General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Palace

The Palace (Chinese: 宫锁沉香, Gong Suo Chen Xiang) is a 2013 Chinese historical romantic drama film directed by Pan Anzi, written by Yu Zheng, and starring Zhou Dongyu, Chen Xiao, Zhu Zixiao, and Zhao Liying. Set in the imperial palace during the Kangxi era of the Qing dynasty, it follows two palace maids whose friendship is destroyed when one steals credit for meeting the prince the other loves. It was Yu Zheng's first feature film, extending his Palace (Gong) television series to the big screen.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Chinese title	宫锁沉香 (pinyin: gong1 suo3 chen2 xiang1); also released as Gong Suo Chen Xiang and 궁¹
Director / writer	Pan Anzi (director); Yu Zheng (screenplay)¹
Principal cast	Zhou Dongyu (Chen Xiang), Chen Xiao (13th Prince Yin Xiang), Zhu Zixiao (9th Prince Yin Tang), Zhao Liying (Liuli)³
Release	13 August 2013 (mainland China); Taiwan 25 April 2014; South Korea 4 February 2016²
Runtime	115 minutes, Putonghua, color²
Mainland box office	Opening day 23.585 million RMB; first week 46.862 million RMB; cumulative 54.461 million RMB as of 24 September 2025²
Filming	4 October to 5 December 2012, at Hengdian World Studios²

Spoilers

Plot

During the Kangxi era, the young maid Chen Xiang (Zhou Dongyu) enters palace service and befriends Liuli (Zhao Liying), a maid of the same age. Liuli is ambitious and hopes to rise by attracting a prince, while Chen Xiang simply wants to serve her years and leave the palace for an ordinary life.²

One night Liuli sends Chen Xiang to take her shift in her place. Covering her face with a handkerchief Liuli embroidered, Chen Xiang encounters the 13th Prince, Yin Xiang (Chen Xiao), and the two fall for each other. When the prince later searches the palace for the girl he met, Liuli falsely claims the handkerchief as her own, and the prince believes she is the woman he loves. Chen Xiang, protecting her friend, becomes Liuli's personal maid and hides her feelings.³^•²

Liuli also begins a liaison with the 9th Prince, Yin Tang (Zhu Zixiao), who abandons her. The story follows the prince's fall from favor, his imprisonment, and Chen Xiang's devotion to him in disguise, before the deception is revealed and the pair leave the palace together.²^•⁴ The supporting cast includes Bao Beier as the eunuch Chun Shou, Vivian Wu, Lu Yi as the Yongzheng Emperor, Winston Chao as the Kangxi Emperor, and Dicky Cheung as the chief eunuch.³^•⁵

Production

After the social response to the Palace television series, Yu Zheng wanted to make a Qing-palace work different from the usual solemn treatment, and, having never written a first-love story, folded a pure-romance plot into the late imperial harem setting.² The film was shot at Hengdian World Studios from 4 October to 5 December 2012, produced by Du Yang, with production companies including Shanghai Tianyu Media and Wanda Media.²

During the shoot, Zhou Dongyu and Chen Xiao fell from their horses while filming a riding scene; Zhou Dongyu injured her back and Chen Xiao was unharmed. Chen Xiao, whose prince is skilled in music, calligraphy, riding, and archery, trained in horsemanship and calligraphy before filming. It was Zhu Zixiao's first film and first villain role; he reportedly lost a large amount of weight during production from insomnia and dieting.²

Release and box office

The film opened in mainland China on 13 August 2013, the Qixi Festival, the Chinese Valentine's Day. Baidu Baike records an opening day of 23.585 million RMB and a first-week total of 46.862 million RMB; a Sohu Entertainment report the next day gave the opening day as about 21 million RMB and described the performance as below expectations despite strong screening support from the Wanda cinema chain, on a national single-day market of roughly 122 million RMB led by Tiny Times 2.²^•⁶ Cumulative mainland gross reached 54.461 million RMB as of 24 September 2025.²

It was released in Taiwan on 25 April 2014 and in South Korea on 4 February 2016.² It is available on streaming services including Rakuten Viki and Amazon Video, and on Netflix in some regions.⁵^•⁷

Reception and interpretation

Pre-release screenings drew mixed notices. A Modern Express report from a Nanjing screening gave the film 7 out of 10, praising a clear plot line and moderate dramatic conflict, but noted that many scenes felt familiar, resembling the television series Empresses in the Palace in the mutual torment of the two maids and the pure love between the heroine and a prince.⁸ A Beijing Youth Daily review was sharply negative, arguing that the film's contrived misunderstandings, such as the prince failing to recognize the voice of the woman he spent a night with, and its cartoonishly divided good and evil characters, drained the story of credibility, and that the succession-struggle backdrop was treated frivolously.⁹

An academic article in Masterpieces Review (2014) read the film as a retelling of the Cinderella motif, from Yu Zheng's novel of the same name: Chen Xiang endures abuse and trials, is identified through a special token, and marries a prince, but the story drops the fairy's magical aid, presenting self-reliance, kindness, and devotion to love as the path to happiness.¹⁰

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2013 to 2014 › Titles J to W

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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