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Bittersweet story
So I went into this, not expecting anything and I just couldn't stop watching! It's very fast-paced, very witty and smart, and very emotional.
This is essentially a harem drama with some political stuff peppered in but interestingly, the harem drama was a lot smarter and engaging than the political stuff which I think can be fast-forwarded, you won't miss much. I would also say the show is not focused on the romance at all, instead, it's actually more about the female relationships and friendships in the palace and that was my favorite thing about the show.
There's a couple of things I really liked about it.
One, the female characters and their relationships. Despite being a harem drama and the main conflict just being catty fights over the favor of the emperor, the show made it nuanced and interesting. When we meet the key players in the harem, Empress Fuca, Consort Chun, Xian, and Gao, they all have very distinct personalities and very tragic stories for why they are in the Forbidden City. Each of them is clearly a victim of the political system and marriage traditions of the era. None of the harem women are happy to be there and that they have to fight to survive. The story explicitly shows how even when they fight, it's to survive. None of them is just dumb, evil, caricature characters. Gao does try her best to prove otherwise but even she reveals hidden depths later on. As a whole, the plot is traditional but it had a flair of hidden feminism and a critique of how women had to live in the Qing dynasty which I enjoyed.
Secondly, the main character is a joy. She is cunning, crafty, smart, and vengeful. I hate it when the main characters are stupid and naive and are easily taken advantage of. Wei Ying Luo does not give you a chance to blink! She obliterates her enemies in the most vicious and righteous way she can and she will never be cornered for long. She makes watching the show satisfying because she leaves no punch unanswered, she'll kick right back!
Thirdly, there is a very realistic view of love, marriage, and romance in the show. There is love and then there is marriage and the social contracts one has to abide by. I don't really buy the cinderella romance side of it all... Wei Ying Luo did what she needed to do to survive and it wasn't about love at all. I do appreciate the show acknowledging that and showing that sometimes love doesn't win and you just have to get used to another partner and that's ok, it's not the end of the world. It can work too. It was bittersweet and I enjoyed that. I would have hated it if they just pretended that the emperor has a magic d*** and every woman is just enamored by him immediately. Most of the women in the harem? they don't really care for the emperor much, they're just doing married stuff because that's all they can do!
the fourth reason I liked the show was the attempt at preserving historical facts. Now it's obviously not historically accurate. It's a very fictional story but they did try to incorporate historical information and it worked. I compare it to the Ruyi show's plot which I've heard is a good show but the fact that the creators had the main character be the childhood friend of a guy 7 years older than her just unnerves me! Yanxi palace tries to keep the ages correct. It does fail at times when actors are very far from the age they are supposed to portray, (like Wei Ying Luo is 16 when the show starts and ...ok) but they did try to keep things close and just fill up gaps where they had no historical information.
The production is also gorgeous. The clothes, the sets, the lighting, the hairstyles and makeup, and the music. Oh, I LOVED the music!
Now what I didn't like: The last 10-15 episodes after the revenge plot ends for good really did slow down the show and the characters weren't totally up to their game. I disliked the consort Shun arc. although the character was interesting, the plot was weaker than the earlier arcs in the show. I really dragged my feet through those last 10 episodes but it was ok...I mean it's 70 episodes! Some were bound to suck.
Another thing which by now I have accepted as a fact about cdramas, is really messed up timelines. There is no unified pacing to the show. It's very vague how many years or months pass from scene to scene. One cut may be minutes, but the next could be months or years but the show doesn't stay consistent with seasons or clothes so it's like one event happens in winter, then it's fall again and then spring and then fall again... it was a bit weird but it was the same with The Untamed and Ten miles of peach blossom (oh boy, that one was one messed up timeline!) so I'm just not going to think too hard about it...
Fun fact: The show has an allergy towards pregnancies so we barely see any at all in the story (especially with the mains) and I find that hilarious! (There were pregnancies but they try to show as little of them as possible. It's really funny if you pay attention to it.)
This is essentially a harem drama with some political stuff peppered in but interestingly, the harem drama was a lot smarter and engaging than the political stuff which I think can be fast-forwarded, you won't miss much. I would also say the show is not focused on the romance at all, instead, it's actually more about the female relationships and friendships in the palace and that was my favorite thing about the show.
There's a couple of things I really liked about it.
One, the female characters and their relationships. Despite being a harem drama and the main conflict just being catty fights over the favor of the emperor, the show made it nuanced and interesting. When we meet the key players in the harem, Empress Fuca, Consort Chun, Xian, and Gao, they all have very distinct personalities and very tragic stories for why they are in the Forbidden City. Each of them is clearly a victim of the political system and marriage traditions of the era. None of the harem women are happy to be there and that they have to fight to survive. The story explicitly shows how even when they fight, it's to survive. None of them is just dumb, evil, caricature characters. Gao does try her best to prove otherwise but even she reveals hidden depths later on. As a whole, the plot is traditional but it had a flair of hidden feminism and a critique of how women had to live in the Qing dynasty which I enjoyed.
Secondly, the main character is a joy. She is cunning, crafty, smart, and vengeful. I hate it when the main characters are stupid and naive and are easily taken advantage of. Wei Ying Luo does not give you a chance to blink! She obliterates her enemies in the most vicious and righteous way she can and she will never be cornered for long. She makes watching the show satisfying because she leaves no punch unanswered, she'll kick right back!
Thirdly, there is a very realistic view of love, marriage, and romance in the show. There is love and then there is marriage and the social contracts one has to abide by. I don't really buy the cinderella romance side of it all... Wei Ying Luo did what she needed to do to survive and it wasn't about love at all. I do appreciate the show acknowledging that and showing that sometimes love doesn't win and you just have to get used to another partner and that's ok, it's not the end of the world. It can work too. It was bittersweet and I enjoyed that. I would have hated it if they just pretended that the emperor has a magic d*** and every woman is just enamored by him immediately. Most of the women in the harem? they don't really care for the emperor much, they're just doing married stuff because that's all they can do!
the fourth reason I liked the show was the attempt at preserving historical facts. Now it's obviously not historically accurate. It's a very fictional story but they did try to incorporate historical information and it worked. I compare it to the Ruyi show's plot which I've heard is a good show but the fact that the creators had the main character be the childhood friend of a guy 7 years older than her just unnerves me! Yanxi palace tries to keep the ages correct. It does fail at times when actors are very far from the age they are supposed to portray, (like Wei Ying Luo is 16 when the show starts and ...ok) but they did try to keep things close and just fill up gaps where they had no historical information.
The production is also gorgeous. The clothes, the sets, the lighting, the hairstyles and makeup, and the music. Oh, I LOVED the music!
Now what I didn't like: The last 10-15 episodes after the revenge plot ends for good really did slow down the show and the characters weren't totally up to their game. I disliked the consort Shun arc. although the character was interesting, the plot was weaker than the earlier arcs in the show. I really dragged my feet through those last 10 episodes but it was ok...I mean it's 70 episodes! Some were bound to suck.
Another thing which by now I have accepted as a fact about cdramas, is really messed up timelines. There is no unified pacing to the show. It's very vague how many years or months pass from scene to scene. One cut may be minutes, but the next could be months or years but the show doesn't stay consistent with seasons or clothes so it's like one event happens in winter, then it's fall again and then spring and then fall again... it was a bit weird but it was the same with The Untamed and Ten miles of peach blossom (oh boy, that one was one messed up timeline!) so I'm just not going to think too hard about it...
Fun fact: The show has an allergy towards pregnancies so we barely see any at all in the story (especially with the mains) and I find that hilarious! (There were pregnancies but they try to show as little of them as possible. It's really funny if you pay attention to it.)
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