The drama I'm currently very addicted to. War and Beauty. The story of concubines fighting against each other for power. The four very pretty actresses.. Gigi Lai, Charmaine Sheh, Maggie Cheung, and the last one I'm not sure of her name. Think is Deng something.



Why is the story so nice? In the beginning you see loads and loads of catfight. So that's already a must watch reason for guys. Also, the drama is filled to the brim with chiobus, another must watch reason. For girls, there's the tear-jerking love stories, of those concubines and umm.. the doctor and official I will talk about later.

At the beginning of the show, all you see is the very very much detested and evil Yu Fei Leung Leung (Concubine Yu), and the concubines-to-be who all appeared to be very innocent and at the mercy of all other people, like the very powerful Concubine Yu.

As the story unfolds, you start to see the evil sides of the concubines-to-be. You find out that they were all in fact very smart and not as innocent as they seemed to be at first. Their "innocence" was a shield to help them get out of trouble. Under that innocent cover, they were already all plotting against each other. You start detesting all the concubines.

Next, another twist in the story comes out. You find out that all the concubine and concubines-to-be have reasons for doing things that they do. Each of them have their own troubles and sob-stories from home. They are trying so hard to win the emperor's favor cos they have no choice. Take one concubine-to-be for example, Haukai Yuk Ying (Gigi Lai). She has beauty unrivalled by any, but has not much social standing cos though her father is some great official (all concubines have to be nobility), her mother is the 4th wife of her father, and they always get bullied by the family. If she gets into the emperor's favor, she will help increase her mother's social standing in the family.


Another concubine-to-be, Yee Shun (Charmaine Sheh). She's the one on the right.. obvious rite? The one on the left.. you think she looks like a concubine?! Walau. Anyway, her sob story is that she's an orphan, adopted by this eunuch (by the way, eunuchs could be married, according to the show. Like, wth?!). This eunuch was the friend of this official who once plotted against the emperor, so he was very afraid the emperor might kill him. He thus adopted many pretty ladies and got them into the palace to be concubines, hoping he could be spared if any of his godchildren got favored by the emperor. Yee Shun treated him as her saviour while he treated her as a pawn. Yee Shun has a wish, to find her lost sister. In fact, her sister was once adopted by the eunuch and later became a concubine in the palace. But cos she had a chronic disease, she got banished to the cold palace. Yee Shun and her sister became friends, but even though the eunuch knew they were blood sisters, he did not tell them, cos he didn't want it to be found out that they both were not of royal blood.


Now on to this guy.. I remember my ex-colleague used to keep telling me he's very shuai, but I always gave her a very weird look. Now I know what she means. You gotta watch one of those shows he acted in before you can understand. It's that manly charm. Wahaha!! KS has grown up! She no longer goes for boyish looks! She goes for manly guys!!!

Anyway, at the beginning of the show, this guy, Hung Mo appears as a money-grubber, who goes to the capital and later enters the palace to try his luck at earning more money. Little did he expect the palace to be so filled with politics. To rise up the ranks, he grabbed every single opportunity he had. From a contract worker, he became a guard (higher ranked than some eunuchs). I think in the end, he became an official.


Later in the show, his humanity came out. He wanted to help this palace maid, and got into a lot of trouble. From there, he got to know the chief palace maid, On Sin (Maggie Cheung) who helped him. He later fell in love with her, and did a lot of things for her. Like, when a marriage was arranged between her and this old and fugly eunuch with stinko feet, by the evil Concubine Yu (cos she did something to offend her), Hung Mo helped her. The evil eunuch got his nephew to try to rape her, but in the end, both were killed by Hung Mo. When On Sin was shivering at one corner, mumbling that she killed someone, Hung Mo even went up to tell her, she didn't kill anyone, HE did! WAH!!! Then later, when they got wind that Concubine Yu found out about the murder, Hung Mo wanted to help her get out of the palace at the risk of his life. Though in the end, both of them escaped unharmed, it was soooooo touching! What a guy!!!! And guess what?! Throughout all of that, he didn't tell her that he liked her! Cos they were not supposed to have illicit relationships in the palace.

However, later, On Sin's grandmother, her only kin, got killed by the empress. So instead of retiring from the palace as planned, On Sin went on a revenge plot. She caught the eye of the emperor and became a concubine, overtaking Concubine Yu's position. Hung Mo was devastated!!! AWWWWW!!!


Another of the guys who like On Sin in the show.... guess what?!!! He's an eunuch!!! Wah this show is really crap. He would comb her hair for her etc.... ok the show didn't explicitly say he likes her. But you can infer from some of the trailers... ARGH! This show is really crap.


Another one of the guys in the show. No this guy don't have his eyes on On Sin, he's an imperial physician. In the show, he and On Sin went around helping the concubines-to-be get out of trouble, but none of their help was appreciated as none of the concubines-to-be understood that they were actually helping them and not getting them into more trouble. Later when they realised, quite a few concubines-to-be fell in love with this guy. Damn.. after watching the show, even I found him kinda cute.. don't tell others ok!? Walau.. KS finds a late-thirtyish guy with a receding hairline cute.. walau.. Ok.. make that manly, not cute. Cute just don't sound right.

OK I'm boring you people.. I know. I don't care!!! Read it all! And if you want more info about the drama, go this webbie.

http://tvcity.tvb.com/drama/war_n_beauty/story/index.html