Moses Chan is back as the guard. TVB is shooting War and Beauty for a phone.
TVB started a vertical side story of War and Beauty on Friday, with Moses Chan returning as the palace guard. The episodes are aimed at Hongguo by the end of 2026. The 2004 series is the one you can watch now.
The Goldscene Desk
On Friday afternoon in Hengdian, TVB started 金枝慾孽之宮牆折柳, a vertical side story of War and Beauty. Moses Chan walked out again as Kong Wu (孔武), the palace guard he played in 2004.
He has shot plenty of full-length dramas on that lot. Those take three or four months. This whole series is supposed to be finished in 17 days.
A phone screen, and a different cast
The new episodes are being made for Hongguo, the free short-drama app from Douyin, and TVB is aiming them at the end of 2026. Each one runs about 5 to 10 minutes. This July, Hongguo had 168 million people opening it on a typical day, more than Tencent Video, iQIYI, Youku, and Mango TV combined.
Sheren Tang, Charmaine Sheh, Gigi Lai, and Maggie Cheung Ho-yee are the faces most people picture, and they are not in this cast. Moses Chan is the original one who came back, in the same part.
Yoyo Chen plays the empress. In 2009's Beyond the Realm of Conscience she was Feiyan, a maid. This is her first vertical drama, and she worried the speed would keep her from settling into the part. The director told her to act at her own pace, and let the cutting supply the speed.
She said the robe is a one-off, handmade from the cut of a surviving photograph of Empress Dowager Cixi, and that she was trying not to rumple the costume team's work. Katy Kung plays Consort Jing. Cheng Tse-sing, a longtime TVB actor, plays the emperor.
The new leads are younger. Zhao Xixi, a popular mainland short-drama actress, plays Mu-zi (慕之). Nicholas Yuen (阮浩棕) plays Prince Hui. He called the old series a classic among classics, and said he was glad to be in it. Carmen Ngai (倪嘉雯) plays a maid. She watched the original as a child and said she never expected to be in it. Hengdian, and a short drama, are both firsts for her.
Man Wai-hung, TVB's assistant controller of drama and the producer behind Line Walker, said the team is using the same care it would on a full-length series. The ceremony opened on 詠嘆調, the old theme people still associate with the show. A few of the famous setups are being kept, including the split in the snow and the confrontation in the bedchamber.
The series people mean
War and Beauty ran on TVB Jade from August 23 to October 2, 2004, thirty episodes of about 45 minutes, produced by Jonathan Chik. It is set in 1810, the fifteenth year of the Jiaqing emperor, with the women of the palace fighting for his favor. Part of that original shoot was in Hengdian too.
Hong Kong ratings averaged a little over 32 points. The finale climbed to 41. Viewers still point to it when they talk about where these palace shows began, before Beyond the Realm of Conscience and, on the mainland, Empresses in the Palace and Story of Yanxi Palace.
There was already a follow-up. Beauty at War aired in 2013, and it set the first story aside as rumor. Moses Chan played a kunqu singer in that one. Kong Wu returned only inside a dream.
Where to watch
iQIYI has a page for the 2004 episodes with English subtitles, and TVB Anywhere North America lists all thirty. Availability still moves by country, so check the app you actually have.
The new series is headed for Hongguo, which is in the Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Macau stores, and not in the US App Store. No American date has been announced.
Our take: if you want the show people mean by this title, open the 2004 episodes. iQIYI is the simplest way in from here. The new shoot is Moses Chan back as the guard, with seventeen days to finish it, on Hongguo at the end of the year.
