The Empress of China AKA Wu Ze Tian - TV Series - English & Chinese Subtitle

This has to be one of the best C-Dramas I have seen. No expense was spared in order to film this series. The sets and costumes were astonishingly beautiful, the story was incredibly good and the acting was excellent. Although it is partly fictionalized for dramatic effect, it was very tastefully done, in my opinion. It is the amazing story of a young woman who enters the palace as a maid and eventually becomes Empress Wu, the only female holding the throne in her own right. The subtitles are very well done and the series is worth adding to any DVD collection. It is the kind of series that can be watched more than once.

Loved the series but the ending seemed off to me then I realized there are suppose to be 15 disc and I only got 14 disc

These discs are only for sale in Malaysia and Brun I. So don't try to use them in a DVD player for other audiences as the formatting is wrong. Super disappointing. Can't say anything about the show itself as couldn't watch it.

I love this series but the description really needs to say that this DVD series is for the region of China. In order to play this DVD series I had to buy a region free DVD player.

I'm a fan of Chinese history and bought this series after visiting the Empress' tomb in China. It is obvious that this was a big budget production as the costumes and settings are just gorgeous. The English subtitles are well done.

Love the story, costumes, and casting. Much better than I expected and the subtitles were great. Every time I watch it I find something new.

So the Empress of China is a visually stunning piece of work. Let's get that out of the way to start. The costumes are oppulent, the scenery is stunning, the shooting of the drama as a whole is amazing. It features some stand out performances by some really amazing actresses. Fan Bingbing of course as Wu Meiniang does an amazing job bringing Empress Wu to life on the small screen. Other stand out performances are given by actresses Zhang Ting as Noble Consort Wei and Kathy Chow as Pure Consort Yang. I was really invested in the first forty episodes of the series and the intrigue and excitement of the harem really came to life. However ...This series also has a couple of major flaws. While the performances of the actresses are stunning, the series suffers from underwhelming performances by its male actors. While Zheng Fengyi as Emperor Taizong was good, I wouldn't call it nearly in the same ballpark as the actresses. In the second half, Aarif Rahman as Emperor Gaozong was just annoying. I mean annoying to the point where I wish Wu would have poisoned him and put us out of our misery of having to deal with him. Where the show really suffers is after the first 40 or so episodes. Within the span of a few episodes, every female character, including the Consorts, that had an impact on Wu dies. That's not to say the performances of the deaths were not amazing (I cried during Consort Yang's death scene). But the villainesses of the show, following Episode 40, are very one dimensional, as opposed to the villainesses of the first 40 who had multiple layers to their stories. Shi Shi (Empress Wang) and Vivian Zhang (Consort Xiao) are evil just for evil's sake. This series clearly could have been two series, but was smashed together into one long epic tale. Also as someone who knows Wu's story from a historical standpoint, there are a couple of inaccuracies.So for those reasons, I have to give this series a three. Visually stunning and some stunning performances, but its not enough to save it from some mediocore performances and a general laziness in storytelling. I would recommend if you want to watch it, do not invest in the DVD but rather watch the series online. This will allow you to skip over the boring male parts and watch the more engaging interaction between the actresses.

Everyone who loves big, extravagant Chinese historical dramas must see this. It's gorgeous and engrossing. I hated for it to end.