Synopsis from Rakuten Viki -

A young woman who enters the royal palace with an agenda encounters kindness and opportunity.

Wei Ying Luo (Wu Jin Yan) enters the royal court of Hong Li, Qianlong Emperor (Nie Yuan), to uncover the truth behind her sister’s tragic death. She suspects the imperial guard Fucha Fu Heng (Xu Kai) and tries to get close to his sister, Empress Fucha Rong Yin (Qin Lan). Ying Luo manages to transfer to Changchun Palace to work as a maid. There, Ying Luo is mentored by the kind Rong Yin, who teaches Ying Luo to read and write, and she also falls in love with Fu Heng, Empress Fuca’s Young Brother.

Through a series of events, Ying Luo becomes the Emperor’s concubine; Consort Ling. Alongside other concubines like Consort Xian (Charmaine Sheh), can Ying Luo put her personal agenda aside to serve the Emperor?

The Drama

Who doesn’t love a story filled with intrigue drama, romance, humor, and suspense? A character despite its many flaws, compelling you to root for them. It is hard to find a drama like that.

The Story of Yanxi Palace, the C-drama, is exactly one of the rare ones. It will keep you guessing and keep you on your toes. It was released in 2018 and was the most googled show that year. I was not surprised to find this out when I googled it after watching it.

It is inspired by the life story of Emperor Qing Long and his harem. Yup, It's a harem drama. Pity I didn’t discover it until now.

I saw a clip on youtube and got intrigued by the relationship between the Emperor and his most favored Lingfei ( Consort Ling ). It turns out when I started watching. It is not much about their romance per se, but it is interesting to watch how they end up together and come to care about each other deeply.

However, my dear readers, be aware that was not always the case. His Majesty had almost given a decree to cut her head off more than a few times. It was sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes downright comical to watch how she ended up saving her head.

Wei Ying Luo ( Our main character/ Consort Ling ) is witty, head-strong, ruthless, with a soft heart and a cold exterior is a force to reckon with but her first entry into the forbidden city in the Qing Dynasty was not for career advancement but for revenge.

Wei Ying Luo, coming from a low servant caste, entered the Forbidden City as an embroidery maid under the reign of Emperor Qing Long to solve the mystery of her elder sister’s death and seek justice for her. Whether and how she succeeded and ended up becoming the Emperor’s most favored consort. I have no intention of spoiling it for you ( If you have not seen it yet ) but this is my review of it without spoiling it much.

A Overall Look

Some stories are deliciously complicated, starring flawed characters and telling you that life has never been easy for anyone, royal or commoner. Monsters are created in discontent; often the seemingly innocent character end up making horrible choices, and the most flawed character who are true to themselves and their cause end up being the best out of all. But it is hard to judge any of them.

In the Story of Yanxi Palace, from the servants to the Emperor, there are many faces to see and many circumstances to experience, with beautiful direction, acting, costume, and dialog this drama was after my own heart.

There is a comedy, drama, and romance, and somewhere in between every action circumstance is realistically shown ( not historically wise; just a life-likewise) with enough dramatic flare. I have find judging these characters sometimes tricky, and sometimes as white and black, and sometimes… alright every time I end up rooting for the Emperor, who sometime might have come out as a jerk, and I am not denying it but it is his lone moments and self-reflection that most of the time get to me, and of course, the moment he lost his all-dignified poised self and throw tantrum when it comes to Wei Ying Luo. ( Every single time, it's downright comical!)

This whole drama is, however, more than these two. The story is about harem politics and the women's lives in the forbidden city in that time period. Often politics is considered to be connected with power struggles and it is definitely about that. You would see a lot of plots, tragic endings, and powerful moments here, but what I gather from this drama, and definitely among women and how their lives are portrayed. It was mainly for self-preservation, women fighting, scheming, plotting, and downright being mean, sometimes unforgivably sinister for surviving and gaining power.

Every captivating drama needs all of that; it is the hero and in this case, our heroine ( Wei Ying Luo) that ends up captivating the audience with how she deals with all of it. it is the way she deals with all of this.

The Characters

Wei Ying Luo (Consort Ling)

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Wei Ying Luo/ Consort Ling Played by Wu Jin Yan

It has been truly an adventure to watch because Wei Ying Luo is not your standard good, kind-hearted, and yet strong heroine. She is the one with wit, a sharp tongue, and able to give the most sinister counterattack to her enemy; she is ready to deceive anyone for her personal agenda but she is also loyal to the fault of those who loved and protected her. She never supported injustice, but she also threw people into hell if they wronged her or the people she cared about.

Ying Luo is true to the people, she loves, to herself, and more than anything she is true to her enemies, and that was the most admiring thing I found in this drama. It is hard to find such an enjoyable character. This drama turned out exceptionally unique because of her. I was never sure what would come out next from her mouth. Granted, she truly had the protagonist halo; otherwise her head would have rolled to the ground too many times, ( It was not just the emperor who wanted her head off at first)

Emperor Qinglong

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Emperor Qing Long Played by Nie Yuan

The Emperor is by no means a noble character; he is petty, scheming, and bending rules as he wishes but in the end he also has a soft corner that ends up being probed and poked by Wei Ying Luo deliberately. He is, in spite of everything, is true to his duty as the King. He wishes to benevolent king, but he is fond of taking harsh measures when it comes to getting his point across.

Since the very first moment they met, the Emperor wanted to take her head off, funnily enough, because he could see through her clever face all this time, and yet, ironic enough, he is the one who fell the deepest (Though he never admitted it until the very end). He did jeopardize good things in her life a lot of times. (Subconsciously, I believe he was always attracted to her and ended up hurting her) and some characters had enough guts to confront him about that. ( Empress Fuca and Fuca Fu Heng )

Their Relationship

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Emperor Qing Long & Wei Ying Luo

Why their relationship worked or ended up being capitative was because they were the same kind of people, showing a mirror to each other. They are ruthless, petty, and do most things keeping in mind their self-interests but inside somewhere, there is a place in their hearts only known to them, where they fight to be selfless in their less than ideal circumstances of being who they were. One has power, the other has not, and one has a duty; the other has to survive.

There is not much in their romance in the beginning, but their few encounters are comical, and adorable, with a few exceptions of course. There were no flowery words or romantic gestures as Wei Ying Luo had her reason to accept being his consort at first; she developed feelings for him very later in the story ( though she too never directly admitted it ). Their relationship was straightforward in many ways, while they both yearned for more, and ended up getting it in the end from each other.

The last but not the least mentions

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Empress Fuca & Wei Ying Luo

I love how this drama played all the aspects of it with grace and kept me guessing about what will happen next; all the characters, have past, present, agendas, and depth, not portraying anyone too much of a heroic personality except one, Fuca Fu Heng but in the end, he too ends up doing mistake letting go Wei Ying Luo ( too much goodness, anyone heard of it? It apparently never ends well ) but I don’t think anyone would end up hating this guy and his sister, Empress Fuca. They were kind to the fault and had beautiful characters; they wanted simple things in life but got caught up in the crossfire of a power struggle.

I love the young love between Fuca Fu Heng & Ying Luo and felt wrong at first when they parted. What was the most admiring part of all of this was Ying Luo's loyalty to Empress Fuca till the end, and vice versa, it was beautiful. You rarely see this kind of character portrayal in dramas where several women are fighting for one man's attention.

So who has already seen it, tell me what your take is and your favorite character? Who do you think Wei Ying Luo should end up with, Fuca Fu Heng, or was it right that she ended up with the Emperor?

This drama is in no way a fairy tale, so be prepared, to laugh, cry and scowl at the sinister plots. It also has a short 6 Episode Sequel series - Yanxi Palace: The Princess Adventure. Which narrates the story of Princess Zhaohua, Consort Ling, and Emperor Qinglong's eldest daughter on Netflix. You see both of them as parents, and turns out, they are very dotting parents.

FYI

Find this drama at Rekuten Viki, in original Chinese audio with Subtitle or on Zee5 app in India in Hindi dubbed.