Well well well, imagine my surprise 😂 yeah this was a mistake, it's the 6.26 video but it came out at midnight my time instead of 8.30 am my time. Ah well! Next video is still 6.27 regular time so see you then!
I feel bad for saying this but i kinda wished there will be a mixup like this so that i get to watch more episodes when you anounced the uploads will ve daily😅
Your hate for Mingyu cracks me up 🤣🤣 Keep it going I think people, me included, like her because with everyone in the palace scheming and putting up a facade, it's refreshing to have someone that wears their heart on their sleeve, but your points are valid and honestly so funny to hear.
The fact that Consort Xian can both cause death in the most subtle, nearly unnoticable ways and is also capable of killing with a bare hands makes her such a formidable antagonist.
LOL I know you just roasted her but I love crazy honest Mingyu. She has no filter and is unable to pretend. She will never hide her emotions behind a smile and it is hilarious at times. I believe both Empress Rongyin and Yingluo like that about her. It's nice to see that Yuan is back.
I think Yingluo realizes that mingyu is just a bit too hot tempered, but not evil or disloyal, that's why she forgave her so easily . Even the insult at Yu stemmed from the fact that she allied with Chun despite being saved by YL. And in any case , Mingyu hasn't tried running her own schemes outside of YL's instructions, atleast till now. I guess in a harem, loyalty and obedience is more important than anything else.(If you recall, despite being incompetent at times, Mingyu never intentionally involved the Empress, as opposed to EQ , who was much smarter and calmer than Mingyu, but was ready to implicate and hurt the Empress). I'd even go so far as to say that when she was accusing YL of taking the Empress seal, she didn't actually, truly understand the gravity that she was trying to kill someone, due to her temper. She'd probably regret that mistake for the rest of her life, unlike the maids in the embroidery department.
Charmaine Sheh looked so beautiful in her scene with Chun in prison. The beauty mark, her eyebrows, her lips. Wow. I love both Hoifa Nara Shushen and Ula Nara Ruyi
Notes (wow the notifs nearly gave me a heart attack) -It is possible to overdose on ginseng (extremely common in TCM, and widely used in other East Asian countries such as Korea; I live near a part of town that has a lot of Korean restaurants and shops, and there are several devoted entirely to selling ginseng.). Symptoms include nausea/vomiting, fever, high blood pressure, seizures, delirium and low heart rate. There was actually a scene where Chun's maid gave Yu the ginseng back in ep. 49, telling her 'not to disappoint'. -Apparently, Chun's death scene was originally longer---in the show, we just see Xian ordering her eunuchs to 'take action', but an earlier cut of the scene actually showed her being strangled and cursing Xian to 'meet an ugly end'. No points for guessing why that was pared down. -Chun IRL was from the Su family, unique in that she was originally a commoner. Her father, one Su Zhaonan, was likely either a scholar or merchant. She was able to gain the Emperor's favor early on, had the 3rd prince Yongzhang (who we don't see here), was made a Consort, and her clan was elevated to the Plain White Banner. After having the 6th prince, she got promoted (this was apparently a mass promotion that happened after Gao Huangguifei died) to Noble Consort, and later gave birth to the 4th princess, Hejia (we also don't see her here, but she gets a brief mention in RRLitP during Hejing's marriage negotations). She likely would've been Empress over Xian, had her son Yongzheng not been punished during the late Empress' funeral for not showing the proper amount of grief, and being excluded from the line of succession. She died in 1760; her health, not helped by the disinheriting of her sons, had been on the decline for a while. Her final title was Imperial Noble Consort Chunhui ('pure and kind') -Yu IRL was from the Mongol Bordered Blue Banner Keliyete clan, a baoyi like Yingluo. She started out pretty lowly, only being given the title of Changzai (1st Class Attendant) when Qianlong became Emperor. She made it to Guiren, had the 5th Prince Yongqi, and was promoted further to Yu Pin (愉/yu, 'delight, pleasing'); her title in Manchurian was 'nemgiyen', meaning 'gentle'. She got promoted to Fei at the same time as Chun, and remained there for the rest of her life. When she died in 1792 (at the ripe age of 79, no less!), her final title was Noble Consort Yu. -Qianlong tries to stop Yingluo's kite-making by gifting her a zither, the 月露知音琴/Yuelu Zhiyinqin, ('Sound of Moon Dew Zither'). It was made in the Ming era, having a black-lacquered pawlonia body, and eventually was acquired for Qianlong's collection. It's one of 4 that are still in their original boxes from the Qianlong era, and along with some carvings, has a poem Qianlong wrote engraved on the bottom. Auctioned off in 2014, the final bid was 33 million yuan, which going by conversion rates is around 5 million USD. -Shu tries to entice the Emperor by having him view a rare flower, 昙花/tanhua, also known as 'Queen of the Night'. It's a species of cactus flower that only blooms nocturnally, and has a fragrant scent. It's also used in some traditional medicines to treat bleeding, respiratory ailments, pain and inflammation. -Personally, I saw Chun's downfall as kind of sudden---I didn't think her maid would just come out and start blabbing about how she murdered the 7th prince like that. I'm guessing Xian now saw her as a hindrance rather than a help and wanted her gone. Also, I can kind of understand Mingyu's displeasure with Yu---as far as she knows, she's repaid Yingluo saving her and her son's life by allying herself with Chun---who is responsible for tormenting Mingyu and Yingluo---although in the palace, you would definitely want to keep those thoughts to yourself.
My family was careful with ginseng too. Grandma didn't allow us children to drink ginseng soup. She let us drink it when we reached our teens. She said it might be too strong for children
Thanks for the history lesson! I find the facts behind the characters so rich and interesting. Can you recommend any sources for someone wanting to start out in reading about the Qing dynasty/ Qianlong Emperor?
On cutting down Chun’s death scene, I think it was better for them that Xian gives the order and walks out. Much more dramatic, especially since they’re talking the next day how brutal it was. Better to leave that to the imagination.
Normally I would be irritated by Mingyu but what’s bothering her is that Yinglou has called a truce.. Mingyu mindset is so Chun tried to kill u; Yu is the ungrateful and useless weakling who helped so instead of taking them down we r having visits and making memories.. It doesn’t make sense to her she even says to Halincha in the past Yinglou would have just taken everyone out and be done with it. But I do love that Halincha says Yinglou is thinking like a general so she must have a plan.
Mingyu is childish and not very quick witted and I love her for it all, i can’t stand the ones who smile when they really don’t like a person, Mingyu keeps it real 110%
I kinda understand Mingyu's lash toward Yu, her bestfriend saved her ass yet she's on the side of Chun who's an enemy of Yingluo and also the one torture her :") she's probably not the most proper maid but she's the real one and not fake xDD but i get it it can be so annoying seeing juust a mere maid lashing to an Emperor's woman xDD I will defend Minyu everytime :)))
Agreed! I have watched this drama COUNTLESS times I tell you and am still learning plot details from these recaps. Apparently you miss a lot if you only have subtitles!
Mingyu's remark about the weasel during Yu's visit with the 5th prince is from a Chinese idiom about the weasel visiting the chicken with Chinese New Year greetings. The weasel actually doesn't have good intentions - it isn't sincerely wishing the chicken a happy new year, and instead wants to eat it. Mingyu is saying that Yu harbours ill intent.
This is a very helpful explanation as I have not seen this line in any English subtitles before. I have watched this drama COUNTLESS times I tell you and am still learning plot details from these recaps. Apparently you miss a lot if you only have subtitles!
@user-im8mz4lb6d that's true. I look at the subtitles when they exist and the best ones convey the basic plot, losing the naunces like sarcasm. Some subtitles are outright bad - like yesterday, i saw a subtitle that called the "treasure" given to harem ladies when they are promoted eg to fei, guifei etc as "toilet".
Yesssss an early treattttt but I agreee if that was my maid I would have her sent away. But words of caution I am verrrrrrrry skeptical of Yuan veryyy because this seems nice bu he is also working with the empress. So, we need to verify who he is very loyal too
Yu's and Chun's situation with making Yu's kid sick and blaming Yingluo parallels with Jia's and Gao's situation when Jia made her kid sick to blame Xian. Yu and Jia both having to go along with someone with higher ranks than them.
OMG! An early recap?! Is is Chinese New Year? Creepy Eunuch in the palace... Damn it she needs a good servant but my god... You're better off with a new servant all together. Ming Yue... Shut Up. Just shut up and be kind. Consort Yu. BRILLIANT! Cruel and calculating, but it had to be done. It had to. This all was to protect her son and thank the woman who saved her years ago with said son. This scene made me cry. Her final act got her out of the palace and her son into the arms of someone who would give her life to protect him.
Another fantastic little plot played through. Pure gold. I cried hard for Yu, she did the right thing in the end. I wish Yinglou had stepped up for Yu at the end but, yeah, she was probably ready to leave. Xian for the win again. I always groan to see Yuan show back up.
A video out of schedule, what a gift! I am a bit conflicted with Chun blamibg Xian for what she did. You cannot force a knife into the hand of a person who doesn't want to kill. Xian can talk whatever, but in the end - who cares what she talks if one doesn't have the intention to do evil? Chun did it all by herself, she had the idea of doing this from the very beginning, and if Xian wouldn't manipulate her, ahe would have arrive to these intentions herself.
Maybe Mingyu has ADHD or something. She struggles to withhold her true feelings, I actually sympathise with her as she even expresses that she’s immature for her age to Hailencha. She’s not rude on purpose, she simply has the brain function of a child. Youn being back is the biggest mistake for everyone who thinks they can trust him😂
Oooh, great to see this video so suddenly! Sorry, I like Mingyu 😆. I don't like everything she does, of course. But we all have characters that we love, that we don't care about, and that we can't stand. Charmaine Sheh was so villainous going into the prison to kill Chun. Her calm, satisfied, evil expression! I remember watching this scene wide-eyed.
I just joined your subscription and was wondering if you speak Chinese and also read it?? I would love to find these books, but Amazon does not carry them. Love your take on these dramas. I love these shows so much! Thank you for filling us in. Sometimes it is hard to understand. Can you recommend where I can find the English version?
And Chun smh.. I rewatched an earlier episode and something Xian said about Chun made her make a lil more sense to me. She says she knows human greed never ends and it grows little by little, step by step so she played into that by pressing Chun to having a child, then placing a thorn in Chun’s about Yongrong being overshadowed Yongcong.. but her greed continued afterwards it wasn’t enough to be the favorite and have a son she also had to be the dowagers favorite as well. Then Fuheng shows up and she has to why and how Yinglou is better than her. Then when Yinglou is gaining favor she decides to take out the competition at all costs. I always felt that in the last half she was blindly arrogant and slightly stupid but maybe once Xian activated that need in her she wanted it all and was not going let anyone take it from her
I really, really tried to hold off from seeing this video... for all of 2 hours😂😂😂 Also... I'm already thinking about what you'll review next. Have you seen "Ming Dynasty?"
Any thoughts on dramas you'll do after this? I watch AvenueX aswell and maybe you can find some she thinks are good quality and do recaps of those too? :D Maybe Winters Begonia?
poor Mingyu...but YL could have used this as a teaching moment, the YL way :(...but never fear, you will like MY, or at least forgive her, cant be helped.
I like Mingyu. Here, i was irritated with her but i still liked her. The turnaround in her attitude when they were all at Rongyin's made me like her. How much Rongyin must have spoilt her for her to be so audacious 😅
I was also rooting very VERY hard for Yuan to be the useful sidekick forever at YlLs side, but having him as backup 'til the end would mean almost invulnerability for YL's camp, and there is still a 1/3 of the drama to go.
I was kinda expecting a better end for Chun cause ngl even with all her desperateness and anger I did like her. Also, it’s a shame that Yu is also out of the game… though it makes it more exciting since the only real players left are Yingluo and Xian!
@Winter74575 me too. I was disappointed with Chun's story at her crush for Fuheng reveal, then things just went downhill from there. I'm horrified at what they did to the character! Chun was a Han from a commoner family, who was presented to the Yongzheng Emperor as a gift by officials. Yongzheng gave her to his son Hongli who would become the Qianlong Emperor. The scriptwriters could have spun a story from there. Like maybe she was scared about being given to the Emperor who was also older than herself when she met Fuheng who was closer to her age? Like maybe she had mixed feelings later when she was assigned to young Hong Li instead, and maybe she felt his household despised her because she was from a commoner family who was not yet placed in the banner system. Hong Li probably did favour her at least to some extent and perhaps that invited the ire of some of the other women? Her evil could even started earlier- did she, perhaps, have a hand in Fuca Zhemin's death? Instead she started a smart and sermingly fair minded woman who turned out to be a hopeless romantic with no moral compass. And how on earth did she rise to Consort by avoiding the Emperor?? They could have done a more complex character, the actress would have carried it! I feel so bad for the actress.
I'm guessing that we might get multiple videos since it's almost the end of the June and we are 20 episodes away? Still, I'm happy for the early release. I personally don't find Mingyu too annoying, she just speak what's on her mind, which is not good for the palace live, but at least you will always know what is she thinking. That's just part of her.
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