Aya

This was one of those dramas that I was really looking forward to, because I like costume dramas and I really liked the cast.

While the storyline is familiar as I've watched plenty of dramas in the same genre and there are repeated tropes that return in all these dramas, whether you're going to enjoy it stands and falls on the characters.

So let's start with the story. First of all, the rebirth doesn't really add a lot to the story. What I mean by that is that the story could have been told exactly the same way without the rebirth aspect. I think that's because she loses her whole family and is dropped in a completely new one. There's no rewriting of destiny to be done, no revenge, ... She's just given a second chance at life and she goes along with it. There were also some unnecessary characters and storylines that didn't really go anywhere or had a logical progression. That being said, for the most part the story did develop nicely and the relationship between the main leads developed pleasantly. Despite the flaws, this was one of those dramas that I just couldn't stop watching.

The most entertaining part of this drama for me were the characters. I really liked the casting and the actors did a great job.

The obvious standouts are the main leads. Meng Zi Yi is definitely in her element in this drama. She was a very fitting choice to play the elegant, graceful, mature and aloof noble lady. Her character is intelligent and compassionate, but also ruthless and decisive when she has to be. If there was one issue that I had with this character it would be that in the effort to make her intelligence stand out, they made almost every other character more stupid than they should have been. That defeats the purpose of her intelligence in a way, because she has no worthy rivals, which could have been a very interesting dynamic.

He Yu is also impeccably cast. He has a strong screen presence and charisma and pulled off this part perfectly. He plays the cunning and ruthless prince equally as well as the shameless, silly one and it was an absolute delight to watch his shenanigans. In a similar way to the FL, He Yu's Crown Prince is nigh unbeatable. Thankfully, he does have a bit of a rival in the form of his fifth brother, Prince Xin, played by another standout Jeremy Xu.

Jeremy is a very charismatic and magnetic presence on screen. His Prince Xin is very intense and obsessive, to the detriment of everything else. While his performance was great, I think the writers had some issues with the development of this character. He could have been much more interesting, but they kept going back and forth between making him a good guy, a bad guy or a morally grey guy and unfortunately never really settled properly.

Another absolutely likeable character is Lester Lin's Tian Yuan. The relationship between Tian Yuan and Xiao Hua Yong was among the cutest things in this drama. I'm not sure why such a young person was chosen to play this part, but I did like the older brother/younger brother dynamic that the two had, especially since Xiao Hua Yong didn't have a brotherly bond with any of his actual brothers.

I definitely also need to mention Fan Shuai Qi. It's very rare in CDramas, to see a "woman who's pretending to be a man" played in a believable, convincing way and she definitely succeeded.

Something that also absolutely needs to be said is that this drama is visually stunning. The cinematography, the costumes, the music and the locations were all absolutely beautiful.

All in all, while this drama may not be perfect, I'm still inclined to give it a high rating, because I really enjoyed it.