i like this. all the actresses are excellent, as with the actors. the story line is going from one main cast to another, mostly hinged on the lady in the plot, which is very strongly attached due to her excellent charisma... lin yuan .. reminds me of zhao wei in her youth, strong acting as well as beautiful . the other girls are all strong acting too... the characters of song ning, qi qi,zi yan, and even if it was diverted in the middle by the appearance of the assassin (guo zhen ni) ..who i think is a very strong actress as well. she plays the dual role so convincingly... flipping beauty and sinster , powerful and weak... i watched other roles by guo zhen ni before, but she never got to show her acting skills until now with a strong main supporting role. mu rong an , the mermaid, is even more enchanting. even i would fall in love with one look :) this is the best of the new dramas to date, other than sun li (beauties of the emperor) and zanilla zhao (best get going) and tiffany tang (lady and the liar). i give it top marks simply because i am not familiar with the lead actress lin yuan, who as i said before, is impressive with qualities (beauty + powerful acting ) of zhao wei gong li, betty sun li, chen qiao en , jing tian,etc... i hope lin yuan will get a new drama soon. btw, i think song ning had too little part in this movie which is a pity. they should have given more episodes on the warrior lady, also zi yan the bodyguard. they should have done more with these two fighting ladies. maybe a new sequel with resurrected song ning and zi yan . lastly, too much emphasis on the silly emperor... who although is funny, but once again, the comedy weaken the plot of a period movie. either go all comedy like another pandora box, or go mostly serious like song of the desert, or stay magical like this one ... with less emphasis on the silly side.