SYNOPSIS:

With 3000 ladies by the emperor's side, every lady tries means and ways to be the emperor's favourite. Among them, Yuan Yang has a voice of a nightingale whereas Zhu Zhu displays graceful dance movements. A friendship soon blossoms between them. But to achieve their dream of becoming the Princess, beneath the friendship lies betrayal, hatred and scheming plans to get each other out of the competition…

MOVIE REVIEW :

The title's saucy enough, though grammatically incorrect, you can tell that it's a cheeky take on the Tyra Banks hosted reality television series America's
Next Top Model. But don't expect too many beautiful women on screen, or dressed in revealing clothes to accentuate their body assets.

It's a period comedy-drama, set during the days when China's emperor sends out word for all girls aged 15 to 18 (no, he's the King, so he can't be considered a pedophile in those days) to report to the Palace to be chosen as potential concubines. And perhaps that's the only portion of it which resembled the Next Top Model, as we see how the girls are selected based on the "vital statistics" - sizes of boobs, waist and hips,
height and weight included.

The traditional methods of checking for virginity is also played out for laughs, but these sequences of comedy are only concentrated in the beginning. Soon after, the comedy is dropped for some serious drama, the kind which happens when you put a group of women together, as they scheme and plot to excel in their various training of art, dance, and song.

Which makes it sound much like a boot camp for potential princesses, with the expected envious emotions, wicked plots, and the arrogance of the resident concubine making it all look like an episode of Survivor.

But at least there's an attempt to weave a decent storyline in this movie, which shows how two girls, Pearl and Yuan-Yang, bond together en route to the palace, and how they triumph over various challenges in their quest to become the Next Top Princess.
However, there's only place for one, and you can expect to see how these 2 will go up against each other in a tale like Cain and Abel.

So if you're deciding to watch this, don't expect too much from it except to lull away a boring weekend afternoon.

MOVIE RATING:




Review by Stefan Shih

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