The film explores the social realities of the eunuch system within the Forbidden City. It centers on characters existing outside traditional cisnormative and heteronormative structures. This provides a lens into non-traditional gendered existence and unique power dynamics.

The narrative disrupts conventional hierarchies by centering the political agency of Empress Dowager Cixi. It highlights a female-driven power center where women and non-traditional gender roles drive the plot. This subverts the trope of the stable male leader.

The cast is ethnically homogeneous, reflecting the historical reality of the Qing Dynasty. However, the film uses a post-colonial lens to examine the friction between indigenous structures and foreign Western influence. It avoids a white-normative perspective.

The film presents a critique of institutional stability, portraying the imperial family as a corrupt and decaying structure. It embraces moral relativism and situational ethics. The narrative focuses on characters navigating a collapsing order through survival.

The film addresses the physical and psychological realities of being a eunuch. It treats bodily alterations as a central, lived reality. These characters are portrayed as pivotal political actors rather than objects of pity.