The Story of Ming Lan (2018)

female centric view of ancient china
female planning ahead to achieve goals for palace.
some funny stories lines as well

Both are beautifully shot costume romantic dramas with beautiful actors. Both have marriage life and typical Chinese palace power struggle.
But the stories differs much, while Ming Lan is quite smart and restrained, the FL of Ru yi is not; Story of Ming Lan is more realistic, Ruyi Pavilion (aka Snowfall of wishes) is just sweet and fluffy.

—> FL also has a close relationship to the grandma.
—> also got married after missing the initial chance and after a good solid foundation understanding one another, totally wasn’t love at first sight…
—-> there is also a revenge/family mishap on the ML’s side

Different stories but same feel. Similarities between the two are:

1) Smart and Witty FL
2) FL has a different love interest initially
3) ML falls in love first
4) Once the Lead couple get together they are loyal and trust each other
5) Both are slow paced drama
6) Amazing chemistry

If you like one, definitely give the other a try.

Both dramas explore the complex relationships within extended families and the strict hierarchy between prestigious families. The shows' slow pace enables them to build well fleshed out characters.

Similar plot in terms of FL awakens something in the ML to improve and become a person worthy of FL’s love, trying to get as many accomplishments on the battlefield as possible to marry the FL. The ML ends up rescuing the nation and royal family a few times over.

-FL's dad prefers the concubine
-Concubine step mom ruins FL lead causing her mom to die.
-She gets taken care of her own grandmother after her moms death
-General ML
-ML has daddy issues
-Slow Burn romance
-Second ML pursues FL before ML
-Concubine step mom has a daughter that she uses to gain more power and connection

I recommend this both drama because , Male lead and Female lead
try to solve problem
In one drama explosion and another student murder/suicide

The female character is very smart just like our female lead in SOKP. The story is very well paced and ending is satisfactory. Moreover, we get to see the male lead support his wife and all of her schemes.

Both depict the story of how it was growing up in a particular time period. Although they include the main characters love stories they equally concentrate on their family life, social issues and the influence they had on the lives of these characters. Romance is not the most important part of the story, it's simply part of their lives, as is family, friends and everyday obstackles they have to overcome. If anything, they are the stories about family, growing up and what kind of adults they became while dealing with changes in the world that surrounds them.

basically if you want to see Li Yi Xiao playing the same character and having fun with her being over the top, this is your drama

I have no idea why these are two similar, only that everyone who adored Ming Lan reports that it is by the same director/writer and is just a great plot and extremely well written. I will return to edit this after seeing Battle.

Both drama:
The acting is top-notch and not just pretty faces.

In "The Story of Ming Lan", female lead suffers from neglect from her family especially her father, fortunately she receives love from her grandmother. The female lead is intelligent and witty.

In "Jun Jiu Ling", female lead is a princess but live as other identity to revenge.

Although both drama is not the same situation, I think both just have a great plot and extremely well written.

If you like Ming Lan, you will like Jiu Ling too.

Ml and fl are a husband- wife duo who work together to solve problems for the people
Mls family is evil
Fls mom died when fl was a kid and she gets revenge
Ml helps out fl when they are younger

while these shows are entirely different, they do follow a family through generations/characters from childhood to adulthood

- historical
- serious in nature
- great cinematography
- morally grey characters
- slow-paced
- dialogue heavy
- marriage themes
- not your typical cdrama/kdrama