Reviews

Love the chemistry but the plot kinda confusing??‍♀️❤️

The story between the king and Jiyeong is sooo sweet and romantic! Especially the way he looks at her and how he quietly cares for her 😭❤️ so many feels!

But honestly, the plot focused too much on food , too many cooking scenes until the palace part and main story got buried. The pacing was also too rushed, so some scenes felt unfinished.

And seriously, how did the king suddenly appear in the future?! 😭 One moment he's in Joseon, then he's at Jiyeong's restaurant in that black coat looking all handsome 😭🔥Why only he remembers the past while the other chefs or his friends from the Joseon kitchen don't?? So many questions left hanging!

Still, I loved their chemistry .. it's cute, emotional, and the visuals are beautiful 💕🍲
I just hope the mystery of how the king and Jiyeong's friends came back to the future will be explained someday 😭✨

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Empresses in the Palace: “Survival Beneath the Golden Roof”

🏯 This is the longest chinese drama i have ever watched. From start to finish I felt stress—yes, stress, stress, and more stress—but also fascination. At the same time I found it absolutely a masterpiece. Here’s my full take, in the way I experienced it.

🧡 The protagonist, Zhen Huan, starts off as a young, kind, somewhat naïve girl from a noble family (the Eight Banners) who enters the imperial harem as a first-class attendant. That arc—innocence → survival → power—is deeply compelling..

The production, costumes, set design—all of it lifts you into that world. But the glamour is deceptive: under it lies a grinding system of survival and politics.

The moral and emotional weight of what’s depicted. The drama doesn’t spare you the darker sides of palace life: power, manipulation, forced intimacy, substitution, sacrifice. The series ends with Zhen Huan in the role of empress dowager, but even that is tinged with the cost she paid to get there.

⚠️What troubled me (and why I felt so uneasy)

💔Before watching this drama a long time ago, I had already studied abt something abt Chinese history. Historical practices that are deeply uncomfortable by today’s standards. And I have to accept and watch a lot of disgusting things.For example: girls married young, often for status or power rather than love. The emperor having many concubines. The idea of “service” in the harem meaning seduction and submission as part of politics. Seeing those made me cringe and think “what the hell”.

💔The relationships are not what I expected when I went in hoping for romance in the usual sense. The ML-FL (male lead / female lead) romance is twisted by context: duty, power, fear, surveillance. It’s not simple or reassuring. Instead it often becomes a tool, a trap, or a burden. That made me uneasy because I like “sweet” romance; here I got something else entirely.

💔The so-called sisterhood and loyalty among the women in the harem: they calling each other sisters, yet turning murderous, plotting one another’s downfall. That hypocrisy, that betrayal, made my blood boil. Because on one level they perform “we are serving his majesty”, yet the energy under the surface is survival, competition, fear. That duality made me angry and anxious.

💔The insidious nature of power. You see characters who have nothing, striving, scheming. Others who have status, scrambling to keep it. The stakes feel constant, sometimes crushing.

🔥Why I Loved It (Despite—or Because of—the Stress)

💫I felt immersed. Because I was constantly on edge: What will happen next? Who will fall? Who will survive? That tension is intense; it means I was actively engaged, not passively watching.

💫I respected the narrative honesty. It didn’t pretend the palace was glamorous in a harmless way. It showed the cost—every victory, every favour, every shift in status came with danger.

💫I appreciated how Zhen Huan grows. It’s one thing watching a kind girl become hardened. It’s another watching HOW: through betrayal, loss, scheming, survival. That path felt real. I found myself rooting for her, even when I questioned her choices.

💫The show made me think. About history, about gender, about power. For instance, academics note that the show navigates how women in the Qing-era harem had little choice, yet even within those constraints they tried to assert agency—and often paid a heavy price.

💫Because I felt the discomfort—the marriage of young girls, the illicit relationships, the service disguised as subservience—I also felt the stakes of the show’s critique. It is not celebration of that world; it is exposition. I may not have liked everything I saw, but I felt the weight of it and in that weight lies its greatness.

🎯 Final Verdict

If I were to summarise: Empresses in the Palace is not an easy watch. It is long. It demands attention. It makes you feel uneasy. It forces you to watch characters trapped in systems bigger than themselves, making painful choices. But that is also why it is masterful. Because it doesn’t sugar-coat, it doesn’t simplify, and it keeps you in the tension until the very end.

🧩So from my perspective:

✅Did I love it? Yes.

✅Was I comfortable throughout? No, If I was a heart patient, I would be hospitalized.

✅Would I recommend it? Absolutely—with this caveat: go in expecting drama with weight, not easy romance.

✅Will it stay with me? Definitely—many scenes and feelings already linger.

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A pure gem

This drama was just perfect! A great combination of love, pain, jealousy, manipulation. I looked foreward to every episode and everytime a week was way too long, lucky for us there were 2 episodes a week. But on the other side i wished it was 1 episode a week, so we could have enjoyed this beautiful series a lot longer.
I cried, laughed, swooned, it had all the components for a perfect drama.

The acting was great, visuals stunning and beautiful music.
The dynamics between the 3 leads were amazing! The chemistry between Pearl and Peak so good!
The kissing scene's were beautiful and the kisses good.

Really a must see, you won't be dissapointed.

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not much as s1 & s2 make

first of all, i've lost count on how many times usagi called arisu and almost lost her voice. Anyways, the story didn't give much justice to the cast—yes, they made it to the borderline again, because?? not enough reason or flashback. they didn't even put enough screen time for the characters to have any emotions or reactions for that. no flashback for them just a quick recap of what their future will be at the screen. I wanted to know why did they choose to go back to the bordeline. I have a theory but a theory is just a null basis if there's no proof or proven in the series. AND THERE'S NO KISSING SCENE!! LACK OF INTIMACY ON BOTH CHARACTERS! YOU'RE MARRIED WHY AREN'T YOU KISSING?! (kentao just came back and it made me hungry for their romance) JSISHSISUS I LOVE THE OG CAST APPEARED FOR CONSULTATION. YES! I'M GONNA MISS Y'ALL!!!

PS. WHY DO THEY NEED TO WESTERNISED EVERYTHING?!?!?!? be making everything about them....

PPS. lmao such a main character syndrome.

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I'll Be Asking My Grandparents About Our Ancestors Incase I Will Also Time Travel Hahaha

Wang Ying Lu is my second favorite c-actress before Chen Du Ling and damn, her drama is always my comfort drama and dare I say that she is busy so busy promoting her 2025 drama's wahaha.
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‎When I saw this, I thought it was so funny since her 2025 drama's is almost all time travel hahaha and this one was so different from the other drama since the whole family is the one traveling instead of her only like any other drama.
‎The first episode was so hilarious that I expected, and they are so unserious at the same time and also I didn't expect how long the episode will be before they will get together and how short when they are together like "😵" but that's fine because that's also the reason I'm staying till the end.
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‎Now let's talk about about the characters, cause damn this may be long like essay thing cause I like them all and I will give a damn opinion in every one of them.
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‎SHEN SHAO GUANG - She is the smartest yet sometimes the one who is hurt the most. I love her personality and dedication and I love/hate how she resist herself from falling inlove with Lin Yan because of that thought. I know many of you kind of hate her at that time but I'm not because if it's me, I would do the same. But after that, she is the most sweetest to be in the relationship.
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‎LIN YAN - The man you are! I just feel sad about him when they tell him that they are lying to him but he can't resist himself to protect them because they are the one who literally the one who give him the love of parents and feel to have a family again, even if he got adopted, he was so hurt after realizing the truth of the case, but his dedication to break the rules of romance just to be together with A Ji is so heart warming (before they knew the truth).
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‎SHEN SHAO JIE - Damn I think he is my favorite among all, he's so funny and even though he is the last to improve in the family, still he loves his family specially his child and he'd do anything to give her what she wants and that was so father code. Let me be for real, he's like my father and even though he doesn't like to express his love through word but he is so proud and supportive at us his child.
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‎SHEN JIAN SHE - I also like him but this is not that much, he and Shao Jie is so canon with that "✌️" code of them wahahaha. Sometimes he kind of pisses me off because of "Great chief in Yong An" but he really love his wife and family, it just that he is hardly understanding the situation.
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‎LI FENG XIA - Sweetest mother and how I love how she comforted A Ji the time she is hurting herself and she always the one who is always worried in every family members. Mother
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‎SHEN YANG YANG - I really love how she rangebait her father so hard that's like she really knows him and even his that personality, she is still proud of him.
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‎A YUAN - New member of the family!!! She is so loyal to them yet at the end I don't see her, just hope she doesn't go to Yun Lai Tavern, she's pitiful enough.
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‎LIU CHANG - Favorite subordinate and bridge on the relationship of A Ji And Anran. Uhmm new crush unlock wahahha
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‎PEI FEI - Okay, I thought he is a villain because when he becomes Lin Yan friend so easily, but he is my second favorite character here, he's so unpredictable like that 2 plot twist I didn't even think about back when I was watching the drama. I also feel sad about him because of his love story, and I understand him, it's like what he said that she is Deity while he is just a commoner but I just want to know who is his wife after all.
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‎FU HUI - I love when I see princess that is so kind and you will ask yourself if it is a disguise. It's so funny when she is so worried that his husband will wake up hahahaha, that's loyalty (iykyk).
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‎I actually have something to say to someone but it's getting more long.
‎But even if this drama ended quiet 50/50 sad/happy, I still have more questions.
‎Where did A Yuan And Li San go, Who is Pei Fei's wife, How did they retrieve the picture or did they think that Lin Yan is crazy when he said he has a wife, with that painting when they doesn't remember Shen Shao Guang.
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‎But the ending is so different that other that just stare, and finally a good one but still, I really hate the fact that Shao Guang will fell Inlove to Lin Yan (modern) because he is the one who has the consciousness of Lin Yan back then but Lin Yan will live his life with only 1 wife, and that's Shao Guang.
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‎It's so good even though the episode of them being together was too short, but still I love this drama.
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‎I dare say, I like this time travel more than "When Destiny Brings The Demon" even though I ranked it higher that this. So It's HIGHLY RECOMMENDABLE!!!!
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Justice and Love After so Many Pains

I love this drama. The FL suffered 6th rebirth suffering from death of family and herself being tortured by the evil villain yet she fought again and again until finally she met the ML who helped her rise and be victorious. The ML himself suffered a lot but the two of them remain good, loving and wonderful persons.
The ML is so handsome and so manly and so dignified. His love of the FL is so pure and so praiseworthy. The FL is so beautiful and had suffered so much but remained just and good.
The 2ML, the evil villain is so psycho. He is terrifying. His acting is very intense. Deserves praise for the great acting.
I'm glad that the leads gained justice not by killing the family of the enemies by massacre but by clever planning and just executions.
This story is highly recommendable.

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SANG YAN AND YIFAN IS TOO GOOD TO BE MISSED

One thing i can say this drama truly masterpiece. really like the story between sang yan and yifan and how yifan is soo lucky to has sang yan with her. She maybe feel she not worthy to get love but she deserve it. i crying along with yifan and ruonan so gorgeous especially when she crying. Never though she can act very well and yifan is just for her. She lived up yifan very well.

BJT as Sang yan is truly amazing and how he pull off the role very well. BJT should act for more modern drama, he suited this kingd of drama.

OST for this drama soo good. I usually did not really enjoying chinese drama OST but this one not. It soo nice to hear.

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