Yan xi gong lüe

Yet another Chinese costume drama with strong female lead which is thoroughly entertaining. The acting as usual is first rate and the plot which unsurprisingly sometimes sags over the 70 episodes is overall gripping. The story centres on a young girl entering the forbidden city as a seamstress to seek revenge for her murdered sister. To achieve her aims she must use all her wits to progress and find out the truth. Along the way with each step up she meets countless new enemies and challenges.

I've seen this story twice, but finally I'm able to understand all story arcs, and boy, there are many.

For starters there's the intriguing story about a girl who plays detective in the palace in order to revenge the murder on her sister. She happens to sustain the weak and fight the bullies in the long run, and she gets help from a royal palace guard, the younger brother of the empress. This gentle, well behaved lady admires and loves the headstrong, self made girl, improving her status wherever she can, much to the annoyance of her own husband.

The emperor himself is frequently irritated by this unruly palace maid. Of course there's more than meets the eye and their developing relationship is the best story arc in my opinion, giving some comic relief as well.

Since this is a story about the palace there are the usual vicious schemes of the women in the harem, their characters are really fleshed out, and there's also the harem-in-reverse theme: our heroine is loved by several men. Not that typical is the sound and fulfilling ending of the series, which is great. Highly recommended!

Loooveeeee it. Bear with the many episodes but trust me it's all worth it!!!

STORY OF YANXI PALACE (Yan Xi Gong Lüe) (2018) There are no words for how beautiful this series was, especially regarding the gorgeously realistic sets, the breath-taking music (the song/visuals for Opening Credits, in particular, were mesmerizing. I couldn't bear to skip them!) and the entire cast was fantastic.

The heroine Wei Yingluo (Jinyan Wu) is a stellar actress, and she plays her part excellently. Wei Yingluo is very cunning and loyal servant and hell-bent on revenge for the murder of her sister. She starts off in the Embroidery House and it was amazing to watch her journey from there. I love how this show focused on the lives of the servants, maids, guards and eunuchs as well as the nobles.

There were mainly likable and interesting characters such as kind and frugal Empress Fuca Rongyin (Lan Qin), the loyal and aloof guard Fuca Funeng (Kai Yu), the hot-headed and willful Mingyu (Zixun Jiang), the kind and thoughtful guard Hailanca (Lawrence Wong), the intelligent and patient Empress Hoifa Nara Shushen (Chamaine Sheh), the proud Emperor Qianlong / Hong Li (Yuan Nie), the sly and crafty eunuch Yuan Chunwang (Maolei Wang), the devious and scheming Gao Ningxin (ZhuoTan), and the adorable and cautious eunuch Li Yu (Enshang Lui).

There was so much to enjoy about this series such as the fascinating story, the historical details, interesting characters, intriguing plots, realistic settings, immersive atmosphere, beautiful music, artistic design and cinematography. Even though the romance between Wei Lingluo and Emperor Qianlong was not as convincing as far as chemistry (especially compared to romance with Fuca Funeng) the series was still utterly amazing and spell-binding. One of my all time favorites. Love this series. Absolutely stunning.

I've never finished a China-production drama before, especially not one which runs to 70 episodes. But this was my first time ever. It got me and my ENTIRE family fighting over the remote to catch up on the episodes we missed. We weren't even bored to rewatch any episodes with each other. The storyline is gripping, many sad stories and past hidden behind the villains. Almost every single cast member had such a deep plot behind them, and such fluidity to the story, that I was most impressed by the script itself. You felt the pain of even the maids surrounding the main casts. This does not fall into the cliches of period drama at all. The lead is way too witty (honestly ridiculous at some points), but her wittiness gives the show a really new atmosphere. Often times it really annoys me when i see the 'victim' script go by and the *lead is stuck in a predicament unable to explain her way out of it*, but not this one! Every single main cast and sub-storyline casts were all very well detailed and contrived. Villains boasted considerable intelligence and craftiness, and you often sat at the edge of your seat waiting to find out how the lead would get out of the mess this time round.

This is not one to be missed. The story really gets going a few episodes in, but you don't want to miss anything, because that's how detailed this story is.