Empresses in the Palace (2011–2012) User Reviews

Gorgeous!

[deschreiber · 9/10 · 28 June 2015]

What a gorgeous work this is! It just never stops filling the eyes with beauty, whether in the costumes and jewelry or the sets or in the actresses themselves. It's just a constant delight to watch. And the story never becomes dull.

It's all about a girl, Huan, in the early part of the Qing dynasty in China, who is one of the daughters of government officials called in to be reviewed as possible additions to the emperor's stable of concubines. Huan is apparently the only candidate who is not interested in leaving her previous life to live in luxury in the Forbidden City vying for the emperor's attention. Once she joins the harem, it's not long before she becomes subject to the pressures of that life, so idyllic and pampered on the outside but so uncertain and dangerous, even deadly, in reality. The plots and intrigues, conspiracies and poisonings never end. She has her setbacks but learns to survive and outlasts even the emperor. The ending is a little surprising but fits perfectly everything that has gone before.

Because this is a major Chinese production (the original version, pre-Netflix, consisted of 76 episodes), we assume a great deal of authenticity. The attention to detail in costumes and sets is astonishing, and hopefully the storyline is also accurate. We certainly get a detailed, wonderfully colourful look into what life must have been like in the Chinese court during the Qing period.

Westerners will occasionally become confused over names and titles, but usually things become clear, given a little time and patience. Certainly the story and the eye candy make it worthwhile.

Give us more, China, give us more!

Complete series?

[zinitime · 8/10 · 16 April 2021]

My review and ratings depends on which "Empresses in the Palace" you are seeing. I started off watching the "complete series" in English, which consisted of 6 episodes on Prime Video. It, certainly, whet my appetite for more. I found it very interesting, but it seemed to jump too quickly from one scene and crisis to another. So, I gave it a 7, and looked for more. I found that it is a series consisting of 76 episodes! No wonder it seemed "off." How do you shrink a 76 hour program into 6 hours? The answer, not very well. Was it still entertaining, yes, but not great. The acting was great. Locations inside The Forbidden City outstanding. But, the story was just not smooth.

The 76 episodes version, on the other hand, were wonderful! I only got to see about 47 episodes, but the story was consistently terrific. I got to know and care about the characters. I watched them grow, age, mature, and change as life within the harem of the Emperor grew more and more complicated, as emotion, power, greed, and jealousy shaped their lives. And I, suddenly, understood those gaps in the "complete series."

The original episodes I got to see were on YouTube. They had English subtitles that were the work of a group to translate them all into English subtitles.

I check back every few weeks to see if more episodes have been added to those with English subtitles. They are over half way through, and I really hope they continue, because it's a 10, and well worth watching!

Think of the "complete series" as cliff notes!

Wonderful costume drama

[x-54313 · 9/10 · 23 March 2020]

Sun Hao's acting is really good, the heroine is smart and kind, and finally stands at the top of the right

Extraordinary in every respect. You can't miss the 76 episode show. Avoid the abridged 6-chapters Netflix version!

[maria-ricci-1983 · 10/10 · 9 January 2017]

The plot, the acting, the sets and landscapes, the direction-- A truly wonderful experience.

Unlike a previous subscriber who considered the Emperor a poor actor, I think he is perfectly cast, and he portrays so greatly the poise, economy of emotions and regal stillness of the Son of Heavens. He shows his bliss through two short burst of austere laughter, through small gestures of his lips, through his impassive majesty.

The female actors offer lessons of artistry and talent chapter after chapter. They are rich characters, with a complex mastery of the subtle whims of human heart, at times queens of manipulation and cunning, then goddess of deep philosophy and reflective thought.

I strongly recommend this show. It is as beautiful as interesting and rich.

Nice Drama

[lusctan · 10/10 · 9 April 2015]

Really like Sun Li's acting and all the details of the drama. Those places are beautiful as well as the scenery. Good work! First time to get know about the history or China., quite interesting. Sometimes I really get confused about the name of those concubines. But still good!! Really like this movie. Going to watch the original version of 76 episodes instead of 6 episodes! Really hope that there will be a sequence. Although sometimes I feel sad about the dead of some characters I liked in the drama. But it teach me a lot of things, especially in the real world. It's really a good drama, hope everyone enjoy it!!

The best soap opera I have ever seen

[alaningle7 · 10/10 · 30 May 2018]

I am British but have no time for our TV soap operas such as Eastenders and Coronation street but having watched Empresses in the Palace I have gone on to watch many Chinese TV dramas. It is very colourful and also in the main very well acted. The twists and turns in the plot held my interest all the way through and I was genuinely deflated when I came to the end. I particularly like the acting of the star Sun Li (Susan Sun) who manages to portray ageing often with just her posture or movement, and also has a convincing range of emotional expression. I would highly recommend this if you like booing pantomime villains and have an interest in colourful well dressed drama.

Sublime!

[janajarata · 10/10 · 28 January 2019]

Rich, captivating and enthralling. I just finished the entire show... I am at a loss for words for the beauty and cruelty of it all. Bravo!

Exotic and exciting! P.S. Beware of the plum soup!

[laptoppclaptop · 10/10 · 15 September 2016]

This series is a kind of Chinese equivalent of Tudors which is one of my favorite historic TV series. There is much common with Tudors: most of the story plays out in the Emperors court that is full of intrigues, plots and beautiful women. Also it falls largely into the similar sort of era: 17th century if I understand correctly,Henry's life was a bit earlier but not too much.

Also the Emperor is similar sort of fella to our Henry: right old moron, serial wife killer and a sociopath. And the directors/script writers take is the same: they are creating a believable historic world but are not too worried to follow every historic fact to the dot. The story is loosely based on some real peoples lives but obviously a lot of artistic freedom is taken to create this story.

There is a lot to love about this series: it is really well written and directed and it never gets dull. The scriptwriter surely knows how to create cliff hangers and keep the audiences on their toes. The Chinese people are known to be very medicoulos in everything throughout the history and the director proves that: he firmly guides his massive amount of main and side characters through vast amounts of plot twists and still manages to remember the character continuity details for each one of them.

What I also liked very much, the character development is as deep as in a feature movie. Often in series characters remain sketch-like whilst here the director digs deep into the human depth with all the main ladies. Also the character development is very thorough and well planned, revealing layer by layer every ones true nature (Empress, Consort Hua, Lady Cao) or character changes (Zhen Huang).

It would have been very easy just to show these women as evil scheming bitches, but the director shows the depth of human tragedy how they were caught up in the evil infrastructure where they often had no choice as to resort to evil methods to survive. Every important characters personal story is revealed layer by layer and how they came to the point where they were in the story.

What I found particularly fascinating was all the customs and rituals of the palace. It seems that a lot of historical research had gone into that production. I doubted if they really dressed and behaved in such peculiar ways, such as women wearing these long finger extentions for example. So I did some research online. And indeed, at these times aristocratic women wore those weird things, as sign that they did not have to work. They were common accessories.

I found it very amusing how they all offered each other bowls of soups, teas and medicines all the time, half of them poisoned or laced with something very harmful - either making you infertile, destroying your voice, infecting you with plague. A lethal plum soup was funniest.

Everyone in the palace was busy sending each other medicines, teas, fabrics, jewellery, fragrances, pot plants, precious stones, incense, all of them meant to manipulate the target one way or other.

Killing each other off in most brutal ways was also common place in palace, and almost in every episode a person is beaten to death either on order of Emperor or other high standing person. The concubines and female servants are beaten to death at the same rate as male subjects.

As for the weaknesses of the series,the weakest link in the whole story is the actor who plays the Emperor. Where did they get him from? They have the whole China to choose from,why did they choose him???? The female leads tear the screen apart like she-wolves but he is like out of amateur theatre.

He is so wooden. He simply delivers the lines and that's about it. He has no emotions, no reactions and no concept of his character. Now and then, on the orders of the director apparently, he throws a bowl on the floor to show he is angry. On his death bed he rolls his eyes left and right a few times. That's it! And he was not good-looking either, so there was nothing to compensate his boring and dull presence. This actor really annoyed the hell out of me.

In a way, he reflects the principle of the society that is portrayed in the series: the female actresses work so hard to create exciting characters and he is just sitting there like a Muppet, has not put any effort into his character, yet holds a lead role in major TV series.

But in spite of disappointing Emperor, it is still very exciting series. And I very much recommend to watch the original 76 episodes, not the 6 part short version. There are so many story lines and details and 6 part version is not doing justice to this exciting 76 episode series.

Best film ever

[ploy-94087 · 10/10 · 18 March 2019]

I am a fan of Chinese movie, and I must say this film must be a symbol of this movie type. It had the deepness in the plot and even smallest things in the film can create the plot twist. This film made made me think a lot about the karma. The emperor did a lot of cruel things. He killed his children and his brothers, so he had to pay for that and in the end, he only had 3 sons left to choose for the heir. One of them, as the Chinese history and legend, was exchanged, not his son but is the chosen. One of them is the result of the affair between Zhen Huan and his brother. He used Zhen Huan to replace his old queen (the only one he loves), so during the movie, we can see that there are a lot of affairs behind his back. He has many wives but the only one who loves him is the current queen. However because jealousy so she had harmed and killed many people, included her sister - his old queen so in the end she had been locked up to the rest of her life. He noticed that Zhen Huan looks like his old queen so he has approached her as a fake identity which is his brother, and accidentally, the one who Zhen Huan has affairs with is his brother. ... This film is very worth to watch. After I saw it, I feel like if I die now, I die with satisfaction.

Boiled down version

[Opinion02122 · 7/10 · 2 September 2020]

This is a Chinese TV series which had 76 episodes. This is a choppy version of the series with huge gaps in what and why things are happening. The original version is on YouTube, but only 35 episodes have been translated into English so far. I liked this version, but was left scratching my head at the end.

I was very disappointed, which is why I went looking for more and found the information about the series AND its availability on YouTube. There is a group of volunteers who are supplying the English translations. They say that it takes about 2 weeks per episode to add the English, I'll be waiting for them! It's a terrific series in its original form.

One of the most successful court dramas

[gouoid · 10/10 · 23 August 2022]

I've lost count of how many times I've watched this TV show. Every line, every scene, is not superfluous, it is all carefully designed. Even some of the details, I have watched many times, do not find the mystery.

Interesting story marred by a subpar screenplay

[Bibiliography · 2/10 · 10 November 2022]

Admittedly, Yanxi Palace raised the bar in that I need all historical dramas to pull me in and keep me engaged and immersed in the lives of the palace characters and it is with that expectation that I went into LOCZH; alas, all I heard were words and words and even more words. The script was so dialogue-heavy with a lot of telling instead of showing that, in many ways, it ended up overshadowing the actual plot. Perhaps if I hadn't seen the perfection that is Yanxi or the witty and eminently watchable 'Love Like the Galaxy' I might have given LOCZH a pass. As it is, I'm just in it to finish it and hopefully move on to something much more entertaining. I do not care if it's historically accurate or whether the creators imagined they could school the audience on a bit of history, whatever their motivation, the execution was lacking.