TVB has more than recouped its investment from the purchasing the broadcasting rights to Mainland Chinese drama The Empress of China <武則天>, with its Hong Kong viewership ratings averaging at 33 points and peaking at 37 points for its finale. TVB has conveyed the wonderful news to stars Fan Bingbing (范冰冰) and Aarif Lee (李治廷). During its broadcast run in Mainland China and Taiwan, The Empress of China also dominated television ratings. TVB expected similar success and heavily promoted the series. Owing to the overwhelming popularity of the drama, TVB intends to release a special collector’s edition of the drama on DVD and blu-ray. The edition will include both the original un-cut ending (which was part of what TVB had purchased) as well as the revised ending that was broadcast in Mainland China. As for TVB’s own dramas, the extension of popular sitcom Come Home Love <愛.回家> has also performed well, receiving viewership ratings of 25 points. However, TVB also received nine complaints from viewers who expressed that the original episodes were better. TVB responded with the statement, “The audience is still used to the original episodes and will need time to get used to, and accept, the extended episodes. We also need time to write a good story.” Additionally, the upcoming TVB drama, Brick Slaves <樓奴>, starring Vincent Wong (王浩信), Selena Li (李施嬅) and Eliza Sam (岑麗香) has been slated for a broadcast date of August 3. As for the period drama Rogue Emperor <流氓皇帝>, starring Kenneth Ma (馬國明) and Niki Chow (周麗淇), it will only be broadcast either end of the year or at the beginning of next year, for fear of the audience becoming tired of watching period dramas following The Empress of China. Creds: ihktv
Isn't this the one where they had complaints about too much cleavage Hopefully they don't edit it out then haha so you can see the fullness of the series
Yea, they CG'd the cleavage in TVB version. So I'm pretty sure if you watch the Mainland version you'll see some goodies, but you won't have the Cantonese I think
Think I would have liked rouge emperor over the other series! I won't ever tire of period dramas as I find them more interesting! Loved the empress china and wished they showed more of her reign!
When this drama was 1st aired early this year on Mainland China's Hunan TV it caused a bit of a stir. The actresses’ costumes were deemed too revealing by Chinese censors, so Hunan TV had to temporarily halt broadcast to re-edit the drama. This resulted in the censored scenes to show only the characters’ heads rather than their bodies. TVB used CGI to cover up all the cleavage-revealing scenes. The original uncut & uncensored version of this drama was aired in Taiwan.
Any chance of getting the Taiwanese release version here, preferably remuxed with Cantonese? Tang court ladies from the Tomb of Princess Yongtai in the Qianling Mausoleum, near Xi'an in Shaanxi, China. 706 AD. In truth, the Tang dynasty was known for low cut women's bodices; I really don't see why mainland television had to get so puritanical on us all of a sudden. The elaborate and stunning costumes in this series is what makes it so visually enticing. The story line too, is a revisionist white wash of who the true Wu Zetian was; in this series, she's portrayed as an innocent compelled to evil as a reactionary self defense against those who would persecute her, but historically speaking, she herself was the most horrific entity of her day. In other words, even a latter day Cixi would only be considered a poor understudy when compared to the despot that Wu was.
I doubt it will ever happen. TVB had the choice to air the original uncut & uncensored version of this drama but they decided not to do so. They wanted to be in the good books of the Chinese Censorship Department.
Unless some hardcore fans decide to do it themselves, but even that will be a difficult job since I'm pretty sure they will have different video cuts.
