Commentary of Legend of Zhen Huan

The Legend of Zhen Huan has a lot of touching scenes. In this article, I will share some of my favourite scenes and analyse the cinematography, script and acting. When the Emperor mistook Zhen Huan for Chunyuan In episode 43, during Zhen Huan’s conferment ceremony, she wore Empress Chunyuan’s old clothes. Acting The Emperor expressed his shock, agitation on seeing his deceased wife again, and happiness when knowing that Chunyuan was still alive very well. I was especially moved at the part where the Emperor walked over to Zhen Huan. Even though it is despicable that the Emperor never really loved Zhen Huan, the actor really did a great job in expressing his love for Chunyuan. For a different take on this scene, I wrote about it on (show link to previous article) Cinematography It doesn’t make sense that the Emperor would think the silhouette of Zhen Huan was Chunyuan coming back to life. The Emperor is normally very intelligent, so why would he think that way? But the curtains between ...

Prince Guo (real name: Yun Li) is a free-spirited prince who did not participate in the struggle for power. He chose to live a happy and peaceful life. His favourite hobbies are reading/writing poetry, playing the flute and riding horses. He is the most charming male character, with a total of five females falling in love with him in the drama even when some of those encounters were short-lived. In this article, I voice out my opinions on Prince Guo in the drama. Free-spirited or playing safe? Prince Guo is known to be free-spirited. He opts not to participate in politics, choosing to devote his time to his hobbies instead.  Prince Guo doesn't conform to societal norms as he is often late to royal banquets and often makes his entrance drunk. In episode 13, Prince Guo makes his entrance while playing the flute. Other scenes show him arriving late to royal banquets. Despite the obvious breach in rules, Prince Guo never got punished by the emperor.  In my opinion, I think Prince ...

Introduction Empress Chun Yuan (actual name: Rou Ze) is the deceased first wife of Emperor Yongzheng and the elder sister of Yixiu (the current empress in the drama). She is kindhearted and talented in many areas (singing, dancing, poetry, what does she not know?).  She was Yongzheng's true love and died after giving birth to a stillborn child. Years after she died, Yongzheng still tries to search for a woman who can be as good as Chun Yuan. She is not represented by an actor in the drama but she is frequently mentioned in the drama, affecting the fate of many characters in the drama.  Her personality Chun Yuan is allegedly a kindhearted person as she is nice to her servants. On her deathbed, she asked Yongzheng to take care of her sister as well. But Chun Yuan's role in the following scenes indicates she isn't as nice as she seems.  Punishment of a concubine There was a scene where Consort Hua punished Zhen Huan by getting her to kneel for one hour. This caused Zhen Huan...

Background to the "gown" In episode 42, Zhen Huan was conferred the title of a consort. On the day of the ceremony, her gown was destroyed. She had to wear another gown (from the Empress) as a replacement. When Zhen Huan wore the gown to the ceremony, Emperor Yongzheng was mad and grounded her. It was then revealed that this was the very gown that Empress Chun Yuan wore when they met for the first time. But there are many strange things about this incident, which I will talk about. The "first meeting" Chun Yuan was the Di  sister of Yixiu, then the secondary concubine of Yongzheng, then the fourth prince. When Yixiu was on her eighth month of pregnancy, she was requested that Chun Yuan stay in her residences to care for her. Yongzheng fell in love with Chun Yuan on first sight, and brought her to Emperor Kangxi, insisting that they get married and that she should be the first wife, negating the promise he made to Yixiu that she would be conferred the status of the...

Introduction In this drama, Shen Mei Zhuang is Zhen Huan's best friend. She comes from an esteemed family, and as such, gained the attention of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. Of course, she is also good looking and virtuous and is notable for being the only concubine during the selection that gained the favour of the Empress Dowager. Her behaviour in the series We see her as a loyal friend. Throughout the whole drama, we see that she has remained a good friend of Zhen Huan, and stuck by her through thick and thin. She is proud. After being framed by Consort Hua and being grounded by the Emperor, she lost all hope in him and never sought to regain his favour, until much later. She developed an affection for Doctor Wen and eventually gave birth to his daughter. She is an elegant woman, embodying all the virtues that were expected of a woman at that period of time. She is also smart and well educated, perhaps that is why the Emperor wanted her to manage the harem. Se...

The Legend of Zhen Huan is a story about how Zhen Huan, an innocent and naive girl, was selected to be one of the Emperor's concubine and grew to be the most powerful concubine, but lost her innocence along the way. I discovered that many fans of this series like to analyse its characters, and I want to voice out my opinions about them too. I realised that many fans do not like the antagonists of this series: An Ling Rong, Huan Bi, etc... Despite the fact that they are antagonists and scheme to hurt Zhen Huan, people have forgotten that there is some good to them, and have overlooked their strengths just because of the character they are playing.