War and Beauty (2004)

The Mother of All Concubine Scheming Palace Dramas

Truly a classic. I don't believe that Zhen Huan, Yanxi, and Ruyi deserve to be uttered in the same breath as this gem.

Maybe I'm exaggerating, but the last time I watched this in full was >10 years ago and I've seen quite a bit of palace dramas since. Nothing compares to just how wonderful the twists are here. At 30 episodes, the pacing is tight and I appreciate that it doesn't meander like the ultra-bloated aforementioned dramas. The emphasis on this drama is plot, plot, and more plot. This isn't 60 episodes of moving paintings like Yanxi or whatever. Just pure, scrumptious scheming and backstabbing.

Gigi Lai, Sheren Tang, and harem drama veteran Charmaine Sheh star as the archetypal pretty-and-spoiled neophyte, senior concubine villain, and sweet ingenue respectively. But do they really? W&B still has the best character writing among all the palace dramas I've seen across HK/Mainland/Korean dramas.

War and Beauty is genre-defining and a must-see for all palace drama enthusiasts

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This was such an intense drama honestly.

Story: This story was really good. There's a lot of rivalry in this and Gigi Lai's character is so desperate tbh. So basically to sum this story up, it's about concubines in the palace just battling each other to be the king's favorite. And then everything fails and falls apart.

Acting/Cast: Ok, Gigi's character is so annoying. Bowie Lam's character just pissed me off. Gigi basically used Bowie's love for her to promote herself and then in the end he still loves her and wants to die with her when she could careless about him like man really. So upsetting, but the actors themselves were phenomenal.

Music: Great music

Rewatch Value: Yes.

Overall: I recommend this drama to people who like historicals and want to watch these concubines pull evil tricks on each other. This drama did that quite well. Good portrayal of palace life as a concubine.

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