The series tells a bitterness story about Shaoxing opera actresses living in Shanghai in 1930s with ups and downs script and well-made dramatic conflict. The writers gave a structural integrity and very appropriate the rhythm in the whole story. The most acclaimed is the casting, every actor fully show their acting skills, making each role a clear personality full of a unique human nature which can convinced audiences, such as upstanding (Ting Mei), full of charm (Saifei He), cunning (Chengru Li), flattering (Guobin Zhou) etc. Besides, I was most fascinated by actresses' refined Shanghai-style dress and their euphemism opera singing and performances on old-fashioned stage - it is really the ultimate rich in aesthetic elegance and never come back in today's China mainland. I rate it 7 down from 8 when underground Communist (Jie Liu) started stiff rigid, inflexible political propaganda. I feel a tremendous nausea when I heard "smash this old evil world" again and again. Yes, they did it, but they also smashed those wonderful melodies and lifestyle. I think writers have to make this story less capitalization in order to meet some unwritten rules in Communist China by creating these unpleasant roles and ironical lines. Dying or betrayal from old China, then the story will be "safe", as if this is reality in history. This drama is still worth careful taste aside of these offensive roles and ideology.
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