[Mainland Chinese Drama 2014-2015] The Empress of China 武媚娘传奇

THE EMPRESS OF CHINA (武媚娘传奇)

Details:

Chinese title: 武媚娘传奇 / Wǔmèiniáng chuánqí
English title: The Empress of China/ The Legend of Wu Meiniang
Genre: Period, Drama, Romance, Revenge

Episodes: 82

Director: Gao Yi Jun (Win The World 赢天下)

Broadcast Period: December 21, 2014 

Broadcast Days: Sundays - Saturdays

Cast:

Fan Bingbing as Wu Meiniang 武媚娘 (Wu Zetian)
Zhang Fengyi as Li Shimin (Emperor Taizong)
Aarif Rahman as Li Zhi (Emperor Gaozong)

Emperor Taizong's harem
Janine Chang as Consort Xu Hui
Zhang Ting as Consort Wei Guifei
Kathy Chow as Consort Yang Shufei
Zhang Tong as Consort Yin Defei
Zhang Ding Han as Empress Zhangsun / Zheng Wan Yan
Nie Mei as Consort Liu Xianfei
Sun Jia Qi as Xiao Qiang
Zhang Xi Ting as Feng Cairen
Liu Zhi Xi as Chen Guiren

Emperor Gaozong's harem
Shi Shi as Empress Wang
Viann Zhang as Consort Xiao
Cui Bing as Liu Shi
Ma Si Chun as Helan Min Yue

Royal family
Lee Lee-jen as Li Chengqian
Li Jie as Li Ke
Ren Shan as Li Tai
Xue Yong Yu as Li You
Li Yue Xi as Su Mei
Mi Lu as Princess Gao Yang
Cui Can as Li Su Jie
Zhang Xuan Ming as Li Zhong
Chen Jing Yuan as childhood Li Zhong
Kang Fu Zhen as Li Hong
Wang Wen Jie as young Li Xián
Yu Wen Tong as mid-age Li Xiǎn
Xi Yu Li as Wei Shi

Synopsis:

During Tang Dynasty's 2nd reign, Wu Meiniang (Fan Bingbing) enters the palace at age 14 as a Talented Lady with innocence and aspirations to serve Emperor Taizong (Zhang Fengyi) as his consort. The Emperor Taizong soon takes notice in her and falls in love with her. With Emperor Taizong's love, many grow jealous and hatred for her. They set out to destroy her numerous times by falsely accusing her of thief, murder and treachery. She survives with her wits and intelligence, but when Emperor Taizong dies she is sent to a monastery to become a nun because of a palace rule that states any consorts who did not give birth to a child of the Emperor must become a nun. However his youngest son Li Zhi (Aarif Rahman), who later becomes the Emperor Gaozong has been in love with her since he was a child. He brings her back to the palace and makes her his consort. As Emperor Gaozong's consort she rises through the ranks of the harem and becomes his empress. With more power she becomes more ambitious and sets her sights on the throne. With the death of Emperor Gaozong, she rules in her son the Crown Prince's place, but when he starts to defy her as he grows older she has him killed and soon decides she wants to be sole ruler of China, establishing the Zhou Dynasty and ruling as the Emperor for fifteen years. All knowing what she is capable of is fearful of her.

**Please use spoiler tags for those who have not seen the episodes yet**

[spoiler ]enter your spoiler here without the spaces inside the brackets[ /spoiler]

Raw Trailers:

OSTs:

Sun Nan - Qiānqiū

Jane Zhang - Wú zì bēi

Jane Zhang -  Gan Wei Tian Xia Xian

Joey Yung - Empress (Hong Kong Version)

Jinny Ng - Tears' Secret (Hong Kong Version)

Linda Chung - Recklessly (Hong Kong Version)

Additional Links:

The Empress of China 武媚娘传奇 Episode Recaps

The Empress of China 武媚娘传奇 Weibo Page

Win The World 赢天下 Official Drama Thread

**Please use spoiler tags for those who have not seen the episodes yet**

[spoiler ]enter your spoiler here without the spaces inside the brackets[ /spoiler]

Credits: NewsCN

Janice Chang and Fan BingBing are both very pretty, but the story of Wu Ze Tian has been done so many times, hopefully there'll be something special about this version to attract viewers.

Empress of China Raw Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CRuvX9-Hoo

TVB buys broadcasting rights of Fan Bing Bing's 377 million HKD Mainland production, "The Empress of China"

Monday December 8, 2014 Hong Kong

Source: Oriental Daily
Images: Wikipedia / Xinhua 
Translated by: Chloe.C

Originally, TVB had lined up Kenneth Ma and Tavia Yeung's ancient drama, "Noblesse Oblige" to air after "Overachievers" in mid-December, however yesterday, they suddenly changed the line-up and instead, Joey Meng's modern drama "Officer Geomancer" will be up next. According to sources, TVB had secretly invested a huge amount to buy in Fan Bing Bing's 377 million HKD production "The Empress of China" (aka "Wu Zetian"), which they plan to air during prime time hours in Feburary. So to avoid airing consecutive ancient dramas, they decided to change the line up for December.

Recently, TVB drama ratings have dropped back down a bit; even blockbuster drama "Come On, Cousin" only had an average of 26 PTS on their finale. "Overachievers" and "Sour Lady"'s ratings are only average. Yesterday, there were sudden reported changes of the upcoming drama line-up; hard for people not to connect it to ratings. Actually, TVB had been planning carefully, and recently successfully bought the broadcast rights of 377 million HKD Mainland drama production, "The Empress of China", led by Fan Bing Bing, Zhang Fengyi and Aarif Lee, at a sky-high price. They plan to broadcast it next February and even plans to invite Fan Bing Bing to Hong Kong to promote the drama. Because the drama has a length of more than 80 episodes, they cannot afford to lose anything with the ratings. To avoid broadcasting ancient dramas consecutively, TVB purposely changed their line up to air Joey Meng and Johnson Lee's relaxing modern drama "Officer Geomancer" instead of ancient drama "Noblesse Oblige".

Many TV stations after "The Empress of China"'s broadcasting rights

"The Empress of China" has attracted a lot of attention by various TV stations. Other than TVB buying the broadcasting rights at a sky-high price, Hunan TV offered a price over 100 million RMB, in order to snatch the exclusive broadcast rights in China. So TVB will also pay a lot of effort and attention to this, and will be handing the drama to the variety department to "repackage" and "rebrand". They will use the legend of how Wu Zetian went from being the Emperor's wife to the position of ruling China as a selling point, carrying over to the strong independence of modern females nowadays. 

Wu Zetian was the only female empress in Chinese history. She ruled under the "Zhou" dynasty from 692 to 705. She was the concubine of the Emperor Taizong, then became the consort of the Emperor's son, Gaozong after his death. She then took on the power to rule at age 66 after Emperor Gaozong's death. Although only officially ruling in 692, but during Emperor Gaozong's reign, she was often the one in power. Wu Zetian was described as a ruthless and cruel woman. "The Empress of China" is produced by Fan Bing Bing's production studio. The cast includes Fan Bing Bing, Zhang Fengyi, Aarif Lee, Janine Chang, Kathy Chow, Jerry Li, etc.

Acting the role of 14 years old until 82 years old

In the drama, Fan Bing Bing will be playing character of "Wu Zetian" from when she was 14 until 82. Her 82 year old look was recently exposed; her fake facial skin had taken 3 months to make in the States, while make up before filming takes 7 hours. Taking off the make up takes 1 hour. Because while they were filming, the temperature reached 40 degrees, Bing Bing's face had broken out with rashes and blisters.

About the TV ratings going back down, TVB Communications Deputy Director, Tsang Sing Ming responded: "It is because of the effect of Occupy Central news. Our iNews channel averages 4 to 6 PTS now, causing the drama ratings to go down a bit. We are confident in 'The Empress of China'. "

___________________

another new trailer

Seems quite good according to the trailer. The costumes are quite extravagant and some of the scenes seem to be fairly gruesome. So many forms of torture within 2 mere trailers...

Official theme song for Empress of China
Wordless Epitaph 无字碑 - Jane Zhang
Written by Aarif Leehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTCM2I2KV2o

The MV of Wordless Epitaph 无字碑 - Jane Zhang

wow.... i was looking forward to her movie Yang Guifei... now i am looking forward for this series... yehey..

Does will anyone translates the drama ?I think this great drama is coming !

akira968 said: Does will anyone translates the drama ?I think this great drama is coming ! As of yet, viki has not.  You can watch the raw episodes here.

In high school I wanted to use Empress Wu as the subject of an essay. I still had some of the research around my room until I threw it away recently. Anyway I wonder if they'll make this drama inaccurate.

@sugarplum892‌ thank you , but I do not understand chinese . I waited long time of the Drama . I will wait Translates :$

great !!

I found someone in YouTube will translate the drama ♡

class="headline" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; font-size: 26px; line-height: 1.21em; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"Fan Bingbing sings praises for "The Empress of China"

24 Dec – Chinese actress Fan Bingbing is delighted with the successful rating of her newly produced drama, "The Empress of China", which broke the record as the highest-rated premiere of a drama in China, according to YCWB News.

But more importantly, the actress, who also stars as the titular character, revealed that Empress Wu's journey is similar to her own struggle in the industry.

"The drama exudes positive energy," said Fan. "The character Wu Zetian entered the palace when she was a young girl, experiencing various obstacles before becoming an empress."

The actress stated that the drama has everything that appeals to the audience; from blood and tears, sadness and pain, to laughter and happiness.

"I think it's an encouraging story that can create a positive aura for the younger audience," she added.

The series also stars Aarif Lee, Kathy Chow, and Chang Ting.

Source

Anyone know if there are Eng subs for this drama? I really love it and watched it RAW because I was impatient but my Mandarin is very poor. I can't understand what they're saying  (  *cries*

I also like the opening title song, wish there was a music file to download

Hope for more good things for this drama.
 

lunatiger14 said: Anyone know if there are Eng subs for this drama? I really love it and watched it RAW because I was impatient but my Mandarin is very poor. I can't understand what they're saying  (  *cries*

I also like the opening title song, wish there was a music file to download

Hope for more good things for this drama.
 

"The Empress of China" breaks record to become drama with highest rated premiere
Source: YCWBImage: JiangSuTranslated by: Chloe.C
"The Empress of China" breaks record to become drama with highest rated premiere
Hunan TV's "The Empress of China" had started airing on the 21st on this month, with their exclusive rights to be the first to air the drama in the country. The premiere of "The Empress of China" recorded ratings of 2.46 according to CSM30, 6.15% of the market, ranking number 1! According to CSM50, the ratings were 2.28, 6.05% of the market. The ratings according to W010 recorded 2.14, 6.13% of the market. The first day premiere of the ratings broke 2, breaking the record of drama premiere with the highest ratings!
"The Empress of China" is the story of the only female emperor in Chinese history. Sunday night's premiere of the series revolved around Fan Bing Bing playing 14 year old Wu Ruyi, who finds herself involved in the "battle" of the palace, filled with blood and rain. Her rebellious and strong-headed nature leaves the audience wondering what obstacles and troubles she will find herself in this dark palace. Kathy Chow, Chang Ting and other concubines are characters who "hide a dagger in their smile"; signs of danger everywhere.
New ratings queen is born
"Fan Yeh", Fan Bing Bing has always been able to garner the attention and discussion of the audience no matter what aspects. From films to different fashion shows, the power of "Fan" is always there. After 6 years, Fan Bing Bing finally returned to the small screen, and clearly, she is not back just to "play". As expected, although "The Empress of China" went through many name changes (Chinese name), nothing could stop the power and appeal of Fan Bing Bing, becoming the new ratings queen. Other than this, "The Empress of China"'s Wu Mei Niang's growth journey is actually quite similar to Fan Bing Bing. She expressed: "This drama is a show that encourages positive energy. To me, it is a palace fairytale. The character of Wu Ze Tian is from when she was 14-15 years old, first enring the palace and experiencing the obstacles and challenges in her life, until she gradually steps onto the path of becoming the empress. Many things happen; the story has blood and tears, laughter, happiness, pain, sadness.... there is everything. This is the life story of a rebellious 14 year old girl who keeps growing and growing. Actually, I think that an encouraging story, is also a story that can induce positive energy in the younger audience.
Since the broadcast of the show, many have praised the eye candy and beautiful costumes and scenes of the show. In the first 3 days of broadcast, the show has still been breaking 2 each day. The show currently airs on HunanTV, with 3 episodes broadcasted everyday. 

from: spcnet.tv and sinaweibo

It was suspended in China....
"According to Hunan TV station, the drama has been stopped due to technical difficulties and will continue to air on 1/1/2015"..
https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E7%A9%BF%...060450224.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/trad/china/2014/12/141228_china_tv_drama

(courtesy of sakuya of spcnet.tv)