Jiu zhou: Hai shang mu yun ji

The first thing you'd notice in Tribes and Empires is the lavishness of the set and costumes, and effects. Never before I've seen such quality in Chinese TV series.

Cinematography is great. Cast and acting is superb. You will get carried away with their emotions, particularly courage, loyalty, despair and jealousy.

The main storyline is highly engaging because of your emotional investment in the main leads, but the side stories tends to drag on with not so important character/storyline that didn't even make a difference in the end.

What this series suffer the most is the conclusion, of which there is none. It will take you on a gentle, beautiful, heartwrenching ride, and then leave you hanging mercilessly, hoping someday there will be season two.

So, beware, watch at your own risk.

Is it worth the risk? I knew what was ahead and watched anyway. I did not regret it. If you can read Chinese you can read the novel. I prefer to make up season two in my head.

ALTHOUGH I DON'T SPEAK CHINESE, THE SUBTITLES WOULD HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE STORY LINE. LOVE THE STORY LINE OF HISTORY ITSELF, THE DRAMA AND THE FANTASY EMBEDED ON THE STORY.

Such an excellent series! What happened just as you were on the edge of your seat it ended! WHAT?

The problem with this series is that it is very disconcerting at first. It's as if the screenwriter had lost direction in just the first few chapters. Something in the first chapters suggests that they were not entirely clear where the hell all the other threads of the story were going to go. But once you go through these first five chapters everything seems to fall into place, and it is very captivating and intriguing. But what can be said despite everything is that the result is a rather bizarre series. And as often happens, Chinese producers walk away and leave you wondering if the project continues or is already dead or what the hell is wrong! (Have you ever felt when you are bathing, you are happy singing and scrubbing your body, but when it comes to rinsing, the water runs out!)

I have tried to send a two-word letter to the writer but have not been successful in finding his postal address.

However, it is one of the most interesting and perhaps conceptually different series that I have seen.

Absolutely love this drama! Just wish there would be a season 2. It was definitely left unfinished with much more story to tell.