* Story :
This is the story of the first Empress Dowager of Chinese history.
This is a story which takes place before the beginning of the Qin dynasty.
You are following Miyue, a princess who was told to be in the future the one who will impact greatly on the country. She's has a very strong personality, despite her mother having no social status and was only a servant of another concubine. Miyue and her sister Mishu, the oldest daughter, and the daughter of the queen. Despite their social statues are as different as a lion is different compared to a cat, they have really good and close sister relationship.
They grow up, they fall in love, they slowly change, they became enemies.
It's a love and hate story.
But it is also the story of Miyue, of how, a princess like her, grew up to be the first Empress Dowager of Chinese history, and how she established strong foundation to the unification of China for the later Qin dynasty.

I see 3 parts in this story:
1/ Miyue as a Princess, as a big sister, and as a teenage girl with her first love.
You will watch her grow up in a very difficult environment despite her being a princess, how she's going to keep herself real and virtuous, and how she starts to spent her time on knowledge, how she's teaching her younger brothers to be a good man when they grow up etc.
2/ Miyue as a servant of the future Queen of the Qin country, her older sister Mishu, then as a concubine of the Qin King, and how this king will impact on her greatly.
I won't say much, but this part is really important for Miyue : she's had a strong personality when she was young, but with him, she's going to have more and more ambition and quit being a teenage princess but slowly step by step, becoming an intelligent woman.
It's also a part where you see how Mishu is changing because of her selfishness, also because of her misunderstanding, because she's also a mother, and how these sisters are slowly distancing themselves from each other.
3/ Miyue as a responsible mother, then as a political leader + her 3rd love story.
To put it shortly, you're going to see how Miyue try to reach her ideals and how she's going to sacrifice herself for the country.

/! what is good in this drama, it is also that the script took a lot of fact of the real history :)

* Acting / Cast :
Nothing to say, perfect.
Betty Sun improved so much, she was not acting Miyue, she WAS Miyue.
Big up to MaSu, to LiuTao and to Fong Alex, who impressed me with their acting skills! They were great really...

* Music :
Well, the music disappointed me...
speaking the music only, it was not that good, and i think it did not match the drama.
like the music in the legend of zhenhuan were a perfect marriage with the drama
but here i want the music and the drama to divorce, and ask LiuHuan to create another music, and ask Liu Lianzi from the heaven to sing one more time.
But the music with the instrument that Miyue is often playing is really good.

* Rewatch value :
well it's a very long drama, but if you ever have free time, definitely recommending to rewatch this drama :D

* Overall :

minus 0.5 for the music. it is not horrible, it is in reality very pleasant to hear, but i just NOOOOOoooooOOOOOOO these musics because it doesn't match at all the drama.

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I will make it short. If you are ever interested in a Mulan like type of strong willed girl in the Chinese history, this is for you. Those two are the symbols of strong women in the Chinese history, even tho they both have more an legend like existence.

What I love, is how this strong and skillful girl is portrayed. She can be called a feminist of her time, but she's not portrayed as what we called "femnazi". She's not portrayed as a genius strategic type warrior only, but also as daughter, as a wife, as a young girl with a big heart.

I would like to add that the strategic battles in this show are awesome haha.

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* Story : The book itself is well written. How the story is narrate, how the characters are speaking, everything portray very well the beauty of Chinese language. You can feel everything : hopes, happiness, sadness, desperation, revenge, regrets, loneliness. This story is rich in emotions, and the rhythms is well controlled.
Every single characters are important, even though they won't appear as much as the main. The main is the main, only because she's the one telling her story. They are very humane. They are not entirely good, and they are not entirely bad. They all evolves in a certain way, and they are all only just people being trapped in a very conservative society. Their hope, their wishes, all broken down one by one, for the sake of their family or for their own sake.

* Acting/Cast : They don't try to be someone else, they are the character. It's like they are just telling their own story, not someone else's. You can feel someone's pain, you can understand someone's sadness, you can feel someone's happiness, thanks to the actors.
I would like to add how the drama itself is very well produced. How they adapted the story from the novel, the costumes, the traditions are all very close to the reality. It looks real? No, it's real. They've done a lot of research to be as close as possible to the reality. One of the actors, Zhang Xiao Long, is a teacher of Qing dynasty's traditions : how to bow down, how to speak, how to behave, how to eat, how to drink, everything single details are close to the reality.

* Music : The musics are all very good, and have all the "traditional" feeling without the "old fashioned" sense. it's well chosen, well done, and it's a part of the story as well. The music portray another type of Chinese traditional beauty.

* Rewatch Value : Believe me, I've watched a lot of historical Chinese drama since I was little. And none of them are as good as this one. This drama is god like. I've read the book, plenty of times, and I've watched the show countless time. You cannot get tired of this show.
But for the people who are not used to Chinese historical drama, or don't know much about Chinese culture, it may be very difficult. Even for those who are not able to understand the "old" Chinese way of speaking, you will not be able to understand the whole beauty of it. But I believe you will still enjoy the show!

* Overall : If you have other historical dramas to watch, watch them first. See the god like historical drama at last. Ever since I've watched this show, there's no way I can enjoy other drama as much as when I was watching or reading Empresses in the Palace... Like for real.

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