uchikattana

Although giving a heavy impression of a romance story, I would emphasise that this is definitely not the focus. The focus is revenge and power struggles. The plot is very strong and it's very nice to see that although the female lead is cunning, she makes mistakes and she does not always win. But still, you can clearly tell she learns and grows smarter. I also like that she doesn't forget the people who went against her (including male lead). You'll get a lot of female empowerment and things coming together beautifully. The acting was also amazing, even of support characters.
However, although I enjoyed the plot, we got very much just the bare bones of romance. It was there, but it took a long, long, long time to develop. So if you need couples falling in love quickly (or even medium-speed) and show their love and trust, you won't get that here. They scheme against each other, behind each others back and also use each other. And they do that for most of the drama. Since romance is the main criteria for the shows I watch, this did bother me. I'm not against overcoming trials and tribulations (that's the most fun part imo), but it should come to a conclusion in reasonable speed. Also, the outfits were not my cup of tea. The collars are just not for me and I enjoy the dresses of other costume dramas a lot more. Probably a choice for time-related accuracy, but just not for me.