WARNING: Spoilers ahead for both Behind the Realm of Conscience and Deep in the Realm of Conscience
I wish they didn't try to make this as a Behind the Realm of Conscience sequel and instead, made it a stand-alone series. TVB tried too hard trying to emulate the success of BTROC. I thought there were too many similarities between the two dramas and that DITROC copied all the wrong things. The weird rhyming they did was also really bizarre and distracting. This was actually my second attempt at watching this. I tried to awhile back but I just couldn't get past the first episode. After finishing the series, I have to say, that this drama wasn't ALL bad and was maybe even somewhat enjoyable at times. The costumes were wonderful and most of the acting were pretty good.
Steven Ma as Li Longji
Steven's character have one goal throughout the series - to become the emperor. He is always in a constant war with Alice Chan who is doing everything she can to prevent him from his goal. Because of his aunt, he was not able get total power and control the courts when he became emperor as his father maintained Taishang Huang status due to Alice's influence. He's not shy to participate in some scheming to get his way, like trying to get Edwin and Annie on his side by telling Pinky to tell Annie that it was Alice who had Annie's sister killed years ago, when in reality, it was him. The biggest thing that bothered me about him was on his wedding night with Chrissie where he raped her because he thought that she had hurt Nancy. At least he finally banished her to the 冷宫 when he gained total control as an emperor. He had a super strong support system that I can't believe it took him 36 episodes to become the sole emperor. He had Eric Li, his brother who gave up the Crown Prince title to him, Kenneth, Edwin, and Nancy (except the part where she indirectly murdered his unborn child). Anyway, overall he is not what I would consider as a good person, so there really wasn't any point where I was rooting for his character.
Nancy Wu as Wang Jun
From intentionally disfiguring her half-sister's face to causing Chrissie's miscarriage, Nancy's character here is set in the thought of becoming empress and maintaining that position. Her biggest flaw was being unable to bear a child - she miscarried and as a result, she became infertile. This role was similar to Tavia's in BTROC in that she appeared to be a "good guy" but then we realized she was actually evil and super manipulative. However, I felt her schemes were pretty weak and overall, Nancy's character was not as impressive whereas Tavia really sold us Kam Ling. I'm usually a huge fan of Nancy and I think she does great in villain roles, but here, I thought she fell flat. Her on-screen presence wasn't too exciting either.
Annie Liu as Yuen Yuet
Despite her accent, I really enjoyed watching her onscreen! I was glad she was not like a Christine Kuo. Annie's first appearances made me felt annoyed about her character, but she definitely grew on me. Annie's character went into the palace in order to find out what happened to her older sister who stopped sending her letters. She started out as a palace maid and went on to become Princess Ling Lung due to one of Nancy's schemes. I felt bad for her character when she got super guilty for falling on Chrissie and causing her miscarriage, since this was all due to Nancy's scheming. My favorite scene of hers was when she demanded to see Kenneth Ma when he was accused of having affairs with Chrissie.
Kenneth Ma as Yam Sam-shu
Kenneth plays the Imperial Guard general and the right-hand man of Li Longji. I enjoyed his scenes with Steven, Edwin, and Jacqueline. There wasn't much to say about him or his character. He was a MEH. He was pretty wooden in here, but I read somewhere that Kenneth did it on purpose in order to maintain the character's stoic and serious personality.
Edwin Siu as Ho Lei
He intentionally made Kenneth want him in the Imperial Guard because he wanted to kill the Emperor for killing everyone at his childhood orphanage. We know later on that this was because he was actually the rightful heir to the throne - the eldest of the sons of the Emperor. However, when he was born, his mother sent him away from the palace secretly to ensure his survival. In the last episode, he was almost murdered by Alice but her maid betrayed her, which I thought was SUPER random. Like, her maid was totally loyal to her throughout the entire series and out of nowhere, with no indication whatsoever, she switched sides. Anyway, he gave up the opportunity for the throne by pretending he was not the prince they were looking for, and left the palace with Annie. I enjoyed his romantic story line with Annie and I'm glad that they got their happy ending.
Alice Chan as Princess Taiping
This was one of my favorite characters in this drama. We see her as someone who can be ruthless and scheming, wanting to become the empress herself like Wu Zetian, and cared a lot for her older brother aka the emperor. The power struggles she had with Steven were fun to watch. I disliked how the first 10 episodes or so, they were focused on Alice's love for her first husband, but they didn't mention him ever again after her second husband's death. I also felt bad for her second husband, Savio, who loved her but she didn't love him back nor respected him, not until he sacrificed his life to save her from punishment for crimes against a palace maid. But then, he was also never mentioned ever again.
Chrissie Chau as Shunhei
As the niece of Princess Taiping, she had a bit of a 靠山 initially. That is, until Princess Taiping was unable to use her anymore for her schemes. Her story line was pretty sad - married Steven but he resented her because she was Princess Taiping's pick, targeted by Nancy's jealousy and evil schemes, miscarried, and died. This pretty much sums it up. At least she had good friends - Annie and Jacqueline although the latter died. Chrissie's acting felt flat to me, and I didn't think she was that pretty.
Jacqueline Wong as Kam Yeuk-chin
This was my first time watching Jacqueline act in a drama but I guess this would also be my last time considering how TVB is allegedly ending their contract with her due to her scandal. Her acting wasn't too bad and she was pretty adorable, especially in her scenes with Kenneth albeit a bit awkward to watch since she'd cheated on him in real life. I wasn't all that upset when her character died, though. I just wished that they didn't drag out her death and gave us false hope that she'll live because she was initially in a coma of some sort. I thought that it was unnecessary and the only purpose it served was TVB's poor attempt at trying to "surprise" their viewers and pretend that they don't overuse plots and whatnot.
One of the biggest thing that was disappointing to me was the lack of focus on the Imperial Household Bureaus. I wasn't sure which departments the supervisors were part of. Also, don't get me wrong - I do like the actresses they picked, but I thought that their stories paled in comparison to the supervisors in BTROC.
Susan Tse did a good job as Lady Cheung, the Head of Palace Proceedings, but I liked her acting a lot more in BTROC because she pulled off the villain role really well there. I also liked Ching Hor Wai's Head of Palace Proceedings role more. The four department supervisors were played by Candy Lo, Akina Hong, Pinky Cheung, and Angie Cheong. Don't ask me which departments they were in charge of because I had no idea. Honestly, I wasn't even sure which department Annie and Jacqueline were in.
I enjoyed the interactions between Candy Lo and Angie Cheong, and they were definitely parallel to Michelle Yim and Susanna Kwan because they quarreled a lot in the series. Again, however, whatever they had going on paled in comparison. I did really enjoyed that one bit where they teamed up together to get rid of that one random guy who was playing them and solved the issue that tore the two cousins apart years ago.
I enjoyed Akina's story with Wai Ka-hung and it was pretty sad what happened to his character. Pinky Cheung's story was also pretty interesting. She's known for her petty greediness but that was because she was saving all the money for her brother and his wife to buy her a house outside the palace. She planned to leave the palace but decided not to because she realized they had gambled away her life savings and never gotten her the house. They also didn't want her to stay with them and rather had her continue sending them money, so she broke off ties with them.
Honorable mention goes to Mary Hon. I thought she made a great villain! I was not expecting her to be the one who poisoned Rosanne and Taishang Huang.
Overall, DITROC definitely fell into the curse of horrible sequels. It wasn't unbearably terrible though and like I've said, I didn't have a problem finishing the series. I'm glad they didn't try to make another Lau Sam Ho character or throw in any random love triangle, so that's a plus!
6.5/10 but I would NOT re-watch this.
