War and Beauty
| War and Beauty 金枝慾孽 |
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War and Beauty official poster
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| Genre | Period drama |
| Starring |
Sheren Tang Maggie Cheung Charmaine Sheh Bowie Lam Moses Chan Gigi Lai |
| Opening theme | Sons and Daughters (兒女) by Bowie Lam |
| Ending theme | Arsenic (砒霜) by Bowie Lam and Gigi Lai |
| Country of origin | Hong Kong |
| Original language(s) | Cantonese |
| No. of episodes | 30 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 45 minutes (each) |
| Production company(s) | TVB |
| Release | |
| Original network | TVB Jade |
| Original release | 23 August – 2 October 2004 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | War and Beauty II (2013) |
| External links | |
| Website | |
| War and Beauty | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 金枝慾孽 | ||||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
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| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Jīn Zhī Yù Niè |
| Yue: Cantonese | |
| Jyutping | Gam1 Zi1 Juk6 Jip6 |
War and Beauty (Chinese: 金枝慾孽) is a Hong Kong television period drama serial that originally aired on TVB Jade from 23 August to 2 October 2004, consisting of 30 episodes. It currently ties with Drive of Life for the record of having the most TVB Best Actress winners, including Sheren Tang (2009/2010), Maggie Cheung (2003), Charmaine Sheh (2006/2014), and Gigi Lai (2004 - she won the award for her work in this drama). It also stars TVB Best Actor winners Bowie Lam (2004 - he also won the award for his work in this drama) and Moses Chan (2007).
This show was set in the Forbidden City, in Qing dynasty China in the late years of the Jiaqing Emperor's rule. It focused on the power struggle between various royal concubines trying to secure the Emperor's favor, with corruption, intrigue and outright deceit being the weapons of choice. These women were willing to manipulate, betray and even kill just about anyone in order to get what they wanted.
Throughout the later parts of the series, the inevitable results of this corruption become increasingly apparent. The main characters start to lose everything they care for, while being forced to conclude that they have only themselves to blame. In the meantime, corruption takes its toll on the outside world as well: the entire empire is destabilizing.
But none of that is a deterrent to the scheming women. On the contrary: even when the rebels make their way into the Forbidden City, the manipulators' first thoughts are as to how this situation may be used to their advantage. In the end, corruption itself is the only clear winner and many of those involved die or are forced to flee the City forever.
At the end of the series, many things come to a head. As the corruption of Qing politics became all the more prevalent, the people of the country organize an armed rebellion. The rebellion was led by Kong-Wu's fraternal brother, Chen Shuang, who felt wronged during his time in the Palace and is seeking revenge. The rebel invasion of the Palace opened up some interesting opportunities, especially for the Empress, who tried to kill off her opposition and blame it on the rebels.
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Wikipedia