Monarch Industry

One of the best scripted Cdrama with a great production and cast performance. I liked how for once the excessive length of Chinese TV series did not go to waste, in that it is part of the flow and the timeline of this war for the throne and family politics epic. A monumental cast that includes moments of outstanding performance and some really genuine study characters; I liked the soundtrack and visuals that were well tuned and in sync with the storyline and everything else.

This one is Ziyi's first TV drama. Amazing acting as always! Lightning, shooting, background settings, costumes and art design are as excellent as best class movies. The art director for this drama is Yim Kam Tim who won Oscar for art design in film Crunching Tiger and Hidden Dragon. Cinematographer is Phillippe Le Sourd who was nominated for Oscar. Must try if you are interested in Chinese culture.

The plot is really impressive and the cast is totally appropriate with the characters. They talk about Zhang Ziyi's age a lot but to me, she perfectly reincarnates Wang Xuan and she looks really really young and beautiful in her 40s so it seems negligible for me about her age. And nonetheless, the appearance of Zhou Yiwei also entirely fit with Xiao Qi, a really charismatic and righteous-looking character. I would rate this 10/10, I just wish they could develope more of the storyline in the end. The end is just too short and I wish I could enjoy it more.

Don't let Zhang Ziyi's age problem deter you from watching the show. The 68-episode drama was filmed in 2018 when Zhang Ziyi was 38 years old. In the first 7 episodes, she plays a 15-year-old pampered countess, the prime minister's daughter and the emperor's niece. However, our heroine grows up fast, and by the 8th episode, everything looks normal. Yeah, it's a stretch, but if you can tolerate Emily living and working in Paris without speaking French, we can overlook this aspect of the drama :). It's about 1/10 of the total length anyway. If you'd like to see capable, good-looking actors wearing gorgeous clothes, moving around in beautiful locations, riding horses in breath-taking sceneries, then check it out. Remember to watch it with headphones on or with good external speakers, the soundtrack is amazing! The show is shot in the "Emily in Paris" mold and more.

Ziyi Zhang's performance was extraordinarily fine, the best I have ever seen by any actress in any film, movie, or series of any kind in my lifetime of 77 years... The Chinese dramatic television series, "Shang Yang Fu" (The Rebel Princess), encompasses 68 distinctive episodes of 45 minutes each... Ziyi Zhang's performance throughout this spectacular series was truly exceptional in every way, a genuine priceless work of art, a gracious gift to anyone who's ever wished to see such nuanced artistry performed at the highest levels imaginable, most memorable and destined to become cherished, forever...

A+... 10 Stars x 10 Stars to the exponential power of 10, ad infinitum...