Serenade of Peaceful Joy is the first court-focused Song Dynasty drama in forever.
Director Zhang Kaizhou (The Story of Ming Lan) returns to the Song Dynasty in Serenade of Peaceful Joy (formerly Held in the Lonely Castle) in this tale of the court and harem of the Emperor Renzong of Song (Wang Kai). The series focuses on the attempts of the leads to try to balance their responsibilities and personal lives and stars Wang Kai, Jiang Shuying, Ren Min, Bian Cheng, Yang Le, Wang Churan, Ye Zuxin, Yu En’tai, Xu Lingyue, and Zhang Tian’ai.
The series should be available on Youtube on this channel beginning April 7th, with two episodes a day on weekdays and one episode a day on weekends.
Ending theme song by Zheng YunlongHeld in the Lonely Castle stillWang Kai as the Emperor Renzong of SongJiang Shuying as Empress CaoRen Min as Princess HuirouBian Cheng as the Princess’s eunuchWang Churan as Concubine ZhangDing Jiawen as Cao PingZhang Jiashuo as Young Zhao ZhenZhan Yu as Young Han Qi
Yang Le as Han QiYe Zuxin as Eunuch Zhang MaozeLiu Jun as Fan ZhongyanZhang Benshuo as Ouyang XiuYu Entai as Yan ShuFeng Hui as Xia SongWu Yue as Empress Liu EXu Lingyue as Concubine Miao, Princess Huirou’s motherCao Xiwen as Zhao Zhen’s nurseZhang Tian’ai as Lady ChenWang Kai in Held in the Lonely Castle
5 thoughts on “Promo Round-Up: Serenade of Peaceful Joy”
i really cannot enjoy harem conflicts. thou this drama is focusing more on renzhong’s life–unlike ruyi’s royal love or yanxi palance–still, harem conflicts truly got me hypertension.
I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far and it’s really different from the two you mentioned. The main topics tackled today are 1)the balance between the emperor’s duty to his parents and to his people, 2) how even seemingly harmless actions like wanting a certain favor of candies fruit by those with influence can have huge effects on the people, and 3) how individual kindness differs from governing kindness (ie what may seem just on an individual level, like allowing a poor family to open up shop in their home, can be harmful when allowed on a social level )
I really have an issue with Zhang Kaizhou’s way of storytelling/editing. I know he’s trying to make the above three points, but he just goes about it in such a long-winded and fragmented way.
I have a problem with the scene transitions, but I have to say that everything else is amazing so far. The dialogue is unexpectedly nuanced and eloquent, so I must give props to the scriptwriters (even if the quality of the plot later careens sharply off a cliff).
The thing that frustrates me the most is that I think the script is actually really good, and scriptwriter Zhu Zhu sets things up perfectly for the director to be able to have fun with it. Even in the first two episodes, there’s a lot of repeated themes and great juxtapositions set-up in the script that could’ve been edited together to build up tension, but the director managed to miss all of those opportunities. The worst is that there’s a couple of scenes where the final lines are kind of the linchpin lines, but there’s no close-up or reaction shot so they’re given zero emphases, so I have to mentally pause and give myself time to imagine a replay in my head to fully process the series.
i really cannot enjoy harem conflicts. thou this drama is focusing more on renzhong’s life–unlike ruyi’s royal love or yanxi palance–still, harem conflicts truly got me hypertension.
I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far and it’s really different from the two you mentioned. The main topics tackled today are 1)the balance between the emperor’s duty to his parents and to his people, 2) how even seemingly harmless actions like wanting a certain favor of candies fruit by those with influence can have huge effects on the people, and 3) how individual kindness differs from governing kindness (ie what may seem just on an individual level, like allowing a poor family to open up shop in their home, can be harmful when allowed on a social level )
I really have an issue with Zhang Kaizhou’s way of storytelling/editing. I know he’s trying to make the above three points, but he just goes about it in such a long-winded and fragmented way.
I have a problem with the scene transitions, but I have to say that everything else is amazing so far. The dialogue is unexpectedly nuanced and eloquent, so I must give props to the scriptwriters (even if the quality of the plot later careens sharply off a cliff).
The thing that frustrates me the most is that I think the script is actually really good, and scriptwriter Zhu Zhu sets things up perfectly for the director to be able to have fun with it. Even in the first two episodes, there’s a lot of repeated themes and great juxtapositions set-up in the script that could’ve been edited together to build up tension, but the director managed to miss all of those opportunities. The worst is that there’s a couple of scenes where the final lines are kind of the linchpin lines, but there’s no close-up or reaction shot so they’re given zero emphases, so I have to mentally pause and give myself time to imagine a replay in my head to fully process the series.