War and Beauty

Four women inside the Qing imperial harem, ranked, watched and dependent on the attention of a man the audience barely sees: Imperial Consort Yu-Yuet, and Noble Ladies On-Seen, Yuk-Ying, and Yi-Sun. There is no hero. Each of them is trying to survive an institution designed to set them against one another, and the serial treats their scheming, alliance-building, and betrayal as work rather than villainy.

Set during the late Jiaqing Emperor's reign, the intrigue escalates until an armed rebellion breaks into the palace itself, and the uprising costs most of the main characters everything they had been fighting to protect. Only two of the four women make it out from behind the palace walls.

War and Beauty starred Sheren Tang, Maggie Cheung Ho-Yee, Gigi Lai, and Charmaine Sheh as the four consorts, with Bowie Lam and Moses Chan in key supporting roles. The 30-episode series aired on TVB Jade in 2004, won Bowie Lam and Gigi Lai the year's TVB Best Actor and Best Actress awards, and is the show that made the palace drama a genre in Hong Kong, later named among the best Hong Kong TV dramas of all time by Time Out Hong Kong.