Echoes of the Self

Rebirth, Romance & a Hint of Existential Crisis

Ok y’all, this one’s… tough to review. Full disclosure: I pressed play purely for Quan Yi Lun, because my man has been stealing scenes (and my heart) ever since Blossom and Moonlight Mystique. The man’s got main lead energy, and I was ready to witness the glow-up era he rightfully deserves.

Now, Echoes of the Self is sitting right there in my love/hate zone. You know that feeling when all the ingredients are right but somehow the cake still tastes like “hmm”? Yeah. That’s this drama for me.

🌸 What I liked (aka the reasons I didn’t rage-quit)

- Fresh spin on the rebirth trope — loved the concept of this a lot.
- Visually blessed cast. I mean… Quan Yi Lun. Enough said.
- Leads’ chemistry — starts off awkward like two coworkers forced to slow dance at the office party, but gradually evolves into genuine sparks.
- Crown Prince redemption arc — I live for a “former murderer turned ally” storyline. Therapy works, apparently.

⚠️ What made me yell at the screen (lovingly)

- Performances that lack dimension — the acting isn’t bad, but it often feels like something vital got lost between “action” and “cut.” It’s visually appealing yet emotionally hollow, like a beautifully wrapped gift box filled with air.
- Direction that forgot its own depth — the story wants to be textured and moving, but the execution feels oddly flat. Perhaps a symptom of its short runtime, perhaps a lack of directorial conviction.
- The rebirth logic gone astray — the FL’s “reborn self” spends the entire time trying to change fate yet barely acknowledges her younger self, effectively undoing the emotional purpose of her journey. The ML, meanwhile, seems mildly allergic to the concept of temporal continuity — sir, that is your wife, just… younger. Let’s connect the dots and don't treat her like the plague...
- The villain — underwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it. That man got more screentime than emotional depth.

🌀 The Ending

Will it annoy people? Probably.
Did it annoy me? Not really — it’s a happy-ish ending, which in C-drama land is already a win.

💭 Final Verdict

8/10 — Cozy, romantic, and conceptually strong, but emotionally… echoing a bit too softly.
If you want something light, watchable, and sprinkled with a few swoon-worthy moments, go for it. Just don’t expect a masterpiece, but that is solely my own take on this and most probably because I had much higher expectations....

And Quan Yi Lun, if you’re reading this (you’re not, but still): you carried. As always. 🫶

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A quick and relatively low-stress watch

I’ve watched quite a few rebirth dramas, but this is the first I’ve seen that just boldly ignores conservation of mass and creates two concurrent copies of the same person. Such a setup opens the door for lots of interesting and thought-provoking situations, dynamics, and ironies.

Of course, it also comes with some logical challenges, which are handled by glossing over details (show's job) and not thinking too hard (your job). Overall I still think this is a creative premise, even if it makes even less sense than the usual Cdrama.

I really like the older version of the FL. She is thoughtful, mature, and smart, with that calmness of a person who has already died once. It’s clear she’s out to help not harm. She pretty much always acts in ways I support, and she is capable too, so I enjoyed rooting for her and found it relatively low-stress.

Her younger version, on the other hand, is less likable: self-serving, ruthless, bitter. But we already knew that. What I like is that this younger self is not a blanket “bad person”. She’s more of a wildcard. I found her realistic and complex- she wants to save herself, but she’s not dumb nor is she totally self-absorbed.

The two of them have separate consciousness and are pretty much two different people. I really like how, no matter how annoying her younger self gets, her older self continues to treat her with kindness and compassion. If you take a step back, it’s a nice message for all of us.

The ML is... adorable! He has a cute smile and cute mannerisms. I’d say he’s the typical overdevoted green flag ML. They mention a couple times that he’s a general... that is kind of hard to believe, he is too much of a puppy. He does seem fairly capable, she just seems more capable.

Plot-wise, the FL uncovers conspiracies and discovers new truths, which is always fun to watch. Frustratingly, she spends some time pushing away the ML in the name of protecting him, but luckily this phase ends at some point. The villains are easy to dislike, and overall I found the show not too upsetting or stressful. There isn’t much of good people suffering bad fates or emotional impact deaths of expendable side characters.

I do feel there are some gaps. For example, the FL as empress at the beginning is clearly not fully hinged; being three years older obviously didn’t make her any wiser. But reborn, she is completely different. ...it makes sense given circumstances, but feels choppy and sudden. Just showing a little repentance and regret in her final hours as empress would have smoothed out this transition.

The romance also seems too deep and founded on too little. Their first lifetime’s romance is built up as some death-defying love, but actually all we know of it are a few flashbacks. The second time around, her younger self is ready to use the ML, so how genuine could it have been? The ML is super into her before knowing her that well, but I just am not convinced that this is some love across the ages that would merit such devotion.

If you can believe what you’re told, and accept a premise without thinking too hard, then neither of these is a big deal. Still, I think the show would have been better if it had shown rather than told, so that we resonate better with her character, and feel more emotionally attached to their relationship.

At under 20 minutes an episode, this show is rather short, which is probably why some of these things aren’t fully fleshed out. There are also some side stories that seem like they could have been developed (eg the sister, the princess), but instead are dropped. But the show is so quick that I didn’t fully emotionally invest, so I didn’t mind as much.

Acting-wise, I think the (small) cast did a pretty good job. But it’s sometimes hard to see their expressions behind such thick layers of powder and filters. I feel like this show had paler, smoother faces than usual; I found the lack of skintone a little bit creepy. I wasn’t a huge fan of the makeup in general. Other production-level stuff is not bad, but it’s definitely a smaller drama with a smaller budget.

Overall, I think this is an enjoyable and quick watch. Whether I liked some parts or didn’t like others, it all moved along pretty quickly. It’s good for some mindless, low-stress binging at the end of a day.

ENDING – READ AHEAD ONLY IF YOU WANT TO KNOW, CONTAINS SPOILERS





I’d consider this a happy ending. Kind of.

For a moment, it seems comically tragic. After they achieve a resounding victory, they are suddenly both shot by arrows, to die together once again (after a nice final telepathic conversation that takes up a good fraction of the episode).

Luckily, the show leans into its rebirth concept to show them reuniting again in a modern life. It’s fitting and sweet, although... I think I would have still preferred a happy ending in their life that I just spent 22 episodes watching, and some closure for the other threads of that story.

By the way, I thought the final mystery that was uncovered was well done. Its scope and intrigue were proportional to the show (ie interesting enough, maybe not earth-shattering but it’s also a small show to begin with). And it was only a couple lines near the end, but I really like how the FL acknowledged the villain’s right to have grievances, while still pointing out that his actions were wrong.

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A fresh and emotional take on the rebirth trope

The drama had me hooked from the start. It has all the good stuff: romance, palace drama, a little fantasy. What really got me was the twist. The FL gets reborn and her biggest rival ends up being herself. Imagine fighting your past self over a man and power. That makes it way juicier than the usual rebirth plot.

What I like is how the story shows her regret but also her determination to do better. You can feel the weight of her past in every choice, but this time she makes small changes that completely flip the outcome. Watching her take back control in moments where she was helpless before had me cheering inside.

Sebrina Chen is killing it. She makes her two identities feel like totally different people, sometimes soft, sometimes ambitious, always believable. Quan Yi Lun also stepped it up. I wasn’t expecting much, but he surprised me with how natural he feels here. And the chemistry? Even when they are just staring at each other, you can feel it. I caught myself giggling like a fool more than once, not going to lie.

Production wise, it is solid. The costumes are beautiful, the sets pull you into the story, and the overall vibe fits nicely. What keeps me watching isn’t really the palace politics, it’s the emotional push and pull. Fate keeps throwing them together, but duty and responsibility are always ready to mess it up. That tension is addictive.

So far it is giving me romance, suspense, and feels. It reminds me a bit of Threads of Destiny, but the whole past self as rival idea makes it fresh. The drama is completed but I have already rewatched a couple scenes just for the chemistry. I am invested and I can’t wait to see how messy fate gets for them next.

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Echoes of the Self: Facing Your Own Reflection

🔹 If you had one chance to fix old regrets, would you take it?
🔹 Would I rewatch? Yes

📕 Overview
🔹 22 episodes, romance drama
🔹 The story begins when Zhou Ruo Xi loses everything to palace intrigue and wakes up in the past with a chance to rewrite history.
🔹 At the time of this review, 13 episodes have aired.
🔹 Arriving after other historicals, Echoes explores what would happen if you could confront the mistakes of your first life instead of just regretting them

🌸 How It Felt Watching
🔹 Watching Echoes of the Self felt personal and somewhat heavy.
🔹I think the drama asks what any of us would do if we faced our past mistakes again.
🔹 Tone: bittersweet, suspenseful
🔹 Themes: regret, redemption, ambition, growth, fate, and memory.
🔹Like many popular 2025 dramas, Echoes uses a rebirth storyline to explore whether past mistakes can be corrected, making it emotionally engaging for viewers.
🔹It reminded me a bit of Si Jin, but Echoes felt more personal and introspective.

✨ Cast & Acting
🔹 Chen Yao portrays Zhou Ruo Xi, convincingly depicting emotional breakdowns.
🔹 Quan Yilun portrays Li Yan as earnest and intense, though slightly awkward in romantic scenes.
🔹 The supporting cast adds tension, which enhances the complexity of palace politics.

🎵 OST 🎵
🔹 Mirror’s Edge by Tang Hanxiao
🔹 Love Rewind by Xue Zhiqian

🎞️ Production Style
🔹 Cinematography features vibrant colors and dreamlike flashbacks.
🔹 The costumes and sets are historically accurate
🔹 The pacing slows down after episode 8, with repeated flashbacks.

☕ Tea Notes
🔹 What worked: The visuals of the drama are captivating. Chen Yao’s conflicted lead portrays her struggles authentically.
🔹 What didn’t: It struck me that the romance feels distant at times, and the pacing of the series sometimes drags.
☕ SpillTheDramaTea’s Rating: 10/10
🌿 Tea-Scale: Perfect cup,
✏️ As SpillTheDramaTea noted, Echoes of the Self explores whether regret can lead to forgiveness, illustrating that confronting one's past may hold greater significance.

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Reflect on one's past and relive the predestined fate

[Echoes of the Self] was a pretty decent watch. The male lead and female lead have awesome chemistry, and both delivered their roles exceptionally well~ What impressed me the most was the unique idea of the female lead encountering her past self, literally. The time-travel happened as if to make her reflect on her naive self and redirect that younger version onto the right path. Love the fresh plot of a time-travel drama~ ^^ And our male lead has that puppy energy, and he's absolutely adorable when he smiles! Kyaahh!!! ₍₍⚞(˶˃ ꒳ ˂˶)⚟⁾⁾💕

The costumes are so beautiful!!! Suits all of them very well! I especially want to praise Li Yan's character design and his high ponytail hairstyle. Really looks good on him. It gives him a youthful look, even more than his modern version, and whenever he smiles, it makes me swoon. Kekeke~ Oh.. my little heart. (⸝⸝ᵕᴗᵕ⸝⸝) Fu Wei/Zhou Ruo Xi's costumes and makeup are also extremely eye-catching ~ I especially love her eye makeup!! (I might try it on myself - although not that skilled LOL) Just... their faces were a bit too white; they were literally shining(?) or glowing(?).. yeah.. I can't.. ¯\_ (ᵕ—ᴗ—)_/¯

Acting-wise, I think the leads did really well. I especially want to praise our dear actress Sebrina Chen for her versatility in acting dual roles as the young, ambitious Zhou Ruo Xi, and the wise and cautious Fu Wei (or future Zhou Ruo Xi). Despite being one person even in the story, her acting convinced me that the two women were totally different. They hold onto contrasting beliefs and strive for what they think is best, in their own ways. I can see ZRX being the daredevil kind of person (in the latter episodes), a girl who believes she has to grasp onto whatever high-ranking person to achieve her goals. We can see how weak a person she was when she suffered as the illegitimate daughter of the Zhou household, but then she became a somewhat strong yet twisted person. Sebrina, as Fu Wei, had a completely different demeanour; she was calmer and composed, held herself with an authoritative aura, but wasn't a wicked person like she was in her first life.. #BIG_APPLAUSE

The ending was somewhat expected, and I consider it a happy one, cuz if we think about it, Fu Wei herself isn't a living person in that era (after time-travelling), while the ML, Li Yan, also shortened his lifespan to rescue the FL. Their time that's left to live is basically considered short since then. It was a bittersweet ending with full of hope. We could say our FL was rewriting what she remembered about her past life as a novel, and met her past lover/husband again in modern times~ A bit cliché, but hey.., it works~ (૭ ｡•̀ ᵕ •́｡ )૭

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Watch it for the CP and the production is beautiful.

I gave acting 9 mainly because of the main lead actor and actress. I'm happy with the ending. Honestly, I started watching this drama without any expectation of a good scripts, etc... because I has lost a lot of hope and genuine love for C-drama started when it gone down hill, years ago. I went in because I like Sebrina Chen and love the character she played this time. With that said, yes there are stuff still annoyed me and made me laugh to myself but overall, I don't regret watching it. And I am satisfied with that angsty, beautiful ending scene in the story when they both died lying under the snow and when they met again in reality or real life. Gosh, the scenes and the pair were beautiful. Often time I got caught off guard how good the cinematography was for a short series like this. Truly, Sebrina Chen and Quan Yilun's on screen chemistry was exploding, it carried the whole show. I am so glad both of them get to shine as leads in this mini series. Last but not least, I also like the ending in term of how it wrap up this rebirth concept of meeting your own self in the past and tried to change fate. Overall, I think this is entertaining and watchable if you don't take it too seriously or nip pick the common flaws it has because it is definitely worth it to watch it for the main CP. It would make you smile and have toothache or make your heart skips a beat. I would rewatch til ep. 18 and the last episode for the two endings. Some people may like ep. 19 but I think it's a bit cringed for me. Happy watching.

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pretty good for a short drama

I loved the whole ‘her rival is her old self’ thing but she wasn’t really a rival I felt betrayed, that’s the only thing that really annoyed me in this series but overall it’s pretty good and the leads acting and chemistry is great, the story became predictable at some point but it was still somewhat enjoyable.
however I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re really into custom dramas because there’s much better works out there, this one doesn’t feel really developed when it comes to the side characters and there’s a bunch of plot holes but it’s kinda like fast food so it has its own appeal I guess.

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That wasn’t it

Feel like I am giving too much rating, but anyway it’s a short drama too, can’t compare to normal late length drama

So, this wasn’t much good to me, the plot was kinda messy to me and it was lacking.

I mean, don’t think the leads had much chemistry honestly either

Also still weird to me how he switched so fast from present FL to futur FL

Costumes looked fine.

Ending: I knew from the beginning it would be some kind of « special ending ». It was obvious, these kind of plot are banned, so the ending was definitely gonna be censored. I was expecting a dream or something, but they went for the writer FL in modern time, so everything that happened was the script story. And they hit us with the classic meeting for 2 sec as if everything that happened was real and they remember…. Only hints, they will never saw explicitly. We have seen these kind of ending many times

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Mostly style over substance

22 episodes at approximately 20 minutes each is exactly my style in speed. What it means is you can’t have too many fillers and you have to get on with the story..
This show is not bad. I really like the cast and the story is a slightly different take on the reincarnation trope.. the female lead is born again into a different character, but three years before but is identical to herself in this timeline if that makes sense. She eventually gets together with the ML in this version and they fought her father the main antagonist who killed her mother and who plans a rebellion but is taken down by our heroeswith the help of the Crown Prince and her former herself from three years ago.. the one thing I will say about the FL is that her former self was a bad character. She actually was a villain and you have to suspend belief to reconcile a change between the two even though they are the same person. Overall it was enjoyable though they ended it with her being the author of this story in modern times and meeting the ML and having love at first sight as it ended. Not too shabby.

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