I have just finished watching the TVB series (Curse of the Royal Harem) that has came to a conclusion yesterday night with showing of final two episodes. I like drama that revolves on the theme of ancient palace rivalry between the concubines involving the empress, like what been seen in dramas earlier like War and Beauty, Beyond the Realm of Conscience and this one, Curse of the Royal Harem. There are three main characters from this drama that gets involved in the rivalry, namely Yuen Yuen (Myolie Wu), Yi Lan (Jessica Hsuan) and Qing Yue (Nancy Wu). Of course, there are other concubines, but they have only very minor roles in the drama and so not much tricks can be seen from the others.
Yuen Yuen at first becomes the empress and hold the highest position among all the wives that the emperor has. Due to the jealousy towards Yi Lan that received much more attention and love from the emperor (Sunny Chan) that granted her to become the top and most favourite concubine, just a rank below the empress, Yuen Yuen alongside with her mother had many evil plans, which some succeeded and some failed. Finally, Yuen Yuen is overthrown, and Yi Lan is crowned as empress whom at first was a kind woman turned into a woman with bad heart due to the experience she had in the palace rivalry. Qing Yue is actually the most evil, whom at first was only a maid, turned into a concubine after many dirty tactics used, but died at the end on the hand of Yi Lan.
This drama obviously puts aside the male characters, as this focuses mainly on palace rivalry. The emperor appears to be helpless and ‘blinded’ by all the deeds by his wives. However, there are still quite a huge portion allocated for the men, on the administration and corruption issue which I’m not so interested in. Actually, I have nothing much to comment on this drama that is not being done to its best obviously. Lack of attention is given to the final episodes which are supposed to be very exciting, filled with heart-stopping moments! But not at all in reality! I had a high expectation for this drama at first, but then the ending definitely disappointed me! It doesn’t even looks like an ending for me! Yeah, the ending looks weird, one of its kind, but then is too normal, too bad to end a drama that is supposed to be dramatic!
I love the beginning and the middle parts of the drama. TVB informed us that it has 30 episodes, but turned out having only 29 episodes! What’s wrong? Hmm…The drama still lacks many things, many interesting aspects that already can be observed from previous dramas on the similar theme. However, I do like the performance by the main casts and even the supporting casts. Eventhough I see that Myolie still doesn’t perform to the best on her character, but I think she tried her best, and I can see it. It’s also considered a breakthrough for her. While for Jessica Hsuan, I find there is nothing interesting on her character from the beginning till the end of the drama, eventhough there is a sudden upside-down change to her personality. Nancy Wu did a good job here. Anyway, Myolie Wu still outshines many others…
This drama really disappointed me! This theme of palace rivalry can be presented in many brilliant ways, and this drama only achieves 50% of it, which is a bit wasted. It has a very good potential, but then everything turned wrong, looking on how the story is being treated and dragged, from sudden excitement or climax build-up to sudden settlement to a much calmer and boring moments. Anyway, I do like the costumes and the set up for the setting of the scenes appearing like being inside the palace. There is effort there, but just don’t reach to a good point. Too bad…out of 10 points, I can only give this one 6.8.
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