Incredible
Very good drama with a sensible victorious responsible fenake lead who doesn't tolerate nonsense. She's rekiable quick ambitious and very headstrong she crumbled all her enemies and watched them drown and ended up victorious. The only reason i didn't rate it higher was because it was a little dragged out but it was still an incredible show regardlessWas this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
When concubines unite, no emperor can stand.
A great drama!All the characters are well-developed, with multiple motivations and not stuck in fixed hero or villain roles.
The story has a good flow and a great ending (rare in this type of drama). The only part that slowed down was when FL was exiled from the Forbidden City, but apart from that, 10/10.
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This review may contain spoilers
Dont be scared beacause of 76 episodes they are just a delight to go through!!
I started watching this after my finals started, as the series hit harder when you are about to give your exams!!! So I asked Deepseek (the chinese AI) to recommend me some chinese historical drama. It recommended a bunch of dramas. This one looked the most promising and had stellar reviews on MDL.This is a very enjoyable drama. We follow Zhen Huan as she enters the forbidden city and rises to become an empress. The first few episodes are just her getting used to the palace. We are also introduced to other concubines. And we slowly get a taste of palace politics and, boy, the politics are BRUTAL!! But Huan is smart. She learns and finds better ways to protect herself. What I liked was this drama doesn't let you catch your breath. It's plot twist after plot twist. Over the course of 76 episodes, I cried, laughed and worried.
The characters are also so different !! Noble consort Ning she is evil, but she didn't hide. And that evilness was also due to the palace having to share your love with dozens of women is hard. I was always contemplating, is this character actually bad, or is she just trying to survive?! Although we cannot forget the fact that whatever the concubines did, it was out of choice and, as huan says, 'every action has consequences'. Obviously, Zhen huan is my favorite character!!! She was just trying to have a normal relationship with the emperor. And the emperor and other concubines did not let her do so. The emperor is truly a different story, but I think somewhere he seems to represent all the other kings. The insecurity, suspicion,weight of wearing the crown. But this emperor annoyed me quite frequently. He was great at finding plots at a national level, but in his own harem his concubines easily fooled him. And dare I say WOMEN are the best strategisers. I mean, if you look back at all the plots and schemes, they should be part of the court to help the emperor and his ministers!!!! Still, I could understand the antagontists' motivations and hated them for it!!
Zhen Huan's life was full of drama, which was a delight to watch!! This drama also gave detailed insight into the dynasty and I kid you not- I was reading about chinese harem before my i.t exam, so yeah, this was a compelling watch. I heard it is historically accurate and Zhen huan's character is based on a real concubine. I really hoped Zhen huan would get a happy ending with Yun Li, but it did not happen, alas. I LOVED THIS DRAMA. Go watch it now.
(P.S. please skip the start and end credits as they give major spoilers)
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Lackluster characters and boring script.
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.Was this review helpful to you?
Too long
I am a fan of long dramas but this one literally pulled at my insides. I felt drained. It felt as though I was in a plot but wasnt going anywhere. The story is good but couldn't it have been shorter? What's the use of a long drama that has some irrelevant scenes? Asides that, i really liked Concubine Zhen but i had to read up from a few reviews to see how it ended.The costume were beautifully made. The cruelty of the concubines hidden beneath their smiles was quite shocking but not unexpected. (Having all those women together and vying for one man is enough to turn one into a villain and stir jealousy and hatred)
The dialogues were too long. I mean...an episode could have ten scenes where dialogues went on and on and on.
They seemed to move around in circles too plus the parts i watched happened in the palace so, i got tired of seeing the same scenery, my head hurt.
The point where I stopped craving to watch the next episode, was an eye opener. I had watched enough.
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