Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (2018)

Modern day relationship woes transposed into historical settings

Personally, once in a while, I do like to watch sad endings because in reality, not everything is rainbows. What I really like here is Ruyi is the embodiment of a modern woman, someone who knows what she wants and will ruthlessly protect her sense of self and worth even if it means to cut off from her one true love who have turned toxic with the environment he is in. The star here is definitely Zhou Xun where even her gaze or eye movement can mean certain things.

While the ending might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I feel that it does represents the many issues that couples faced in modern relationship. The only difference is that because this is set in a historical setting, she can only choose isolation and death as a way of freedom which shows how oppressive women faced especially in the royal harem of ancient China. But I don’t think the ending is completely sad as I see Ruyi’s fate as her road to freedom while her lover suffers in eternal agony for the things she did to her. Overall, this was a really good historical show to watch.

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The sets and costumes and beautiful female actors draw the viewer in and keep them hooked. The fact many of the characters have multiple titles and names (and these often change over time) which can be very confusing and make it hard to follow. The English subtitles are terrible in places, as if a literal translation is being made, given the very different grammars Chinese/English this doesn't help and at times they grate on the historic atmosphere - referring to multiple persons as 'guys' is lazy and inappropriate. I know torture practices in ancient china were indescriabably awful and what is portrayed here by comparison is tame but it still comes over as revolting, as does the deliberate humiliation. By 50 episodes in I found the waring in the harem and spitefulness, not to say downright malice, too much. The Emperor, Dowager Empress and Empress are very flawed characters and the regime in the Forbidden City is irredeemable.

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Leaves you feel perpetually depressed!

Let me start off by saying THIS DRAMA IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!!! On that note... I am actually faint at heart so I was unable to finish. I'll let you know why down below but first a general overview.

General Overview
The drama starts off really slow. it sort of paces like a day time soap opera. Most episodes pick up right where it ended and it basically follows the day to day lives of the females who live in the emperor's harem. We see the hierarchy of the wives and get a basic idea of how things are done. The drama, however, does not pick up really until its well in its 20's (it drags quite a bit prior) but the episodes are still interesting to watch. Btw if you're watching this for the revenge..don't do it..not worth it...trust me..This is one of those shows that make you depressed and happy at the same time...Like while watching it I hated it but I always kept wanting to know what would happen next. The more I watched though the sadder I became. The one thing I will commend this drama for is how strong Ruyi is, regardless of what she faced she remained strong and that was awesome because her husband was wilding for literally this entire drama!

SPOILERS!!!!!!
Like I mentioned earlier this drama is not for the faint of heart. It made me extremely uncomfortable, Not because I'm conservative and couldn't get behind the many wives troupe, that was fine. What was not fine is how the whole sister wives thing affected all the women especially Ruyi (the main female lead) Okay from that get-go they introduced Ruyi and the emperor to us, they were childhood friends who loved each other hence they're both excited to marry each other. After the marriage however is when the shitshow begins,..Initially, the emperor started out with 2 wives and 1 concubine. However, by the time I gave up on the show he probably had about 9/10 in total. Now throughout the drama (up to where I stopped anyway) the emperor was constantly reassuring Ruyi that she was the only one he loved. He doted on her more than the others and he treated her the best out of all his wives & concubines. However, in this same breath, he would see a random girl and "fall in lust" with her and marry her and for a couple of months she would be his main focus the one he visits every night. Ruyi is obviously accustomed to it but you can see eventually it begins to take a strain on the love she has for him. This dude cannot keep it in his pants. Its so hard to believe that he loves her when you see him with all the other women (he treats all of them the pretty good too) some of whom he saw once or twice before being with them. Not taking away all the times he abandoned her in some instances to 'protect her' and in the end, she would have no choice but to go back to him. It was so difficult watching him basically fall in love with another woman while he claimed to be so in love with Ruyi

This drama is heartbreaking because eventually Ruyi can't take it anymore and she closes her heart to him and he eventually "sets her aside" for a shiner evil sly conniving bitch. No happy ending here folks. Its literally like watching a documentary on how the love of your life will eventually break you.

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I'm at episode 47 and I think I'm done. Something good finally happened to Ruyi and I can't watch everything go downhill from now on (no, I'm not spoiling, because this all happened in real life over 200 years ago).
I've managed to get this far only because of the amazing performance of Zhou Xun as the title character, fighting against my dislike of the Qing hair (at one point Ruyi looks like she has a hammerhead shark on her head) , the Qing clothes, the Qing interiors , and every. single. other. character. Except for two of the maids: pour one out for Suoxin and Lianxin. Ok, FINE. One eunuch (Li Yu) and one doctor (Jiang Yubin). And Ling Yunche, how could I have forgotten him.

Sigh. Maybe I'll watch a few more episodes, but as other posters have said, it does get a bit samey - 1. Ruyi's doing her own thing (love you, girl). 2. Horrible people plotting against her. 3. No one believes Ruyi. 4. Ruyi suffers (and yes, Zhou Xun suffers BEAUTIFULLY). 5. Ruyi is vindicated. And the cycle starts again.

The thing is, I watched Yanxi Palace first, and even though Yanxi Palace has some nonsense towards the end, the characters are generally much better developed. Also, Concubine Ling, the heroine of Yanxi Palace is entirely demonised here, and I'm kind of not there for that? Seeing as we know exactly two facts about the real woman, why make her evil? Yes, she has a different name here, but there was only one Concubine Ling, who, SPOILER FOR 2-CENTURY OLD EVENTS , was the mother of the next Emperor.

I mean, fine, Yanxi Palace made Ulanara / Ruyi into a villain, so idk.

Basically, it's well acted for the most part (90% of that being Zhou Xun - I'm not a fan of Wallace Huo's portrayal of Qianlong) , has some awesome exterior scenes which attest to the enormous budget this must have had, and it's massively interesting to watch. Just, you know, not if you're prone to depression.

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Ride of frustation and some moments of glory

WOOW what a ride. This drama really surprises me, I already knew it was going to be a sad ending, but I still wanted to see how all this plays out at the end.
It's impossible to not feel sad for Ru Yi at the end, if she never married the Emperor maybe she would be free all her life...

I have to admit RY's character pissed me off sometimes, I wanted to see her more "evil" with spies and powerful allies, but she was always so chilled and people framed her so many times and she still didn't turn "evil". I ended up respecting her for maintaining her manners and ideals till the end.

Han Lain's character surprised me a lot, she was a coward and would cry for everything but when she opened her eyes, she never closed them again hahah she was loyal till the end and even got her hands dirty for RY.

The Emperor... well, I didn't feel sorry for him, he lost so many people along the way and regretted overtime but still didn't learn. He died alone just what he deserves.

Jia and YW performance in this drama was fantastic and the retributionwas perfect for them.

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A most unsatisfying female protagonist

I signed up to kisskh simply becoz I wanted to rant abt Ruyi's Royal Love. Ruyi's Royal Love n The Story of Yanxi Palace came out in the same yr, both potraying the story of Step-Empress Ula Nara n Ling Gui Fei, w Ruyi potraying Ling Gui Fei as the villain while Yanxi Palace potrayed the Step-Empress as the villain. I cried watching Ruyi's but ultimately I was so turned off by the character Ruyi n ended up disliking her. Ruyi was supposed to be this character that retained all of her integrity n yet, for me, she was a weak woman that ultimately allowed her love for a man to overtake any consideration she could've given to her friends.
Why I disliked the character Ruyi in Ruyi's Royal Love :
1. Of all the characters, only Ruyi is potrayed as the completely virtuous one, while all others hv schemes. Even the good Hui Fei schemed to get the emperor's favor so that she could rescue Ruyi.
2. Ruyi depended too much on the emperor, believing that the emperor will always see the truth just becoz she loved him.
3. As a favoured consort n later on as a Step-Empress that has the support of the emperor, n later on even having the backing of the Empress Dowager, Ruyi did nothing to protect the prople that she supposedly love. She only cared abt how she would look to the emperor, presenting herself as the only one who didn't play dirty. As a Step-Empress that's supported by the Empress Dowager, she had a real power to make sure the concubines adhered to the palace rules. But, she still let the concubines continued scheming, doing nothing to stop them even when she knew what they're doing.
4. The emperor promoted Ruyi to Step-Empress w his full backing. N yet, the drama made it that Jia Fei was still so powerful that she could still immediately went to the emperor to complain abt Ruyi making her wore the big earrings, n the emperor somehow could continue listening to her badmouthing Ruyi.
5. Ruyi hid the gender of ther baby when she was pregnant, pretending that the baby was a girl instead of a boy. But, again, Ruyi was the Step-Empress. She had the power to protect her pregnancy. Why was she so cowed by Jia Fei, who actually didn't hv strong political relatives that the emperor had to appease? Jia Fei was frm Goryeo (present day Korea), a country conquered by China n Goryeo just didn't hv sny power in the emperor's court. Heck, at that time, even choosing an emperor in Goryeo required China emperor's approval. Ruyi could hv told the truth of all Jia Fei machinations to the emperor n the emperor would've believed her. N yet, it's Hui Fei that finally took the initiative to expose Jia Fei that made the emperor demoted her.
6. Suoxin n Sir Li worked tirelessly to protect Ruyi, yet again n again Ruyi didn't her power to protect them. They were slandered by Ruyi's enemies, but, as a Step-Empress, Ruyi could hv stepped in to at least made sure no one tortured Suoxin n Sir Li while investigations were made. N once the truth was known, Ruyi could've punished the actual criminals. Sir Li's fate was especially demeaning. N probably even Sir Li realised how any help he gave to Ruyi n whatever good positions Ruyi bestowed on him only resulted in him being tortured, demoted n castrated, n thus he actually asked Ruyi to stop doing things for him.
7. The Empress Xiaochang was potrayed as an evil character. It's not believable then that after knowing the truth of the Empress's evil doings, the emperor didn't do anything to clear Ruyi's name. The emperor actually raised the Empress's status higher upon her death, punishing his sons that he perceived to hv disrespected the Empress by not crying at her funeral. That's not the action of somebody being disappointed or angry w the dead person. Even if the emperor wanted to save face, he could've just overlooked the sons non-crying as something that the evil Empress perhaps deserved.
8. For me, the character Wei Yan Wan was more admirable. She started frm a lowly maid, didn't hv any backing whatsoever, no member of her family was an official of the emperor's admin, not even as a minor official, the Empress Dowager dislike her, she had no real allies w the other concubines, she didn't display any special characters that would make the emperor favoured her so much. All she had was the head eunuch Jiazheng n her own ingenuity. Compared that w Ruyi who came frm a highly respected clan, hv Empresses as part of the clan's list of impactful figures, hv the backing of the Empress Dowager, hv the love n support of the emperor. Ruyi had all the advantages.
9. Sir Li gave the ring token that proved his prior relationship w Ling Fei to Hui Fei. Yet, Hui Fei n Ruyi didn't use the ring to clear Sir Li n Ruyi's names.
10. This drama is supposedly a continuation of The Legend of Zhen Huan. Yet, Ruyi's Royal Love started w everything that's opposite of what happened in The Legend of Zhen Huan. In Zhen Huan, Hongli didn't like Ruyi/Xian n even asked Zhen Huan to replace her w Gao Feinas his second wife. In Zhen Huan, when the Empress Ula-Nara died, Zhen Huan told Ruyi/Xian to visit her aunt, but Ruyi/Xian said she had no such family member. Zhen Huan had no further need to scheme as all her enemies had died, she had protected her son by putting him in the 17th Prince's family, n Hongli revered her. Yet, Zhen Huan in Ruyi's Royal Love schemed against Hongli. Why? What political advantage she'd hv in having control over Hongli? She didn't hv anyone that she planned to take over as emperor. N if she's a continuation of the character frm Zhen Huan, then she had no further need to play court politics, becoz as the Empress Dowager, she's the most powerful woman in the inner palace.
11. Ruyi gave Rong Fei the infertility medicine when Rong Fei asked it of her. But, it's a very heavy crime to stop any concubine frm producing heirs to the emperor. How could Ruyi, who'd know of the severity of this action which totally goes opposite of making sure the emperor had many heirs, allow Rong Fei this medicine w/o telling the emperor first. N the emperor slapping Ruyi in public upon knowing this? That's a very gross breach of court etiquette. Also, an emperor losing control in public n displaying his anger would actually means the emperor was freely letting people see his weakness. N slapping Ruyi was basically taking away her face or her honour. N insulting the Empress Dowager as it's the Empress Dowager that allowed Ruyi to give the infertility medicine.
12. Much was said how the costumes n rituals in Ruyi's were so good. But, for me, there's nothing extraordinary abt them n it paled in comparison to the costumes in Legend of Zhen Huan.

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"Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" is a harem drama that shows the life of the emperor, his concubines, all the conspiracies, lies and secrets.

It's a spectacular drama, one of the best cdramas I've ever seen. I initially started it because it reminded me of "The Story of Yanxi Palace", because both stories are about the royal family and life inside the palace, but this drama is much heavier and darker, with lots of deaths, pain and romance taking a back seat. In fact, that's one of the main themes. Ru Yi's love is gradually fading away, as the emperor is becoming someone she no longer recognizes.

Ru Yi never wanted this life or the place of empress; all she ever wanted was Hong Li's love. The problem is that he never truly trusted her. The former empress had prevented her from having children since she got married and Hong Li did nothing. They framed Ru Yi for having an affair, and he really thought that was true. I can't explain how angry I was when Hong Li basically begged Ru Yi to make Xiang Jian sleep with him, because with her it was love at first sight... the constant humiliation never stopped.
I can't judge Ru Yi for her decision to let the disease kill her, because she had no reason to live anymore. Her two children died and the only one left was not being raised by her, and after everything that happened, anyone would be tired and want to give up, it's too much tragedy for one woman.

There are 87 episodes, but you watched it in the blink of an eye. I loved all the characters, especially the ones that were made to be hated.
Ru Yi and Hai Lan's friendship is truly beautiful, they are like sisters, helping each other through life.

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Amazing but painful drama

I first tried watching this drama seven years ago when it was first released, but it was too painful for me to watch seeing how much the protagonist, Ruyi, toils. I didn't end up finishing it then.

Now I decided to give this show another try after having matured myself and I found it harrowing, but gripping, and I appreciated even the villains of the show and their motivations. This show is called Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, but it should really be named Ruyi's Royal Disappointment in the Palace, because this show goes to tell you love will just end in disappointment. Out of the couples in this show, not many of them had lasting love.

The theme of this show is very similar to that of Empresses in the Palace/Legend of Zhen Huan, another palace harem classic. Women compete and vie for the Emperor's favor, our protagonist starting off believing in true love, and eventually becomes jaded. The emperor, who was once a lover, becomes an enemy due to his own character flaws. I read a little bit of history around the characters in this show, so I came in knowing what would happen in the end. However, I was curious to see how the show reaches there and the show reaches that point spectacularly.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but Ruyi's reaction to bad things happening is almost always a wide stare. People praise the actress's (Zhou Xun) grace and composure, but I found the wide stare reaction kind of bland. Also when she was playing the young Ruyi, it was pretty awkward. Wallace Huo did a great job as Qianlong Emperor, and his evolution (or devolution) throughout the show is very convincing. Ling Yunche's actor did a great job portraying his various states throughout the show. I loved all of the different personalities of Ruyi's allies. The villains were all convincing too, the casting was done very well.

As emotionally painful this story is, it is still an amazing show worth watching.

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Bittersweet Majesty: Love, Loss, and Intrigue in the Emperor's Court

This drama is truly magnificent, depicting the zenith of the Qing Dynasty under the reign of Emperor Qianlong. The plot unfolds smoothly, with each intrigue developing deliberately and tactically, ultimately creating a significant impact.
The compelling and intriguing plot ensures the audience remains engaged throughout the entire drama. Adding another layer of brilliance is the drama's skill full integration of fictional storylines with the actual trajectory of historical events.

The cast line-up is extraordinary. None of the characters feel overpowered; each possesses a well-balanced portrayal. Intriguingly, each character's strength is often juxtaposed with a poignant vulnerability. The ending provides a fitting conclusion to the drama, leaving viewers with a bittersweet sense of both sadness and relief. Furthermore, it aligns with the actual history surrounding Emperor Qianlong's Step Empress.

The poignant soundtrack, "Like the Fragrance of Plum Blossoms We Once Knew," beautifully captures the underlying sorrow experienced by the women within the palace harem.

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This is probably one of the best historical dramas I have watched, grasping it at first was difficult but the more you rewind and try to understand what the story is implying the more interesting it gets. I love how real the story is depicting the struggles one has to bear with in the forbidden city, not just Ruyi's struggles but rather everyone within the city. One of my favourite lines in this drama was "orchids beginnings still end" which signifies how a man and woman's beginning seems beautiful but in the end they separate which is depicted by the leads love story. I am satisfied with the ending knowing that Ruyi let go of her love and was finally free unbound by the palace and that the emperor regretted all he did to her.

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Well then,

I couldn't pull myself to finish episode 3... it felt like those 3 hours drained 60 years of my life - in other words, it was so goddamn boring i couldn't restrain myself from dropping this series.

Also, the cast put me off which played quite a big role in one of the list of reasons why I should go kill myself.

FL's appearance and voice were irritating. It was as though I was observing an unattractive male. - the same goes to the ML; he was a bore and the clothes he wore were hideous. All one could do was look away.

Yours truly,

Suicide.

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