Palace: The Lock Heart Jade (2011)

Chinese dramas are often neglected in this whole kdrama wave. But this one really deserves attention.

I have to admit 39 episodes are somewhat of a challenge. But after ep1 the director made very efficient use of cliffhangers. Hence, you'll just watch on and on and the 39 episodes just fly by!

Story: A beautiful Chinese time traveller story. Qing Chuan gets zapped back to the Qing dynasty. And we follow her meet the great Emperor and his numerous sons. The story is full of love, hate, revenge, intrigue!

While the emperor's sons struggle for favour in court and for the position of crowned prince Qing Chuan is right in the middle of it all.

I loved how all the Princes were portrayed with different characteristics, worries, goals, dreams, faults. Over the course of 39 episodes there was room enough to develop every character. And while we start out hating some and liking others, the story convincingly takes us to other perspectives, different problems and we may just change our minds about some of them or at least find it harder to judge them in terms of black and white.

The actors were doing a great job. Every single one of them did a brilliant job. Yang Mi (Qing Chuan) was probably my favourite character. She was able to portray Qing Chuan so well with all her different facets.

Feng William and He Mickey were just unbelievable. Playing the two may male leads (8th and 4th prince) they excelled at playing intrigue, ambition, hate, cruelty, love, cold heartedness, softheartedness ... the whole range really.

But the Royal Consorts, Princes, Ministers, Eunuchs, Palace maids ... deserve merit as well. This drama was huge. Not just cast wise. But also as far as locations and sets were concerned and the costumes were so detailed and beautiful. The directors and producers put a lot of effort into this drama and the result truly reflects the passion they must have had making this series.

Sometimes the scipt was just a bit lengthy. And the intrigue was getting slightly out of control. In some episodes you can really feel the artificiality of the script. With the Qing Chuan Doppelgaenger, I really feel that was not a necessary episode.

Anyhow I thought all the tiny side stories of some characters were well interwoven with the plot and made the whole drama richer and more complete.

This was my first Chinese historical drama and I had to get used to the difference after being used to historical k dramas. All in all I think i like chinese traditional clothes better than the korean but that hair ornamentation... phew must have been really heavy. I also liked that the females here were all far away from being silly, naive and spoiled. They were all very believable characters.

A must watch for every one who enjoys historical dramas!!!

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I have no idea why I thought this drama was going to be a Chinese version of “Goong” one of my fav manwha turned drama. This really reminded me of Inuyasha, maybe a little romeo and Juliet. Anyway this a really pleasant historical treat. As you have already read the synopsis, this drama is packed with plotting (come on the are in a palace), love triangles, misunderstandings and trickery.
The working theory is that this chick goes back in time, inuyasha style, bringing modern ideas and a knowledge of how history will play out. I really enjoyed how the main female lead was head strong the whole time, and how she was inventive. I also really liked how it showed the two main characters loving each other and spending time together. This is one of the very first times I have ever seen a lead couple trust and be completely honest with each other- I thought it was wonderful. Get ready for a lot of overacting, fake laughter, bad hair pieces, backstabbing and just melodrama. The acting was poor for most characters but the main actors seemed to nail it.
No matter how much I liked the leading couple the plots were essentially the same as all other historical dramas. The palace maids are shady, the eunuchs need bribing and all of the concubines are scheming to get their kids ahead of the rest. The female lead kind of got annoying with her flawless trust in everyone who shook her hand getting her into situations where she nearly dies. I mean really how many times can you fall for the same tricks?
At anyrate this drama is long but it has some cool fights, and keeps you interested because it seems to move at a good pace. I only really had to skip 4 episodes and it had a really good ending that makes you want to know more. There is a lot of romance and not a lot of comedy, but it wasn’t very dark themed. Take some time and watch when you have a chance.
p.s. the lip syncing on all of the songs was just God awful- i mean really!!?
p.p.s. the fighting was really fake looking too.

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Have you seen Scarlet Heart (BBJX) and want to watch something similar? This isn't it! Palace: The Lock Heart Jade has the exact same plot but the genre leans more towards comedy than BBJX and gives this series a completely different feel. If you want stellar writing, brilliant performances, and an unforgettable story full of love and betrayals... watch BBJX. BUT if you've had your fill of melos and want a fun, historical Chinese drama with a plot that's comfortable that you can marathon on a lazy weekend, then please give Palace a try.

Story: Modern day girl time travels to the era of Emperor Kang Xi of the Qing dynasty and finds herself in a love triangle with the 4th and 8th brothers in line for the throne. Its nothing new as far as the historical dramas I've seen, but there is such a light feel to how everything unfolds (for the most part) that I don''t think I'll get tired of it anytime soon.

Acting/Cast: I didn't find any of the characters particularly annoying as far as the acting choices go. I know some people (especially after watching BBJX) think that the acting is way over the top and uninspiring, but I enjoyed it.

Music: Solid

Retch Value: Sure. If you enjoyed it the first time around, then watching it again (and skipping some more boring parts) isn't unheard of.

Overall: I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to others, but you have to be in the right mindset to watch it. Palace is simply a fun, weekend drama. Nothing more. I wish it had a better score but it can't help but be compared to Scarlet Heart, so it will always be inferior in that way. But given a chance to stand on its own I think more people would enjoy it and rate it a bit higher.

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Scarlet Heart meets Meteor Garden

This is one of my favorite dramas ever. It follows the same story of Scarlet Heart with the girl time traveling back to the Qing Dynasty and getting entangled with the princes and palace intrigue. Mixed into the story are plot pieces pulled clearly right from Meteor Garden. Some of the princes make up the "F4".

The overall story is good and kept me interested. It can be silly and goofy at times but I find it enjoyable. There is one area around I want to say episode 10 where they send the female lead to take care of a tomb and that part is kind of dumb and I just skip it during rewatches. I have rewatched this drama at least 2 times. When I finished this drama I was depressed and in a show hole for months!

The opening song was so good it just touches my soul. I do like some of the other songs too.

The cast is great and Yang Mi is my favorite Chinese actress (make sure to watch her in 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms and Legend of Fu Yao too!)

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This drama, hands down, has to be the most enjoyable one I’ve ever watched. So yes, this review may be a bit bias but understand that it really was a lot of fun to watch.
I have always had an issue with skipping ahead in dramas, wanting to cut scenes that were boring to me or didn’t have much going for them—but in Jade Heart, I ate up practically given to me!

Story: I did enjoy the story a lot, but disliked how sometimes it would grow to be somthing it wasn’t—but still, even if they sometimes leaned off of the plot it was still good. I am a sucker for time traveling dramas, which is the main reason I even watched this show. I enjoyed how Qing Chuan really did always want to go home, and when she began to fall for the Princes, she still knew it was wrong and tried to ignore the feelings. Unlike most dramas, were suddenly the herion forgets ALL about her time and the people she has to get back to, Qing desired to go. It was played beautifully throughout the show, and the dynamics of her growing attachment to the world around her was heart breaking in a Way. Speaking of heart break, this show in the beginning was incredibly silly. I mean, there were scenes were I would just stare as the actors do the most extra stuff on screen, but despite this there’s were still very intense moments. After a while, it became a full drama with giggles here and there, but to watch it grow from a “comedy” to a tear jerker as the episodes grew on felt real to me. As she’s continues to stay in the era, the history seeps in further. It was wonderfully written in!!! A dark dynasty, and the longer our H stayed, the more it began to show. Beautiful. Despite me loving this show I can admit there were sometimes I would stare at my TV and aloud scream WHY! Because there were plot points not needed. After watching tho, I found myself actually liking them because it just gave it such a melo drama feeling in a way, so you may watch them and wonder to yourself “why the f*** would they write this”, but if you’re like me you might end up liking it in the end

Acting/cast; GOD I LOVED Yang Mi as the H in this story. Her character started out childish and funny, and as the story progressed she did a wonderful job at bringing the pain and inner conflict to Qing. I wished she did stay that warm and delightful girl like in the first episodes, but it was what the plot needed to continue on. For her to be able to show that contrast was amazing. Both the 8th prince and the 4th prince were portrayed good by the actors, i wished the 8th prince was a bit more firm like his brother but it was understable how his character was written. I loved 4th prince the most, mostly because he was an obsessive monster who wanted our lead more than anything in the word. Males like that in dramas make me weak, and Mickey did a great job showing the feelings his character feld for H, and how in the beginning he refused them but in then end couldn’t stop. Other rolls were a bit obnoxious to me! Such as the emperors one consort and the empress. They were annoying to me, but not enough to have me skip each scene they were in. There were also the place bully’s as always, ya know the ones who are jealous and whiny because H gets everyone’s attention who really pissed me off because I just hate them

Music: I loved it. Always kept the mood, sounded lovely and dark when needed.

Rewatch: yes. In fact, as soon as I’m done writing this I’m going to start episode one again and probably spend the rest of my break watching it.

Costumes; beautiful to look at, as well as then sets.


Overall; I probably missed some things I’d like to say, but genuinely it’s such an amazing drama and one I will continue to admire most likely. Beautiful lead girl, some amusing scenes, a sad love triangle with an evil second male lead (my FAVORITE)...just—wonderful.


This is my first review on a show, and while it may not be my last, this show had me so pleased I couldn’t stop myself from picking up my phone and typing away. I felt like i reviewed it incorrectly and left out points I wanted to make but seriously I do recommend this show.

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Well I gave it 10/10 for overall because it's one of the best palace-related Chinese movie I have ever seen. If we are talking about romance movies for teen of course.

Excluded the false historical facts and some annoyingly illogical details, this drama was worth the praise. Every characters defined themselves clearly and made great impression. The ups and downs of the story kept making us curious, what will happen next, how will it end.

Of course the best thing about this drama is not the fight between the prince. It's the romantic factor that made us love this drama. The chemistry between two main characters is undeniable, they are made for each other in this drama. All the romantic scenes are so beautiful that you will wish you can become her ( the main character )

I would definitely rewatch this, as the whole movie from start-to-end satisfied me.

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This drama was really good concerning the story line. I know that I missed some parts b/c of probs w/ the links, but I got most of it. The ending was kinda abrupt and left me wanting more, but there are few dramas that satisfy me completely. The acting was ok; it could have been better, but I am not going to bitch about it b/c it got the job done. I actually really liked the music in the drama but wish that the translators would have not over shadowed the actual dialog for the lyrics. I had to go back and pause the show b/c the dialog flashed for like 2 sec then was gone b/c they were posting the song lyrics. There were many scenes that made me laugh. I enjoyed the seriousness of the drama as well. Having ur fate decided on the whim of an emotionally unstable person is very tiring I am sure. I enjoyed the future/past aspect of the story b/c I love stories that progress that way. It is like a "love lasts beyond time" kind of statement to the plot. Neways, I enjoy the drama even though it is not exactly perfect or everything that I wanted it to be. I am sure others will enjoy it also.

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I watched it only for Yang Mi and Feng Shao Feng, I repeat. Though watching these two is amazing, the story is a huge disappointment for me.Here are the reasons why;

1. Very Inconsistent writing
The scriptwriter doesn’t probably know what he is aiming. A friend, who is very close to heroine, is good a moment ago, then turns bad at another moment. And it seems like scriptwriter is doing everything possible to drag the story. I will give you a few example;
Su Yin- played by Tong Li Ya, firstly a very good friend to FL, then for stupid reasons that no one is able to accept, turns bad. And they never told us before that Su Yin was a skilled martial arts, then she is able to fight everyone at the mid-episodes.

Xiao Chun- another one who turns out to be a joke. First a very dumb one, but became really capable after Su Yin’s teaching , then became Nian Geng Yao and suddenly a general.

2.Nonlogical scenes
Some of the scenes don’t make sense, and seems like really a joke to me.
A woman who is recently out of labor, then gets up,travels a certain distance and is still so strong to reason with her husband.
ML timetravelled to the future- I’d be able to accept if he jumps to the wall and timetravelled but he suddenly disappeared under the sun? So ridiculous

3. Very poor sound system
They used so much BGM, which overshadowed the dialogue.

Overall
I still continue watching because I want to watch Yang Mi and FSF, Fastforwarded the last few episodes because I can’t stand anymore. The only positive thing is Yang Mi and FSF’s chemistry is on point.

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A 'Reader-inserted Fanfic with a Mary Sue surrounded by a reverse harem, Time Travel Theme' Drama

This drama is a masterpiece.
It was horrible in so many ways and yet I thoroughly enjoyed watching this drama and laughing at it. Truly, I had tears in my eyes.

Now, I'm not really sure what this show was hoping to accomplish since there was no plot, no message, no greater idea to take away from this experience other than, "What did I just watch?"
The FL was Qian- no, her name is Mary Sue.
Names don't really matter in this drama because the characters are just stereotypical tropes copied from a Shoujo rom-com manga that got popular due to toxic, unhealthy relationships with rich, powerful, and emotionally stunted attractive guys.

Anyway, Mary Sue is detached from reality in the present day and suffers from melancholy though nothing in her life seems troublesome, tiring, or threatening. She lives with her mom, they have a successful business to support them and pay for the large, fancy room that Mary Sue seems to call her bedroom and Mary Sue is even engaged to an attentive, business savvy, and considerate man. What is her problem? I don't know and I don't think the writers knew either. They just needed her to quickly adjust to being transported to the past all of a sudden so they can get on to the juicy bits: the romance!

So yeah, the romance.....is bad. All of her love options are horrible and she herself isn't likable at all. Throughout the drama, many characters suffer Character Assassination and they make a complete 180 at just about any moment in the drama. Mary Sue decides to endanger a pregnant woman and her unborn child for a political move to boost her beau (at the time) the 8th Prince to the throne.

My jaw dropped.

That happened often while watching this drama and not in a good way. I have never been so shocked, so many times while watching a drama of only 35 episodes. There were moments where all I can do in reaction to what was happening on the screen was to shake my head and repeat out loud, "Wow. Wow." There were SEVERAL attempts and actual, successive assaults and r**e throughout the drama. There was se**al coercion, child endangerment, child death, mass murder, sexism, misogyny, physical/emotional/mental abuse, domestic violence, and all-around deceit. By everyone. No one was innocent in this drama - except Mary Sue's mom. Poor lady. She was just a pawn in the bigger scheme of this train wreck. It's hard to say this went off the rails because there doesn't seem to be any end goal in this drama.

Not everything was bad in this drama. There were rare moments too. The acting isn't the problem. The actors did the best they could with the flat, dry source material called the script and screenwriting. The main couple was boring to watch though they provided the most comedy in the drama and that's due to the romance aspect. I found those moments hilarious because this drama, unfortunately, reminds me of 'Boys Over Flowers' and I hate that story. No, I'm not a fan of young, impressionable, and innocent girls falling in love with their bullies who happen to be rich and handsome. No thank you. This drama is the Ancient Chinese version of that story. The similarities hurt to look at really.

The show is either tone-deaf or delusion, I can't tell. (Could be both.) One moment the ML tells the FL lead that he wants to control everything about her after he makes a public display of jealousy and drags her away 'by the wrist' - the FL responds by laughing. LAUGHING! She tells him that he's cute and he reminds her of a little boy.

.....Excuse me? Does a boy - or really an overgrown child - throwing a tantrum sound attractive to you? It doesn't to me. Why is this in a drama that came out in 2011? Why is such a toxic portrayal of 'love/romance' present in a nationally popular drama in 2011? I'm confused about how it got popular other than its visuals. Both the actors, costume, and setting. The Foribben City is gorgeous as always. This drama was definitely beautiful to look at but thats' it though.

One scene was filmed pretty well, later on in the drama and the editing is much better to follow than some Cdramas that came out this year. The writing doesn't make the show make sense, but the editing makes it easy to know the total area and space where the actors are located and there's some type of attempt to keep a measurement of time since Mary Sue arrived in the past.

Which that scene in the first episode was hilarious to watch! Nothing realistic or convincing there's since a young, beautiful girl dropping into a brothel showcase in a thin, short dress in broad daylight is nothing big! She's perfectly safe, I'm sure!

Also, Mary Sue wanted to go back but 5 or 6 episodes in, she's forgotten her prior struggles and instead falls in love so nothing else matters after that. I was waiting for the laws of the universe to guide her into completing a certain mission she was destined to do OR for the universe to correct itself and remove her - a paradox - from the past. Never happened. The story of Consort Liang and how she saved the Emperor's sister from dying according to history but instead saving her erased her history altogether - that was a great moment. Flawless moment. There were finally repercussions to these Time Travelers' presence and actions.

However, Consort Liang goes back to her original timeline and Mary Sue stays because of love. Not her poor mother who is not doing well back at home. But anyway, the show must go on since there has to be a new Emperor before the show ends. it happens, it's anti-climatic and the 8th Prince gets a free ride to the future - even though the nine planets aligning is supposed to be an event that only happens every 14 years. Apparently, that was just a suggestion and the writers were just 'being creative' so the couple needed to be together.

One thing though, Consort Liang or Sun Yan should have been the FL for this story. They actually had some character arc to them though Sun Yan deserves better. I honestly feel like if Mary Sue hadn't dropped in with her Plot Armor and inability to do anything wrong - Sun Yan would have been the perfect person for the FL role.

This drama was a hot mess and I thoroughly enjoyed looking back at something from 10 years ago and seeing something way older and outdated than it should have been. 1.5/10, I only recommend if you watch it to laugh and not to take anything seriously.

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