General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Palace: Lock Sinensis

The Palace: Lock Sinensis (宫锁沉香; also released as The Palace) is a 2013 Chinese romance costume film directed by Pan Anzi and written by Yu Zheng, set in the Forbidden City during the final years of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty. It is the fourth installment of the Gong (Palace) series and the first to be a theatrical film rather than a television drama.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Chinese title	宫锁沉香 (Gōngsuǒ Chénxiāng); English title The Palace¹
Director / writer	Pan Anzi (director); Yu Zheng (screenplay)¹
Lead cast	Zhou Dongyu (Chen Xiang), Chen Xiao (Yinxiang), Zhu Zixiao, Zhao Liying (Liuli)¹^•⁴
Series position	Fourth work in the Gong series, and the only film among them²^•⁵
Release	13 August 2013 (mainland China); Taiwan 25 April 2014; South Korea 4 February 2016⁶
Running time	115 minutes⁷
Mainland box office	Opening day 23.585 million RMB; first week 46.862 million RMB; cumulative 54.461 million RMB as of 24 September 2025⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in the early 18th century, during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. The well-born Zhaojia Chenxiang enters the Forbidden City at age 13 as one of the imperial maids. She inadvertently trespasses in the old residence of the deceased mother of the 13th prince, where she is frightened by the sight of the young prince, and that night she meets another young maid, Liuli; the two become close friends.⁴^•⁵^•³

As the years pass, the two maids, together with their friend the eunuch Chun Shou, live through quiet years in the palace, where the recognized path to a better station is to attract the attention of a prince or the Emperor and become a concubine. Liuli wants to rise and become famous, while Chen Xiang wants an ordinary life. The film's central romance is a love at first sight between Chen Xiang and the 13th son of the Kangxi Emperor, Aisin Gioro Yinxiang (counting only sons who survived infancy; counting those who died young he was the 22nd son). Their relationship passes through misunderstandings and hardship before ending happily, while Liuli tries to change her life by getting close to a prince, even at the cost of betraying Chen Xiang, and a plot against the throne unfolds in the background.²^•⁴^•⁵

Unlike the television series from which it derives, the film drops the time-travel premise in which a modern woman is transported back to the Kangxi court.³^•⁵

Production and cast

The film was produced by Huaxia Audiovisual Global Media (Beijing) and Wanda Film and Television, with Wanda also handling distribution; it was the first film of 2013 that Wanda led in both production and promotion. Shooting took place at Hengdian World Studios from 4 October to 5 December 2012.²^•⁶^•⁷^•⁸

Zhou Dongyu, then 21 and known for Under the Hawthorn Tree (2010), played Chen Xiang; Chen Xiao played the 13th prince Yinxiang; Zhao Liying played Liuli; and Zhu Zixiao played Yuntang. The wider cast included Bao Bei'er as Chun Shou, Vivian Wu as Empress Xiaogongren, Winston Chao as the Kangxi Emperor, Lu Yi as the Yongzheng Emperor, and, in later credits, Zhao Wenxuan, Eva Huang, and Annie Shizuka Inoh.¹^•⁴^•³

Preparation and accidents. To approach the period, all male actors shaved their heads and the actresses removed the fine hair from their foreheads, an adjustment Zhao Liying found uncomfortable. Chen Xiao, whose character was skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, riding, and archery, practiced horsemanship and calligraphy before shooting and rehearsed cooking techniques for the role. During the filming of a scene in which Chen Xiang and the prince gallop on horseback, Zhou Dongyu and Chen Xiao both fell from their horses; Zhou Dongyu injured her back and Chen Xiao was unharmed. Zhu Zixiao, appearing in a feature film for the first time and playing a villainous role for the first time, suffered severe insomnia and weight loss during the shoot.⁶

Release and box office

The film premiered in mainland China on 13 August 2013, timed to the Qixi Festival, the Chinese holiday associated with romantic love. Promotion ran through the summer: a press conference at the Shanghai International Film Festival on 17 June 2013 unveiled the "double phoenix" poster and a romance trailer, a group poster followed on 12 July, a giant golden phoenix throne was unveiled in Beijing on 20 July, a final trailer and poster appeared on 1 August, and the premiere ceremony was held in Beijing on 9 August.⁶^•⁸

It earned 23.585 million RMB on its opening day and 46.862 million RMB in its first week. Cumulative mainland grosses reached 54.461 million RMB as of 24 September 2025; one Chinese reference lists the total as 54.11 million RMB. The Movie Database records worldwide revenue of $8,128,298.⁶^•²^•⁴ The release faced heavy competition in the same Qixi window from three other domestic romance films, Tiny Times 2, An Unforgettable Summer (一场风花雪月的事), and My Lucky Star-period comedy One Night Surprise, which opened in the preceding days.⁸^•⁹

Reception

A Sino-Cinema review in 2016 rated the film 8 out of 10, calling it a fluidly directed costume drama with strong production and costume design by Liu Shiyun and Wu Baoling, and crediting Zhou Dongyu's "unschooled brand of naive freshness" with turning a potentially sappy role into one blending love, steadfastness, and wonderment. The review noted that the film's tone, a mix of historical heft and fairytale lightness, differs from the more playful television series, and that it works as a standalone film without knowledge of its small-screen predecessors.³

Domestic criticism was less favorable. A Beijing Youth Daily review gave one star out of five, arguing that the film reused the familiar "nine princes fighting for succession" backdrop without seriousness or plausibility, and that Yu Zheng's television formula of pure love, feuding friends, and power struggle did not transfer to feature length. A trade analysis in Variety China-affiliated press noted that the combination of a love story with Qing court costume drama was a first exploration for the domestic film industry, whose period films had previously centered on action and war.¹⁰^•⁸

Context in the Gong series

The Gong series began with the 2011 television drama Palace (Lock Heart Jade) (宫锁心玉), which made stars of Yang Mi and Feng Shaofeng and established screenwriter Yu Zheng in the industry; together with Startling by Each Step (步步惊心), it set off a wave of Qing court dramas. The Palace: Lock Sinensis is the only theatrical film in the series, with a fresh plot, a new lead cast of mainland actors, and only a scattering of performers from the second television series.⁵^•³

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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