Hi everyone! My name is Chibi and this is my first episode guest entry here at K-TVB.net. While KTVB will be bringing to you everything [Born Rich] between studying, I’ll be covering [Beyond the Realm of Conscience]. So, let’s get started 🙂
I finally sit down and start watching the TVB Grand Production [Beyond the Realm of Conscience] – the opening sequence and themesong itself looks good already.
The show starts off revealing snippets of what’s to come; with both Charmaine (劉三好 Lau Sam-ho) and Tavia (Yiu Kam-ling 姚金鈴) having high status in the Palace. It is revealed they are both pregnant to the Emperor. Both Charmaine and Tavia, who were once “sisters” (extremely close friends), now no longer have that relationship. Tavia is bitter, hateful and full of vengeance. She’s had enough pain and suffering inflicted upon her. Charmaine is petrified by Tavia’s change of heart, is regretful and in utter disbelief.
The appearance says it all…Tavia is looking pretty scary with all that make-up and hair-do. More make-up = More evil? O_o
This dramatic confrontation probably appears near the end of the series. We all know Tavia changes her heart from “good” to “evil”. But how? Why? What series of events occur which could break this strong bond between them? I’ll admit now I’m personally a bit biased, and hope I won’t “hate” Tavia too much. I think there’s always a good reason why someone can turn bad. I hope TVB can give her a smooth and believable transition 🙂
Charmaine is the exact contrast, giving off an angelic, very righteous kind-hearted vibe. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. She seems to be a bit extreme in terms of “goodness”. It’s too early to judge whether we’ll enjoy watching her, or if we’ll start pulling our hair out from her very existence. We don’t like Mary Sue characters very much ^^;Â I believe any realistic character could easily fit in areas of grey. It makes a character more rounded and interesting anyway. That being said, I hope Tavia won’t turn so evil that we’d want to strangle her without sympathy XD.
20 years ago..
We’re now looking back in time when both Charmaine and Tavia were little children.
Left to right: Young Tavia, Charmaine and Krystal ( Charmaine’s Mother )
Charmaine is Krystal’s biological daughter, whereas Tavia seems to be their servant. She refers to Charmaine as “Sill Jie” and Krystal as “Fu Yun”. However, she is treated quite well and are more like family. The three of them have a loving relationship and are currently on the hideout. Unfortunately, they are soon discovered and forcefully taken into the Palace’s Four Proceedings Council (尚宮局).
Imperial Household Bureau is responsible for managing all household services to the Emperor and the Imperial family in Tang Dynasty.
It is composed of four departments; Jewels, Attire, Food and Furnishings. This is where both Michelle (Chung Suet-ha é¾é›ªéœž) and Susanna’s (Yuen Chiu-wan é˜®ç¿ é›²) roles’ are introduced along with the other Heads.
The Head of Palace Proceedings gathers the departments together to discuss arrangements for Grand Empress Dowager (éƒçš‡å¤ªåŽ).
At this point, Susanna is not the Head of Jewellery, making her lower in status compared to Michelle. However, she is not afraid to voice her opinion and often expresses her ideas, much to the annoyance of Michelle. The two are constantly at each others throats, wanting nothing but the demise of the other. Very typical of these ladies it seems… The Head of Palace Proceedings mention that she has brought Krystal into the Palace, who is a fine and skilled craftsmen. Both Michelle and Susanna want her in their own respective departments.
A very nervous and afraid Krystal walks in, demonstrating her knowledge of craftsmanship. She was put in charge of creating a hair piece for the Grand Empress.
Susanna tries to befriend Krystal but Michelle soon enters, indiscreetly suggesting Susanna’s untrustworthiness.
“You’re so desperate to find a good helper, aren’t you worried she will overtake your position?”
Susanna glares back at Michelle, but doesn’t say a word.
“You don’t know how to talk back, or you’re too afraid? Oh yes, lower status is lower status, you’re not allowed to speak to your senior like that”
Judging from face value, Michelle seems to be the more evil, but it’s hard to tell who really is the one scheming at this point. What happens next really raises some suspicion!
The night before Grand Empress arrives, young Charmaine and Tavia decide to visit their mother, who was busy working on the hair piece. They notice a suspicious silhouette of a lady looking at the hair pin and walking out of their mother’s room! Who is this lady, and why was she there?
Eventually the day arrives, and Grand Empress is presented with the hair piece Krystal created. She sits down to have a chat with The Head of the Army. All seems to be going well, until she started feeling a bit chilly from the weather. A few servants surround her holding some lanterns to keep her warm. Unfortunately out of the blue, what looks to be like blood starts leaking from the hair piece! The Grand Empress, who is obviously very superstitious in the old days, saw it as a very bad omen. She furiously tosses it to be the ground.
Krystal, who was responsible for the accessory gets beaten up into a severe condition, and gets tossed onto the ground. The Head of Jewellery was also disposed of as a result.
aww.. a very sad moment.
Meanwhile, Michelle and the other Imperial Household Bureau beg the head to seek the Grand Empress’s forgiveness of The Head of Jewellery. However, she explains there’s nothing she can do, since it is a very severe offense. After some investigation, Michelle finds out that someone added wax to the hair piece, which explains why it started melting, when surrounded by the lanterns. She immediately suspects Susanna behind the scheme, as it seems she’s the only one who could benefit from The Head of Jewellery’s misfortune. As Michelle takes a stroll in the garden, she overhears young Tavia and Charmaine talking about the suspicious lady they saw; walking out of the room that night.
The next day, Susanna was being promoted to the position of the Head of Jewellery. However, Michelle steps in and accuses her for being the real culprit. She backs up her statement by bringing in both young Tavia and Charmaine as witnesses. The girls explain it was Susanna they saw walking out of their mother’s room. Susanna admits she did enter Krystal’s room, but it was only to give her some mid-night snacks, and they even chatted for a little while. Afterward she went to take a look at the hair piece before she left. Michelle argues she could make up anything now that Krystal is in a unconscious state. Suddenly, young Charmaine speaks up and admits they never saw her putting wax on the pin. With that, the Head believes Michelle doesn’t have sufficient evidence , so the ceremony resumed. Susanna successfully becomes the Head of Jewellery.
Krystal’s wounds did not heal and her death was drawing near. She mentions that her husband promised he’ll come back for them, and return to their home town. She wishes she could see her home town’s native flowers. In tears, young Charmaine rushes out in the palace garden where there’s those flowers growing on a tree. She picks up some flowers that have dropped to the ground. However, she is accused by one of the Palace ladies for picking them from the tree. She slaps young Charmaine when she says she didn’t. Luckily, a young boy (Young Moses?) walks in and disapproves of the ladie’s action. He scolds at her and she takes off. Fresh flowers drop from the tree, and he catches it and gives it to her. Very cute!
Young Charmaine rushes back to her mother’s side, sings her a song and she passes away. Her ashes, like all other palace servants who die, are to be dropped into a well. Even with death, they cannot escape the palace. Young Charmaine and Tavia cry by the well, as Susanna is secretly watching from afar. What does this mean? Is Susanna really the one behind it?
Click here to read Episode 2-3 Synopsis >>
Loading ...
Phew! Finally got the first episode done 🙂 That took up several hours! I don’t know how KTVB does so many of these all the time- it sure is a lot of work! I’m not sure if future episode posts will be this long and detailed but I hope you enjoy it anyway 🙂
I want more….!!! hope you will post more more more 🙂
Thanks for anticipating ^_^ Stay tuned, more will definitely come 🙂
wow. this was a very percise and accurate detail of the series. it’s like the whole series in one post. i am very fond of your vocabulary and sentence structure, addiction to all picture was i can assure you use adobe photoshop. well keep up the good work. ill be expecting more of these…..but here’s a suggestion, if you could, at the end of each post, express your though on the episode. thanks so much. i really enjoy it
Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed reading my post!
Looking back at it again, I think I may have went a little overboard with the details! I’ll definitely be putting more thoughts and opinions in the episodes to come 🙂
Hi Chibi! Very thorough and detailed summary of the first episode, great job! =)
I almost cried watching the end of this first ep.
I think everyone looks awesome in the series. All of their costumes and accessories look so glamorous. It’s pretty good so far and I bet it’ll get even better when Tavia’s character begins to develop (-> evil).
P.S. Krystal Tin looks very nice. She has a great ancient look in her.
Thanks kinki 🙂
The end part was pretty sad indeed! And I agree, Krystal looks elegant with that hairstyle… her best look yet in a TVB series 🙂
I know rite. i was really hoping to see more of here. wouldn’t it be nice if you could see her climb up the social ladder to and get promoted as a head of either department. but know, tvb had to kill her on the first episode. w.e. it’s a good steping stone for the seire though. and i do agree even though she was dress very plain with not much accessories, you can still tell she was once wealthy by the way she tlks and her poster. This is definitly her best look so far. i sure hope to see much more of her in ancient drama
I had a feeling she was going to die pretty early on; which leaves young Tavia and Charmaine looking out for each other.
Good characters don’t last very long. o_o
Hi Chibi,
Thanks for making the post. I hope I could read more post as detailed as this in your future posts 🙂
Thanks for reading! 😀
Hi, chibi! Congrats and good job on your first post! Hope to see you around more. 🙂
Love the details, but less detailed would be good. After all, I think you were going for an episode summary? That would make it easier and less time consuming for you. 😀
Krystal Tin looks beautiful and elegant in this series.
Thanks for the comment 🙂
I know what you mean by the details..I think I did go overboard with it! lol. I end up typing up almost 1500 words for a “summary”. I kept saying to myself to keep it more summarised, but without knowing, I kept adding more and more. Hopefully in the next posts, I won’t go into too much 🙂 I’ll try be more selective!
Very good summary/outline of the episode. The young Moses part with young Charmaine was cute 🙂 The first episode is sad, but I think I might hold this series and go on to watch Born Rich first…
I enjoyed the young Moses scene too :3 He’s so funny looking, lol.
hehe, it’s always a bit of a dilemma as to which Grand Production to watch. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading what KTVB has to say about Born Rich 😀
i totally agree. Young moses is so funny when you look at him. he really does kinda look like a young moses. you should hurry up and write on the next episode. i really want to know what you though of it.
Don’t worry, I’ll be working on it the next couple of nights 🙂 It takes quite a lot of time to write up quality posts, but I’m sure it will be worth the wait ^_^ Quality over quantity, right?
hahahah yeah. good point
thanks chibi, BRC is looking a very interesting, just like you i hope Tavia doesnt become too evil that I’ll hate her fromr this serie onwards hihi
haha yes. That’s the risky part of playing evil roles.. if they portray them so well, people may start hating the actor ^^; Roles can really change an image of an actor, like for Sonjia in D.I.E it was for the better..but people’s perception of Roger Kwok from The Last One Standing really changed I think.
Gotta say though, I’d much rather hate a character thats suppose to be hated (i.e evil) then hate a character who is suppose to be GOOD, and liked o_o
hey chibi. i just wanna let you know that im vietnamese. and i have no idea at all what the character are talking about in the seires, eventhough im on episode 6 rite now. but you can kinda get a clue what the character are talking about. and i do watch the english sub to whenver they are publish. so i just want to tell you how awesome it is that your posting this up……….ps: i cnt wait til beyond the realm of conscience will be dubb in Vietnamese
Oh wow, it must be tricky watching it in a language you don’t understand. It just shows how much you’re anticipating this drama ^_^ Good to know this post is useful to you 🙂
hahahah yea. i waited since when the sales presentation clip went out. i waited like everyday for that. i frist though it was going to come out like in march or something when they finish filming but NOOOOOOOO. tvb had to make it an anniversary series. ughhh oh well……..I know i sound like i dnt have a life rite now. but i actually do!!!!!
Hi chibi!
Great episode summary!
I’m really anticipating this series, and reading the summary just makes me want to watch it even more x)
Yay, so many pictures 😀
I love the cast 😀
Hi and thanks for reading 😀
Glad you like the pics ^^
Haha i agree young Moses look so funny looking. ^^
Thanks for the summary. 🙂 I finished watching episode one yesterday.
You’re welcome ^_^ Episode 2-3 Summary will be up tomorrow some time 😀
WOW, Thank you chibi for that. It sure did take alot of work. HAHA i wonder when will Tavia turn evil. LOOL i want to post BTROC on my blog, but i dont have time for that. So is it fine with you that i put a link on my blog for people to come & read your post? (:
You’re welcome Mymy ^-^!
And sure, you’re more than welcome to provide a link on your blog to this blog post to read 🙂
Thanks you very much 🙂
I think that Beyond is a great series!! Thanks for the summaries! I missed episode one so this tells me more about the story. Anyway, I love how Moses acts all stupid! He’s so cute especially in episode 6! Kevin and Charmaine as usual have great chemistry! Keep thoses summaries up!!
haha, episode 6? You’re too ahead of me ^^;; (Shhh, no spoilers plz XD)
Glad you enjoyed the summary ^^
I just got the first three eps of Beyond in Vietnamese.. yay!!
haha enjoy! ^_^
charmaine sheh’s acting as the nicest and kindest girl on the block really grates on my nerves. very sick of seeing her acting more or less the same kinda goody goody personality in almost every series that she is in. can’t tvb give her more challenging roles?!? perhaps her acting skills not as good thus only limited type of roles for her…
hmm yes I would have to agree with you here. Perhaps Charmaine should take on a villain role too someday for variety 🙂
I just watched this episode~ I love it!! XD Some very sad moments and I’m feeling the excitement from all the bickering behind the palace with all the woman- from Susan being the grand emperor and her interaction with Mary (still slightly confused about their relationship) to the battle in Palace’s Four Proceedings Council.
I really like Susanna’s character too; but I’m also suspicious about who is really behind the wax in the hair piece. I really hope it isn’t Susanna can’t really trust everything we see on the surface. Sometimes the ones who show they are evil, i.e Michelle may not be as “scheming” as those which do not appear to be.
I really liked Krystal in the series- so sad she had to die so early on !!! This episode really sets the mood and foreshadow of the entire series, esp with the “20 years later” bit and how servants tragically get killed and turned into ashes..yet still cannot be freed from the palace.
Young Moses scene was pretty cute XD
yay!! You’ve finally started watching BTROC :D! Glad you’re enjoying it so far!
I was a bit confused about their relationship too (not sure if it was hidden, or I just didn’t quite get it until later on)