Story of Minglan Rewatch - Episode 7

[laleia]

Episode 7

(Note re: any observations I make on English subtitles — I’m watching episode 7 on YouTube on the CN DRAMA channel.)

Scene - Ugh, Asshole Father strikes again!

• Asshole Father sucks. Gu Tingye is right, why does his dad object so much to Nanny Chang coming? Is it residual guilt from the death of Gu Tingye’s mother, and he doesn’t want a daily reminder of how shitty he was?
• Gu Tingyu is a snake, Minglan was right that Gu Tingye is not good enough to go head to head with his older brother at full health; he barely managed when Gu Tingyu was half-dead.
• Asshole Father always says things using the same formula: “So what if [things that you claim, which would make your actions seem reasonable and paint others in a bad light] are true? You’re still at fault because [barely logical source of blame]!” It’s what he says so he can feel comfortable continuing to blame Gu Tingye and so he doesn’t have to do any critical thinking about whether what Gu Tingye says is right.
• Shitou is so cute when he rushes to help Gu Tingye, and when he balefully glares at Gu Tingyu.

Scene - Rulan and Minglan kneel in punishment!

• Rulan: “Back when you fought back Big Sister’s betrothal goose, you were mighty and fierce with pitch-pot. That resolute. What happened to it?” Uh, well, her mom died and she had to learn how to survive, that’s what happened. Also, wow, these subtitles are comprehensible, but just barely.
• Minglan makes my point from my writeup of the last episode that Rulan is “used to smooth days” while Minglan is more than aware that sometimes (oftentimes), circumstances are such that fighting back is useless. Rulan expects the world to be fair, so she stands up to herself (and earns more punishment). Minglan doesn’t expect the world to be fair, so it doesn’t faze her when she is unfairly punished.
• Rulan keeps calling Minglan 软骨头 (ruangutou), which the subtleties translates as a “soft bone”, which is a literal translation but means nothing in English. It’s probably easy to guess from context that she means something like a spineless person. I wonder if the etymology is someone who kneels in terror or capitulation at the slightest provocation, so it’s like their kneebones are weak?
• In webnovels, the ancestral shrines seem much creepier than this. This seems like a fairly well-lit shrine and not very creepy.
• It’s funny when Big Madam falls but also because there isn’t the humorous background music, it’s also just kind of sad what kind of life she lives. And she lives a pretty good life overall! And yet even so, her daughter can be unjustly punished and she seems unable to do anything about it
• Minglan and Rulan look so pitiful, crouched over their cushions. Poor Minglan wakes and immediately kneels again but is still so sleepy she’s nodding off while kneeling.
• Molan does an awful lot of gloating. For someone who bemoaned last episode that her ability to make a good marriage was in large part dependent on Big Madam in the end, she sure doesn’t seem at all interested in not pissing off Big Madam.
• Molan: “Let [Rulan] learn so later on when she’s at the marriageable age, she won’t have a private meeting with a male from the outside and shame our family.” Wow, such foreshadowing! Molan and Rulan both end up doing this, though Molan’s is way, way, way worse.
• And then Big Madam slaps Molan. Really, like mother, like daughter. Does she not realize how bad the optics are? She has so many tools at her disposal, and she chooses violence? It’s because she (like Rulan) is too hotheaded.

Scenes - Everyone debates Rulan’s and Minglan’s punishment!

• Concubine Lin knows exactly what to say to get Papa Sheng to stay mad at Rulan. Honestly, though, this seems so petty. What does she get out of Papa Sheng continuing to punish a child? If she really had her eyes on the prize, she wouldn’t spend that much time on petty things that piss off Rulan and Big Madam with no material (as far as I can tell) benefit to her.
• Papa Sheng speaks so confidently about proper parenting, using the Chinese equivalent of “spare the rod, spoil the child”. As if he knows a single thing about good parenting. Every one of his children who turned out well, turned out well in spite of him. The novel had a whole bit where Minglan (or maybe the narrator) meditated on his effect on his children and how it was incredibly obvious that even Changbai, for example, ended up kind of a stuffed-shirt prissy nerd because he saw his father’s flaws and was trying to be the opposite (and ended up a genuinely good guy in his efforts to not repeat his father’s mistakes). And Papa Sheng in the novel was not as bad as in the drama, because he didn’t fall for Concubine Lin’s wiles as much as he does in the drama!
• Yuanruo pines because Minglan hasn’t shown up yet. It’s a really funny visual to have a whole row of guys on one side and just Molan on the other.
• Big Madam thinks that Grandmother not showing up is a sign that she doesn’t care about MInglan. But Grandmother knows exactly what is going on, knows what Minglan is doing, and what she needs (kneepads!).
• Aww … the servant says “Earlier you said to just let her kneel but now you ache for her?” Grandmother is the classic “mouth of blades, heart of tofu”.
• Papa Sheng finally comes to see Big Madam! These descriptions of the food on the table are making me kind of hungry.
• The actress for Big Madam is pretty good, managing to convey “someone who is bad at acting calm trying really hard to act calm but coming off noticeably fake as a result”. Her attempt (valiant but clearly deliberate) at playing nice to both Papa Sheng here and Grandmother later on comes off the right amount of fake to convince the viewer that Big Madam is bad at convincing. If that makes sense.
• Big Madam brings up Hualan to Papa Sheng — she has a point! Because of misogyny in ancient China, Rulan is punished for standing up for herself, but even when Hualan behaves with the utmost propriety, that just makes her easy to bully. This is because the power differential is what truly matters. I actually think this is a pretty good tack for Big Madam to take. Papa Sheng is mad at Rulan, but make him feel guilty about Hualan and he might take pity. She just doesn’t have enough subtlety to pull it off.
• Big Madam: “This coquetry act, it turns out, needs natural talent too. I, for one, can’t do it.” She is hilarious! But she’s right, and should have realized it before now — I know she hates Concubine Lin, but I think she underestimates Concubine Lin. In the pre-timeskip era, she daydreams about selling off Concubine Lin (counting her chickens before they’re hatched) because she thinks Concubine Lin’s influence is solely sexual and as soon as she gets rid of her, she’ll be out of sight, out of mind for Papa Sheng, and that’s not the only time in the drama she thinks this way, but that is clearly an incorrect assumption about how much and why Papa Sheng cares for Concubine Lin. If she realized how much groundwork Concubine Lin has put in, how much effort and tactical thinking Concubine Lin uses on a daily basis, then she might take Concubine Lin seriously enough to come up with some tactics of her own. Instead, she ends up reacting rather than strategizing and always ends up losing.
• Big Madam appeals to Grandmother!
• Grandmother: If Minglan had been practicing writing in her room, then nothing would have happened. Me: I mean, this is true, but Minglan wanted to practice writing in her room! It’s Rulan that pulled her into the thick of it, and then Molan after her! It’s not Minglan’s fault T_T
• Grandmother tells Big Madam that she should let Rulan suffer a little at home, to train her, so she can cultivate herself. This is a running theme in the novel and the drama, that those who grow up with lives that are too easy do not have the skills to survive. Big Madam is an example of someone who didn’t cultivate survival skills enough because she had an easy childhood, and so she suffers a lot at the hand of Concubine Lin.
• I also appreciate Grandmother’s subtlety, bringing up the incense she created earlier in the conversation, then later mentioning how Hualan isn’t good enough at things like creating incense, in order to introduce the idea of bringing in a momo to instruct Rulan and Minglan (in things like creating incense). Too bad I don’t think Big Madam picks up on any of her earlier subtle hints, and needs to be whacked over the head with the idea.

Scene - aftermath of the punishment!

• I gotta say, I love when Rulan complains about the momo and mentions that she could learn from Grandmother just as well, and Big Madam’s voice gets very cool as she says, do you really want to learn from your Grandmother? And Rulan says no in a very small voice. Because she’s scared of Grandmother. Comedy gold.
• Minglan is smart, and knows there’s no way Molan won’t worm herself into those classes.
• Xiaotao and Danju are so cute! In the novel, Danju isn’t as awesome / competent because there are like four different servants that each have their own strengths and weaknesses (I think Danju’s weakness was either that she was too bossy or that she was uncomfortable bossing the other servants around, I forget which). It makes sense they combined them into one servant for the drama (too many named characters are confusing), but the novel does make more sense logistically (Minglan should / would have more servants than just Danju and Xiaotao). It’s just like how Rulan’s and Molan’s servants are all wearing uniforms that mark them as belonging to Rulan and Molan but Danju and Xiaotao always get to wear special unique uniforms because no matter what would make sense logistically when running a household, the drama needs to visually cue the viewer as to who’s a named character.

Scenes - More Gu Tingye!

• V. bored, do not care about this scene where Gu Tingye gets some PTO from Scholar Zhuang
• Changbai’s and Gu Tingye’s friendship is so cute. Changbai is such a stuffed shirt but so earnest in his desire to help Gu Tingye, and is offended on Gu Tingye’s behalf that his family sucks so much. He even pouts sadly when he learns Gu Tingye was beaten again recently.
• Gu Tingye: “I am no longer the gullible child from before. If one wants to take advantage of me? Not a chance!” Oh, hun, you overestimate yourself. You have not spotted the two snakes in the grass immediately by you — Madam Qin and Manniang.

Then we get Yuanruo pining and then setting up Gu Tingye’s older brother’s spying servant to be beat up in the next episode. No comments on either scene. And the episode ends!

I think there's a big Gu Tingye focus next episode which may bore me to tears, I just want to see Minglan start kicking ass and taking names!