, not least because the opening episodes are even more confusing than Nirvana in Fire, and just when you think you've got everyone sorted out, there's a big time jump and half the cast are suddenly played by different actors.

If you're going to make the investment of time and patience, I have to say that while Nirvana in Fire pays off in spades, whereas The Story of Minglan doesn't, or at least notfor me. It was good enough to keep me watching, but the finale is a great disappointment.

[lizvogel]

and half the cast are suddenly played by different actors.

Oh, hell, no. ;-) Huge casts with sprawling complex plot-lines are something I tend to bounce off of anyway, even without having to try to track who's who when everybody has pretty much the same hairstyle.

[azdak]

In that case I think I can safely say The Story of Minglan isn't for you! (Does it help if people have different decorative ways of securing their hairstyles?)

[lizvogel]

Provided they're consistent about it, it would, actually! (I'm mildly face-blind, enough so to appreciate things like the American tendency to cast one male lead as blond and the other as brunet, etc. I often have to use narrative cues rather than recognition to track a character through an episode, especially if they change hairstyles, dress up/dress down, etc. Trying to do that for a big cast from a culture with, ah, more consistency of phenotype, and where I don't know the narrative cues.... yeah. Probably best I don't, unless there's a pop-up video version. ;-) )

Which is a shame, since Minglan herself sounds pretty awesome.

[azdak]

Minglan is pretty awesome and her grandmother is truly awesome but c-dramas do seem to take a narrative approach that involves chucking you in at the deep end and letting you struggle for about ten episodes until you finally figure out how to swim. And the Story of Minglan has so many families with umpteen offspring that it's hard enough keeping track without mild face blindness (it really doesn't help that most of the time they're known by their position in the family, so Minglan, as the sixth child, is referred to as "Sixth Miss" or "Little Sixth", while "Second", depending on context, can be either her older brother or her future husband ("Darling Second" is the pet name he proposes)).

[lizvogel]

*headdesk*