Why I Hate Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (And You Should Too) Part 2:
Part 1 here:
In Ruyi Zhuan, there are also multiple close-up shots of Ruyi’s hands. But instead of her hands being slim, slender and delicate…
Look. You decide for yourself.
Okay, it’s insane to expect everyone to have slim and slender and delicate fingers! That’s fair! I myself have hands nowhere NEAR as pretty as the actresses in ZHZ. It’s unfair to expect Zhou Xun to just have pretty hands.
THEN DON’T DO THE CLOSE-UP SHOTS!!! What’s the point of giving close-up shots especially on her hands if she doesn’t have pretty hands? Hand-centered close-up shots 手部特写 are a common part of film in China, the same way American films will often have a female character wink flirtatiously at the camera.
This is like if your actress can’t wink so she just ends up squinting. It’s fine if she can’t wink, but THEN DON’T INCLUDE THE SHOT?
They could’ve even used a hand model. They didn’t. WHY?
Hujia (the nail covers) are meant to not only protect the nails but to encourage the women wearing them to be elegant and dignified in their hand movements. See the ZHZ actresses wearing hujia:
Then look at Ruyi wearing hujia.
CRAB CLAWS OR WHAT?
She doesn’t have to wear hujia! It was common, but not every concubine wore hujia! They were expensive and a show of status, but Ruyi’s whole personality is supposed to be subtle, she doesn’t like showing off. So it would’ve been more fitting if she never wore hujia. But she does. She wears so many.
Also, the hujia she wears doesn’t fit. The production team sourced real historical hujia (they also made one-to-one replicas of real historical hujia) but those replicas and historical artifacts don’t fit Zhou Xun, because she has thicker fingers.
JUST MAKE NEW ONES THAT FIT HER INSTEAD OF FORCING THE WHOLE “authentic, accurate” THING! IT LOOKS TERRIBLE!
I’ve already said Ruyi’s styling is terrible. Here is a comparison of the styling done prior to the changes made by Zhou Xun’s team and the final style:
They did Zhou Xun so, so dirty. She still doesn’t look under 20 in the first photo, but at most she looks 25-30. IN THE SECOND PHOTO SHE LOOKS 45. Remember, Ruyi is very young!
The first photo is so pretty! She looks great! WHY DID THEY CHANGE IT.
Her clothes are also all tacky and ostentatious. They look like something my grandma would wear.
Oh it’s ancient China, everyone wore clothes like that!
The other concubines have perfectly pretty clothes! Why is Ruyi the only one who dresses like a street grandma???
It’s still mainly the makeup’s fault. Look, in this photo:
The dress is still pretty ugly, I’m not going to lie. The pale yellow is not appealing. But overall, it looks okay!
WHAT IS WITH THIS MAKEUP.
WHAT IS WITH THIS HAIR.
I watched this show because I was skeptical of all the bad reviews. I figured it was just people being mean.
Jesus Christ. Every time I saw Ruyi I just got a strong feeling of utter dislike. I hate Ruyi so much.
How did anyone like this show??? WHY???? I saw people on like Western sites recommending it! It was on TikTok and people were like “it’s my favourite c-drama” PLEASE watch a show that’s actually good! Ruyi Zhuan has terrible styling, terrible casting, terrible acting, the plot makes no sense, everyone has gone utterly insane!
In conclusion: don’t watch this terrible show. Every review that says it’s good is lying to you.
The styling is not great and you do go into some of the issues with this show, but I really don't think these two posts do justice to how bad it actually is. The problems start in the pilot and it just keeps getting worse.
While Prince Hongli was selecting his wife and concubines, the girls in the lineup are wearing understated dresses. Prince Hongli keeps waiting for Qingying (Ruyi) to show up and when she finally does, she swaggers onto the scene while wearing this ostentatious, ugly purple bow around her neck. The way this scene is shot is so awkward. Why did they film it that way? (a question I'd find myself asking a lot!) From the get-go, the visuals are screaming at us that this girl is completely full of herself.
Then, in front of Zhen Huan, fourth prince takes the ruyi scepter out of Lady Fuca's hands to give it to Qingying instead. HELLO?? How do I begin to describe what is wrong with this, aside from how ridiculous the premise of this selection was to begin with? OF COURSE Lady Fuca from the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner was going to be his legal wife. Way to plant a seed of jealousy in the most influential girl in your harem! It's a good thing Lady Fuca is the pinnacle of virtue and grace...
They forcibly turn Lady Fuca into a villain.
I actually wouldn't have minded this as much if the show didn't use historical accuracy as a selling point. We repeatedly see how this causes issues in the show, though, because the show does loosely follow historical events, especially when it comes to concubine promotions, but the personalities of these concubines have been completely changed from what we know about their historical counterparts. This causes a very jarring juxtaposition where, in the show, Qianlong keeps promoting the WORST people and calling them virtuous. A great example of this is Jia Fei.
Not that one. This Jia Fei:
In this show, Jia Fei (Consort Jia) is one of the main villains and Qianlong's only Korean concubine. She harms many people, including imperial heirs. Qianlong isn't even unaware that she's evil, but somehow she keeps being favored and promoted. In the show, Qianlong's excuse for treating unscrupulous characters like virtuous women is his total lack of any emperor-like qualities. He is terrified of everyone.
"Boohoo, [insert concubine]'s family is powerful. I can't offend them."
Counterpoint: you are Emperor motherf*cking Qianlong.
Consort Jia suffers a lot from the abysmal writing. She gets dumbed down a LOT later in the series to facilitate her downfall and make Wei for the new big bad. The way she gets treated is so disrespectful, too. Ruyi lets her maid, Rong Pei, physically harm her. Even if Ruyi is empress at this point, this is a huge no-no. (I'll go into how gleefully violent against women this show is in a little bit) The most ridiculous plot involving this character, however, is her running to another man, in broad daylight, in the equivalent of her underwear and facing NO CONSEQUENCES for this.
Consort Jia's real-life counterpart was a kind woman, who decidedly did not chase other men in her underwear, if historical records are anything to go by. She wasn't even from Korea; her ancestors had left Korea generations before she was born and her family had been fully integrated by the time she entered the palace.
I don't actually mind Consort Jia being a villain. Story of Yanxi Palace has her working as Noble Consort Gao's underling. The way those two scheme against Empress Fuca in SoYP has no historical basis (especially Gao Guifei, who was said to have been close enough friends with the empress that the empress requested to be granted the character "賢" in her post-humous name just like her—a close relationship that was actually retained in Ruyi's Royal Love) and the way Consort Jia gets killed in SoYP is suspect, but that show never advertised itself as a historically accurate, albeit fictionalized representation. SoYP also makes up for these inaccuracies by being very entertaining and having a captivating negative character arc for Consort Xian (Ruyi's counterpart in SoYP).
(THIS is the picture of a "cool as a chrysanthemum" ancient Chinese noblewoman)
In Story of Yanxi Palace, Charmaine Sheh does an excellent job at portraying what the sycophants in Ruyi's orbit tell us Ruyi is. Nara Shushen isn't flashy. Her posture, gestures, facial expressions and dignified demeanor all suggest she received the strict discipline of a woman of high birth. She is beloved for her generosity and kindness to the servants. She has the cunning and skills she needs to not only survive, but thrive in the forbidden city.
Ruyi, on the other hand, does not seem to pay attention to the way she carries herself, other than decking herself out in mismatched jewelry no matter the circumstance. She slouches, she constantly gives characters the side-eye, she pouts when she speaks, her words don't befit a woman of her status, she glares at the emperor and imposes herself on him in ways that publicly humiliate him. In the very first episode, she even farts to get out of a concubine selection. In Zhen Huan this would have gotten her thrown out of the palace.
Another big problem with Ruyi is that she's straight up a mean girl. She supposedly "warms the harem". How? By peeing on people? She gossips constantly and can't shut up about status and the legitimacy of heirs. Empress Fuca is supposed to be the villain, but when it comes down to it, she takes better care of her people and the concubines like to spend time in her palace. Ruyi does not take care of her people. In fact, she cuts the pay of the servants who helped her through a difficult birth for good luck? Yeah, I don't get it either.
Ruyi's story is a cavalcade of contradictions. She is a huge hypocrite. She pretends not to care about status when it is obvious that she does. She claims not to get involved in palace struggles, but does nothing about Hailan getting her hands dirty on her behalf. She talks a big game about loyalty, but is completely useless when anyone needs her. When she is a concubine, she talks about how no woman wants to be a mere concubine; when she's the step-empress, the concubines all but explicitly need to ask her permission to serve the emperor. Not only that, but she gets supported in this by people who have no reason to care. The Mongolian concubines are especially noteworthy examples.
Thank you, Valide Sultan. I'm sure Zhen Huan would have said the exact same thing if she didn't get hit with the stupid stick.
Speaking of the stupid stick, possibly the only character who is consistently dumber than Ruyi is Noble Consort Hui (Gao Xiyue). Ruyi is absolutely hopeless without her lackeys and you would think this would make her value them more, but Ruyi's virtue is performative. A great example of this is the time when her servant, Rong Pei, rejects luxurious fabrics on her behalf, stating that Ruyi is in mourning and doesn't appreciate these lavish gifts at this time. Although Ruyi had just been happily chatting with Hailan moments before, she emerges from her palace—dressed in a neon yellow dress, with blood red lips and a bright red rose pin in her hair—and says:
本宫不想耀眼夺目的 "I don’t want to be dazzling and eye-catching"
ARE YOU SERIOUS, GIRL??? This is quite literally the most eye-catching outfit in the entire show.
It is worth noting that in Zhen Huan Zhuan, the concubines will remove their nail guards to show humility, or that they care when handling children or massaging the emperor, for example. One of the earlier clues that the empress in ZHZ isn't as virtuous as she may initially appear is that she is the only person who doesn't remove her nail guards when holding another woman's baby. Ruyi does not remove her nail guards for anything.
The irony doesn't end with these examples. Ruyi doesn't let her maid, Suoxin, marry until after the poor woman's leg is broken to prove Ruyi's innocence in yet another scheme. The wedding is treated like a sweet moment after immense torture, but Ruyi was already Huang Guifei (imperial noble consort) at this point. She could have saved her maid if she really wanted to. Then again, if Ruyi had honored the tradition to let palace maids wed by the age of 25, Suoxin wouldn't have been at risk at all. We're shown the maid's bloody leg as she writhes in agony, because this show loves to put violence against women on screen and draw it out uncomfortably long.
This brings us to Wei Yanwan, aka the only concubine who treats Qianlong like an emperor. This girl gets put through the wringer. She gets viciously bullied as a maid and continues to be bullied as a concubine. When she attempts to reach out to Ruyi, she is given the cold shoulder. Ruyi and her clique gossip about her constantly and look down on her for (checks notes) using tricks to please the emperor. It really is no wonder she goes over to the dark side.
Ruyi's treatment of her really highlights the absurdity of this show. As empress, she casually orders not only the torture of Wei Yanwan, but she even tries to execute her without consulting the emperor first. At this point, Wei Yanwan is already Noble Consort Ling.
Damn, I could have ordered Xi Guifei's execution this whole time?
Noble Consort Ling reminds Ruyi that she cannot execute her casually, but Ruyi, being a status-obsessed idiot, takes the reminder as a d*ck-measuring contest.
I have not even begun to open the can of worms that is Ruyi's inappropriate relationship with Ling Yunche, a guard with whom Ruyi is WAY too friendly, or the surprisingly bad acting from Zhou Xun at times (the whipping Ruyi receives from Noble Lady Mei comes to mind), or the outlandish plot to poison the emperor temporarily just to set up Wei Yanwan, or the mind-boggling cold palace/A'ruo and Noble Lady Rong subplots, or the fact that every character in this show feels compelled to praise Ruyi for some reason, or the issues with the production (including but not limited to Wallace Huo nearly losing his mind because of Zhou Xun constantly changing the script), or how throughout the entire show, Qianlong is an insufferable horndog who throws temper tantrums but ultimately commands no respect from anyone.
I could semi-sorta see how someone with a modern mindset, with zero knowledge about Chinese culture, history, or symbolism could be confused about why this show gets as much hate as it does; however, these people will have to sit this one out.
