Cang qiong zhi mao

I saw clips of this just after it was released in 2010 and since then I have searched for it with English subtitles, thankfully now in 2024 I found the full series with subtitles and even though they are poor I am still very grateful. The story follows two step brothers Liang Wen Xiu (Zhou Yi Wei) who is very clever and serves as an official to the Emperor and Chun Er (Yu Shao Qin) who as a eunuch serves the Empress. The Empress Ci Xi (Tanaka Yukon) rules from behind the curtain controlling the puppet Emperor Guang Xu (Zhang Bo) during the late Qing dynasty at the end of the 20th century. The story plays a little like a drama documentary covering events which actually happened and the costumes and sets alongside the acting are amazing. The series alone is worth watching for the amazing depiction of Ci Xi by a brilliant Japanese actress and her faithful eunuch.