The Palace

宫  锁沉香

China, 2013, colour, 2.35:1, 114 mins.

Director: Pan Anzi 潘安子.

Rating: 8/10.

Costume drama with a fresh feel, thanks to natural direction and Zhou Dongyu’s lead performance.

STORY

Beijing, Qing dynasty, c. 1700. At the age of 13, well-born Zhaojia Chenxiang (Zhou Dongyu) enters the closed world of the Forbidden City as one of many imperial maids at the court of Emperor Kangxi (Zhao Wenxuan). Initially bullied, she’s defended by another entrant of the same age, Liuli (Zhao Liying), and the two become bosom friends. Seven years later both are coquettish young women, with the more ambitious Liuli, like most of her fellow maids, looking to snag a prince to ensure a comfortable future before being “released” back into the outside world at the age of 25. The palace eunuchs make money by selling the princes’ schedules to the maids. Liuli arranges to bump into Yintang (Zhu Zixiao), the Ninth Prince, in the palace gardens one night; they make love but he later dumps her. Meanwhile, Zhaojia Chenxiang becomes entranced by Yinxiang (Chen Xiao), the Thirteenth Prince, and a mutual attraction develops, though Yinxiang does not know her real identity as she masks her face. Zhaojia Chenxiang is disapppointed when Yinxiang’s adoptive mother, Concubine De (Wu Junmei), marries him off to Liuli; but Liuli chooses Zhaojia Chenxiang as her maid-in-waiting so the two young women can still be together. Zhaojia Chenxiang’s childhood male friend Chunshou (Bao Bei’er) also accompanies her. Inexperienced with women because of his military upbringing, Yinxiang, still not realising who Zhaojia Chenxiang is, asks her to coach him in how to make Liuli happy. Meanwhile, the ambitious Yintang re-starts his affaire with Liuli and claims that Zhaojia Chenxiang has been flirting with Yinxiang. Furious, Liuli forbids Zhaojia Chenxiang to ever see Yinxiang again. When Yinxiang falls out of favour with the emperor, he’s put under house arrest and temporarily blinded. Zhaojia Chenxiang secretly visits him and he falls for her, thinking she’s Liuli. Complications arise when his close friend Yinzhen (Lu Yi), the Fourth Prince, tells Yinxiang that Liuli has long been having an affaire with Yintang. And then Yintang, hearing the emperor is dying, attempts to take over the throne.

REVIEW

Set in the early 18th century, during the final years of Qing dynasty Emperor Kangxi, The Palace 宫  锁沉香 is a fluidly directed and emotionally involving costume drama with none of the the stodginess and staginess of many of its ilk. A spin-off from two popular Mainland TV dramas – Palace 宫 (2011) and The Palace 宫  宫锁珠帘 (aka Palace II, 2012) – it’s again written and produced by Yu Zheng 于正 but with direction transferred from Hong Kong’s Li Huizhu 李慧珠 to China’s Pan Anzi 潘安子. With a cast this time of mostly Mainlanders, but with the technical crew dominated by Hong Kongers, the result is a classy costume movie, with well-appointed production and costume design by Liu Shiyun 刘世运 and Wu Baoling 吴宝玲, that has emotional power, a plot that doesn’t require a computer to keep track of, and a seductive mix of historical heft and fairytale lightness that’s very different from the restless, sometimes larky tone of the TV series.

Most of all it benefits from an utterly charming performance by 21-year-old Mainland actress Zhou Dongyu 周冬雨 in the lead role. Given the decision to ditch the time-travel element of the TV series, which switched between present and past, the film also ditches the first series’ lead character played by Mainland hottie Yang Mi 杨幂, with a resultant lack in playfulness. But with a fresh plot and a properly serious tone, and only a scattering of actors from the second TV series, this is in every way a proper movie in its own right which doesn’t require any knowledge of its small-screen forebears. And in the hands of Pan – a director in his mid-30s from a theatre background who previously made the low-budget youth drama Volunteer 志愿者 (2008) and slick period caper movie Scheme with Me 双成计中计 (2012), with Ren Xianqi 任贤齐 [Richie Ren] – The Palace gets real performances to back up its classy production values.

Zhou, who was so good in Under the Hawthorn Tree 山楂树之恋 (2010) and one of the few decent things in The Allure of Tears 倾城之泪 (2011), helps transform the movie with her unschooled brand of naive freshness. As a shy imperial maid who falls foul of court intrigue and her ambitious bosom buddy (sparkily played by TV actress Zhao Liying 赵丽颖, who had a supporting role in the second Palace series), Zhou turns a potentially sappy role into one that blends love, steadfastness and wonderment without seeming contrived.

Among the male cast, she pairs naturally with Bao Bei’er 宝贝尔 as her childhood friend and holds her own, in an underplayed way, with young TV actors Chen Xiao 陈晓 as her out-of-reach Prince Charming and Zhu Zixiao 朱梓骁 as the manipulative Ninth Prince, both of whom emerge here as more than costume male cut-outs. In a role that only comes into its own in the later stages, Lu Yi 陆毅 (A Time to Love 情人结, 2004) also makes a mark as the Fourth Prince who eventually takes over the throne. The background is decorated with older players like Wu Junmei 邬君梅 [Vivian Wu], imperious as a veteran concubine, and Taiwan’s Zhao Wenxuan 赵文瑄 [Winston Chao], almost unrecognisable as the ageing Emperor Kangxi, but the movie is held together by its younger cast.

Yu’s script, whose dialogue is modern without being gratingly so, keeps moving but without unseemly haste, and finds time to dally along the way for important moments in the emotional fabric. But it’s Pan’s involving direction of his cast, the fluid camerawork by d.p. Zou Lianyou 邹连友 (Once a Gangster 飞沙风中转, 2010) and editing supervised by Zhang Jiahui 张嘉辉 [Cheung Ka-fai], and the pleasant surprise of often delicate scoring by Jin Peida 金培达 [Peter Kam] that combine to put The Palace on a special level for its genre.

Though she’s still billed in the credits, Taiwan actress Yi Nengjing 伊能静 [Annie Yi] had her role of Xuehe, a mad palace woman, deleted during post-production.

CREDITS

Presented by Wanda Media (CN), Hunan Broadcasting System (CN), EE-Media (CN), Yuzheng (Shanghai) Film & TV Studio (CN). Produced by Wanda Media (CN).

Script: Yu Zheng. Photography: Zou Lianyou. Editing: Zhang Jiahui [Cheung Ka-fai], Zhang Jia. Music: Jin Peida [Peter Kam]. Production design: Liu Shiyun. Costume design: Wu Baoling. Sound: Wu Jiang, Zhao Ying. Action: Cao Yong. Visual effects: Josh Cole (Imagica).

Cast: Zhou Dongyu (Zhaojia Chenxiang), Chen Xiao (Yinxiang, Thirteenth Prince), Zhu Zixiao (Yintang, Ninth Prince), Zhao Liying (Liuli), Bao Bei’er (Chunshou, Chenxiang’s confidant), Wu Junmei [Vivian Wu] (Concubine De, Yinzhen’s mother), Yuan Qiongdan (aunt), Zhang Weijian [Dicky Cheung] (chief eunuch), Lin Zicong (Yinreng), Sheng Jian (imperial doctor), Huang Shengyi (Concubine Min, Yinxiang’s mother), Zhao Wenxuan [Winston Chao] (Emperor Kangxi), Lu Yi (Yinzhen, Fourth Prince), Zhang Qian (Concubine Xuan, Kangxi’s cousin), Liu Changsheng (old man), Li Nian (Huixin), Zhang Yameng (Concubine Hui), Wang Shuang (Concubine Cheng), Luo Wenbo (ice woman), Zhang Zifeng (young Chenxiang), Jiang Yiyi (young Liuli), Fang Yao Ziyi (young Yinxiang), Chen Xu (young Chunshou), Wang Wanzhong, Zhang Mengsi, Zhu Liling (palace women), An Ruiyun (Ministry of Rites official), Xu Zhongwei (Yintang’s major-general).

Release: China, 13 Aug 2013.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 15 Sep 2013.)