I am writing from Bucharest, Romania, a country which had its share of communist experience, hence my take on this movie is heavily influenced by it.
So, I believe this is another PCC request to which the movie industry had to abide, this time illustrating the PCC policy regarding the integration of the rural population into the cities, Shanghari to be exact.
As in other movies set in the present times that I watched with great pleasure, the writer and the director do a stellar job with getting past cernsorship ideas I could not believe were possible to air.
Yes, the main protagonists are two female characters: one is the Shanghai born, financially succesful bitch, while the other is her sister in law, the good girl from outside the city, who married into this Shanghai family which exploits her work with no sign of thanks or recognition.
However, as the story progresses, not so are the two female protagonists who, in spite of their trials and tribulations, prove in the end to stay as they were in the beginning.
The real gem is that this movie adds layers and layers of parallel stories, illustrating the same idea: that marriage, be it fake or for real, works as a main vehicle for assending to the coveted status of Shanghainite, with one of the parallel stories taking a more dramatic turn, very much like in John Braine's "Room at the Top".
The real bummer are the last 30 minutes or so in the last episode, when the writer and the director team rush towards an ending which is counter to the whole previous development. But I take it, if that is the price to pay to go past censorship the previous hundreds of minutes of sheer brutal realism.
The acting of the Chinese actors is so good, at no matter what size of the role, that it aches. One feels like wanting to die and be reincarnated into one of them.
Very good are the male actors Feng Shao Feng and Zhang Song Wen, who, in their supporting roles could have fallen off the horse, but managed not to. The first had a very challanging linear and somewhat clinically depressed character, while the other was in charge with providing the comic relief.
To both of them, cudos, for walking on such a narrow path and yet providing rounded and powerful characters.

Leggi di Più

A dark story of falling out of love

I am merely repeating what was already said by other reviwers: this is a dark story of falling out of love.
It was so dark and hearbreaking that from episode 70 or so onwards I could not stop from crying.
It is also beautifyully acted and produced.
2018 was definitely a superb year for Chinese cinematography, if we consider only this title, "The story of Yanxi Palace" and the "The story of Ming Lan".
It was interesting to watch how the same historical figures (Emperor Qianlong & Co) and the same palace scheming became the pretext, the backdrop for two very different stories.
And I do not mean that on the superficial level only, that is the good girl and the bad girl switching places in the "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" versus "The Story of Yanxi Palace".
I mean that "Ruyi's ..." is dark all around, taking you deeper and deeper into a despondent state, as despondent as the one the main female character was in.
While "Yanxi Palace" makes light of life's hardships, providing you with a sense of vindication each time the main female character (here is Lady Wei) achieves justice for her and others through sheer wits and clever scheming, all the while being in the underdog position. Comic relief proper is part of the script too, with the main male and female characters, but not only them, providing humorous lines or instances.
Case in point, for the very different treatment of the same facts: on a trip down South, the Emperor Qianlong indulges in entertainment provided by prostitutes.
The dark "Ruyi's ..." treats this as the ultimate downfall, with the good girl Ruyi kicking out the prostitutes and confronting the Emperor with cutting a string of her hair, to make final her decision to separate from him as her husband.
Whereas the lighthearted "Yanxi Palace" had Lady Wei (here she is the good girl) joking about the incident and suggesting that as the Emperor was entitled to enjoy the company of beautiful young women, so she and the other concubines were entitled to enjoy the company of beautiful young males, so she asked for more eunucs for her palace. This made the Emperor clear the room of prostitutes himself, in frustration at the ideas Lady Wei put in front of him.
However, there is one major difference between "Ruyi's ...", on the one side, and "Yanxi Palace" and "The Story of Ming Lan", on the other side.
The first one is a sound story, well written, perfectly cast and superbely acted.
And yet, there is room for only one charcter development: the Emperor emerges as the only one who shifts gears and thus is the main cause for all the drama.
Whereas the second and the third productions are perfect all around, meaning that the character and story development does not stop at one, allowing for multiple stories and characters to converge onto the main storyline, thus making both these productions richer in context, heavier in meaning.
Anyway, a joy to watch and re watch all three of them.
I hope you would enjoy them as much as I did.

Leggi di Più

Very underwhelming

I got here, at this series, because I followed the work of both leads in the 2018 production of the "Story of Yanxi Palace". That was a gem and a reference point to me, when it comes to Chinese dramas at their best.
This is why I was shocked to see the lack of chemistry between two actors who played being in love before, albeit a doomed love, in the "Story of Yanxi Palace".
Also, the lead actress did not really look like her former self not only in terms of acting, but also in terms of physical appearence. She did not look older, but different. And that was strange.
The story line sometimes feeled like in a stop and go movement, and overall I kept on going till the last episode just hoping that I will be proven wrong in all my negative assessments.
I was not.

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Most underwhelming series, after The Story of Minglan

This one and The Story of Minglan, of 2018, have the same original author. However, what a huge difference screenwriters and directors make ... The Story of Minglan was a rich tapestry of characters and story lines that put that production in a class of its own. Superb! 'while this Love like the Galaxy, of 2022, was one is a pain to watch. Other than superb acting, everything was underwhelming. Soooo, so lacking. Sooo, so schematic that it was painful to watch the poor actors delivering so well on skinny characters which had nothing to deliver other than cheesy monologues; horibile sound track, with tunes which sounded like free downloads from the Internet, and the list can go on. I give a ten for perfect make up. And a 20, again, to the wonderful Chinese actos. But other than that: a pain to watch and see what botched job poor screenwriters and directors can do from work originally created by a very good writer.

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Perfection

I am done seeing all 30 episodes and I have to praise its absolute perfection. Never had I imagined that I would sit at the edge of my seat to watch a ship pass through a channel in slow motion, as it happened in episode 29. All the production team was superb, and I was very glad to recognize actors Yu He Wei (here policeman Shi Qiang) and Edward Zhang (here scientist Wang Miao), whom I have seen before.
I first saw both of them in two outstanding epic movies dealing with Chinese history.
I saw Yu Hu Wei as Liu Bei, in the 2010 masterpiece production of "Three Kingdoms", and Edward Zhang, as Ying Zheng or the first emperor of all China, in the 2020 production of "Qin Dinasty Epic".
So, it is quite a leap from history renditions to the SciFi genre, but boy, what a leap both actors have made! Cudos!

Leggi di Più

An absolute delight

This is such a beautifully crafted piece of cinema. It leaves you with the fuzzy warm feeling of touching your heart, after having done a lot of laughing and a bit of crying. It is a well balanced story, that leaves room for proper development to all characters. Like in all good Chinese films, there is no clear line between what a "main role" and a "support role" are. The whole cast moves the story forward like the fingers move forward into a whole hand to deliver the strike.
The only problem I could see was a technical one, and it had to do with the sound, which started to collapse in some parts, in the latter episodes. I hope that problem is easily fixable.
I came here, to see this title, lured by the names of actors Lui Lin, Yang Hao Yu and Chang Long.
They all held so called support roles in productions I have seen before, but delivered such outstanding performances, in similar outstanding surroundings of professionalism, that I could do nothing but stop by and see what they are at right now.
They did not dissapoint one bit.
Lui Lin was a stunner in "The Story of Minglan", of 2018, and "The Long Season", of 2023. Yang Hao Yu equally delivered to the hilt as in the "I will find you a better home", of 2020, while Chang Long balanced wisely comedy and drama in his character, as he did in the "New Life Begins", of 2022.
I highly recommend all of the above titles for you to see.
Cudos to all the people working for this beautiful production.

Leggi di Più

Lovely movie, of the fantasy genre, where the beast is she, the female/vixen/actual fox, and the beauty is he, that is well, just a man.
Lovely performance of Feng Shao Feng (who played the epic male role in “The Story of Minglan”, as well as the dramtic role in “Life is a long quiet river”). This actor is unafraid to show his skinny naked self if it is to go for comedic effect.
A joy to watch indeed.
Still, while laughing my head off I kept feeling a bit uneasy about the switcheroo of the sex of the main characters. I mean, really? A female who is a vixen, a fox? How lame is that? To fall on an ages old preconception, across all cultures, that is. However, I could not stay long concerning myself with women portraied in a stereotype manner. I was too busy laughing.
Cudos!

Leggi di Più

An absolute masterpiece, here to last

I watched this series for the first time in 2024. As I am hooked for the past two years or so to binge watching Chinese dramas, I have to say that this 14 year old series is the absolute best. It lands on you like a ton of bricks. Perfection, perfection, perfection! Naming a few would not do justice to the rest, who moved as one to deliver this story. Superb work went into the translation too. That did justice to the scriptwriter and to the actors delivering the lines, because it let us, the non Chinese, fully enjoy this masterpiece too. I saw comments from people yearning for more, and hoping for remakes. That would not do. A masterpiece is a masterpiece. One cannot conceive of a second "Casablanca", or a second "Rashomon". One can only watch the original, again and again and again.

Leggi di Più

Outstanding on all levels

Outstanding acting, and story and character development. There are no small roles in this series. The actors make them big. Really! Shocked to see that communist China is a place of cut throat competitiveness and survival of the fittest game. How did it get past censorship? The sweet tones, the humorous lines or characters cannot erase the brutal reality exposed: having a home in Shanghai is a big deal, sometimes unattainable, or attainable at the cost of trampling over other people's lives. Also intertwined with the personal history of the two protagonists is the question of being filial to the point of being bullied by one's own family. Again: outstanding work and an eye opener for someone like me, living outside of the Chinese culture.

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