Main Characters:
Kong Wah - Emperor Xuan Zong
Anne Heung - Lady Yang 
Melissa Ng - Mui Fei (Lady Plum)
Florence Kwok - Wai Fei
Tsang Wai Kuen - Yang Kwok Jung
Yuen Siu Cheung - An Lu Shan

Introduction Before the Review
I always enjoyed TVB produced series that is related to a true historical legend. It doesn't matter if the scripts are close to the history or not, I just enjoyed the story about the legend.

If you are not familiar with Lady Yang, here goes a little introduction. Lady Yang is consider as one of the four most beautiful women in the Chinese history. But, she is also the one who got blamed for weaken the Tang Dynasty. Tang Dynasty is considered as the greatest and the strongest dynasty of the Chinese history, because lots of emperors are pretty good. Emperor Xuan Zong is also a pretty good emperor when he was young, under his control, the country was rich and people were happy. However, emperor Xuan Zong did not kept up the good work because when he was older, he falling love with Lady Yang, and empowering her family member. That causes the fall of the Tang Dynasty. But, we can't blame everything on Lady Yang, because she is actually pretty nice. It was her brother Yang Kwok Jung, who got too much power and became very greedy. Yang Kwok Jung made friends with An Lu Shan, who is later become a BIG threat to the Tang Dynasty.

Well, enough for this short history. Let's take a look at the series, some of the scripts are not close to the history AT ALL! For example, when Emperor Xuan Zong falling love with Lady Yang, he was actually pretty old, not as young as Kong Wah of course! Lady Yang is much younger than the emperor in the real history. However, Anne does look really good with Kong Wah...

What, when, where and who
Let's begin with a little introduction with the true legends, who played important factors for shaping the Tang Dynasty. First of all, Kong Wah's Emperor Xuan Zong. He acts pretty childish in this series, but we can't blame him, because he is so in love with Lady Yang. However, the problem is that he spent ALL his time with Lady Yang and ignored the country, that causes An Lu Shan betrays the country and fight against the emperor.

An Lu Shan is a big factor for the fall of the Tang Dynasty, he is a very ambitious man, who invaded the country, and that cost so much money and energy of the Tang Dynasty. So, the dynasty can never restored its peace and power, and it becomes weaker and weaker...

Yang Kwok Jung, another major factor for the fall of the dynasty. He is Lady Yang's cousin, who becomes very greedy because Lady Yang got all the attention from the emperor. Actually, in the real history, Yang Kwok Jung is more evil than the character in this series. That's why An Lu Shan makes the excuse for the invasion, which is killing Yang Kwok Jung.

Ok, the most important factor: Lady Yang, which is the main subject of this series. As I said above, people today seems to blame everything on her for the falling of Tang Dynasty, but people, please remember, she is just a woman. She actually took the blame for Emperor Xun Zong because the emperor was the one who is being stupid and let his people to lose faith for the dynasty. You will see in this series, Lady Yang is actually pretty nice and thinks cares about the emperor and his country the most.

The major theme of this series is the jealousy of the emperor's wives. Why? Simple, the emperor has WAY too many wives (The Emperor has 3000 wives.1 Empress, 3 concubines, the rest consorts of different ranks) Of course, the emperor is not even going to see most of them! That's why all the wives are fighting against each other to get the emperor's attention. We are going to talk more about this in the following review.

Series Links
1. E-Buzz Review (English)
2. Series review from SPCNET (English)

THE FACTORS
- Hate Factor
Wai Fei (played by Florence Kwok)
Don't let her tricks you at the beginning, she seems REALLY nice to Lady Yang, but deep down inside, she is EVIL! She planned the miscarriage of Lady Yang, she also framed the Empress for causing the miscarriage of Lady Yang. She even poisoned herself to frame Lady Yang! What a evil lady!

The emperor's mother
I don't know why I hate her, maybe because of the fact she is always against Lady Yang. She even gives the order to kill Lady Yang.

- Love Factor
Lady Plum
At the beginning, you might even think she is evil because she is very mean. But, that is her way of protecting herself from Wai Fei. (Wai Fei caused Lady Plum's miscarriage) You will realize she is actually REALLY NICE because she always help Lady Yang especially when Lady Yang got framed by Wai Fei. That's why they become really good friends. Melissa did an excellent job in here, in fact her character is my favorite in the story, because she is so nice, so intelligent.

The Outfits!!!!
I love the outfits in this series, especially the emperor's wives' outfits, and of course Lady Yang. Thanks to the outfits, Anne Heung looks very pretty in the series.

- Pity Factor
Lady Yang, she cares about the emperor and the country very much, she cares about her family very much, she tries to be nice to everybody, and what is the result? She died because of the emperor; her family members were not nice, and everybody hated her family members (they all died at the end!); she was so nice to Wai Fei, but Wai Fei always try to frame her. Why Lady Yang has to die? Because the soldiers hated the Yang family, they will not fight for the emperor if the emperor did not kill Lady Yang. Poor lady, who did not do anything wrong, but she has to die to ensure the soldiers will fight for the emperor to against An Lu Shan's invasion.

- How Come Factor
What happens to Lady Plum? After she lost her baby, she got insane for a while, later she recovered back to normal, and was happy studying poems, and calligraphy. But, when An Lu Shan invaded the country, the emperor and Lady Yang left the palace, but she did not. So, what will happen to her? Although, I think the script writers did a pretty good job for the ending, but they forgot about Lady Plum. I think in the real history, she got killed and was barred under the plum tree. Oh well...

FAVORITES
- Cast
Melissa Ng
I never paid any attention to her before, don't know why. But, this series totally changed my views toward her. I think she did an excellent job in this series, and you will enjoy her character as much as I do because she is smart and very nice.

Florence Kwok for the way she acts
Even though her character is hateful, but her acting is great! I had to give two thumbs up! This is my perfect villain style! Great acting, great villain skills. Florence seems to be really good at being evil! Haha... I enjoyed her acting, really promising!

Kong Wah
I have to mention him, because I like him a lot! Some of you might think he is being too childish in the series. Yeah, you are right, he spent all his time with Lady Yang, and slowly forget about the country. He gave all his power to Yang Kwok Jung and An Lu Shan, that causes the big upset of the people. But, I still like him (not as the king), but as the actor, I think his performance was pretty good in here. Especially when he is mad, he looks cute!

- Character
Lady Plum, as I mentioned above, she is SUPER NICE!

Lady Yang
I like this character because she is a true legend. Also, I feel pity for her death. I mean, after all the things she went through in the palace, with jealousy and all that, she just want to spent her life with the man she loves dearly, but because of the fact he is an emperor, they could not end up together... poor girl!

- Couple
The Emperor and Lady Yang
Of course! That is the main deal in this series, and I think Kong Wah and Anne does look good together in this series.

- Scene
Here comes the list:
1. Whenever Lady Yang is in trouble, you will see Lady Plum is the one always there to help her, what a great sister to have!
2. Whenever you see the king is try to protect Lady Yang, they are so in loved...
3. The ending: it is not perfect, but it is pretty good. I get to see the old Kong Wah, and the way he still misses Lady Yang

LEAST FAVORITES
- Cast
Anne Heung
Even though her character is great, but her acting skill is not good AT ALL! I HATE the way she screams! Really hate it!

- Character
Wai Fei
A true evil person, who pretends to be good, but deep down inside, she is evil! She deserves a worse ending then just get killed... she should suffer more than that!

- Couple
I can not think of any...

- Scene
When Lady Yang's forehead was injured, and she thinks she is going to be ugly, she went crazy, and creams about her look. I hate that part because I hate the way Anne tries to scream!

COMMENTS
As I said, I always enjoyed the true legend story. I think this series is not bad, I loved the performances (other than Anne's), and the outfits. Even the music, the dancing scenes were wonderful. But, there are way too many gossips in the palace, people against each other, wives getting jealous, it happens every day... sometimes you will feel tired of watching the characters againsting each other. But, you will also put yourself into the character's shoes...

IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
For "emperor fans", it is a good rent, because you will enjoy most part of the story. For Melissa or Florence fans, you have to rent it, because they were perfect!