Inside the Forbidden City

Inside the Forbidden City 1965

sòng gōng shǐ

It seems that Li Zhenfei was once an imperial concubine, who often found herself competing with her rival Madame Liu for the emperor's sole, undivided attention. When Li gives birth to the Emperor's child, the jealous Liu switches the boy with a cat and commands a servant named Kou Zhu to kill the baby. However, Kou Zhu ignores the order and gives the prince-to-be to the emperor's brother, a decision which eventually leads to the boy being adopted by the emperor himself! But as fate would have it, to go along with his new son, the emperor has a new wife as well - Madame Liu! As this strange new family unit is being constructed, poor Li Zhenfei has been confined to the forbidden palace, condemned to never see or speak to her son, the prince. But destiny reunites her with her son, but will this family reunion be a happy one? And will Madame Liu finally be punished for her treachery?

HSK 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
6.59 Advanced

Vocabulary

Filter the words you want to study before watching.

hǎo good; appropriate; proper; all right!; (before a verb) easy to; (before a verb) good to; (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so; (verb complement indicating completion); (of two people) close; on intimate terms; (after a personal pronoun) hello HSK 1
shuō to speak; to talk; to say; to explain; to comment; to scold; to tell off; (bound form) theory; doctrine HSK 1
yào to want; to need; to ask for; will; shall; about to; need to; should; if (same as 是); (bound form) important HSK 1
rén person; people HSK 1
(classifier used before a noun that has no specific classifier); (bound form) individual HSK 1
men we; us; ourselves; our HSK 1
(joining two nouns) and; together with; with (Taiwan pr. [hàn]); (math.) sum; to make peace; (sports) to draw; to tie; (bound form) harmonious; (bound form) Japan; Japanese HSK 1
jiù (after a suppositional clause) in that case; then; (after a clause of action) as soon as; immediately after; (same as 是) merely; nothing else but; simply; just; precisely; exactly; only; as little as; as much as; as many as; to approach; to move towards; to undertake; to engage in; (often followed by 着) taking advantage of; (of food) to go with; with regard to; concerning; (pattern: 就 ... 也 ...) even if ... still ...; (pattern: 不 ... 就 ...) if not ... then must be ... HSK 1
zhè (pronoun) this; these; (bound form) this; the (followed by a noun); (bound form) this; these (followed by a classifier) (in this sense, commonly pr. [zhèi], esp. in Beijing) HSK 1
he; him (used for either sex when the sex is unknown or unimportant); (used before sb's name for emphasis); (used as a meaningless mock object); (literary) other HSK 1
yǒu to have; there is; (bound form) having; with; -ful; -ed; -al (as in 意 intentional) HSK 1
no; not so; (bound form) not; un- HSK 1
you (informal, as opposed to courteous 您) HSK 1
zài to exist; to be alive; (of sb or sth) to be (located) at; (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress) HSK 1
shì to be (followed by substantives only); correct; right; true; (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well; (adverb for emphatic assertion) HSK 1
I; me; my HSK 1
liǎo (of eyes) bright; clear-sighted; to understand clearly HSK 1
de of; ~'s (possessive particle); (used after an attribute); (used to form a nominal expression); (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis); also pr. [dì] or [di] in poetry and songs HSK 1
Rare
Rare
think, consider, ponder; final particle Interjection
fēng shēng sound of the wind; rumor; talk; news; reputation Onomatopoeia
léi tíng sound of thunder Onomatopoeia