I was not expecting this TV series to be such an impressive masterpiece. Right after the opening theme, there is
a brilliantly developed introduction which uses animation, pictures, music, words and a narrator to introduce you to the topic that is about to come: this changes at every single episode. Reconstructing a scenery to resemble Shanghai in the early 1900's, must have been really challenging because they did an outstanding job: you get the feeling of being there as if you could almost smell its perfumes. The costumes are impeccable in every single detail and so is the music. The acting is impeccable as usual (to be honest, I still have to find "bad" acting in Chinese TV series). The actors are so totally blended with their characters that is impossible to tell that they are acting: this is great for full immersion into a movie where the rest of the world disappears. The quality is incredibly high, the dialogues accurate for that era - though I was reading the English subs. Even the actors with marginal roles do an outstanding job with their performance. This is a true pearl which I strongly recommend the entire world to watch: so far one of the best in its genre.