9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean Historical Romance Drama with 20, 70 minute episodes.

During the Josean era, the birth of twins was considered an unfortunate sign. To disguise the event, the king sends a message to kill the infant girl and everyone who attended the birth. The mother, the Crown Princess Constort, had the twin infant secretly snuck out of the palace to save her life. After years of living at a monastery, Dam-yi, the girl twin, winds up returning to the palace as a maid. It is not long before her brother, the young Crown Prince, notices their remarkable similarity and gets her to pretend to be him so he can go on a mission outside the palace. Unfortunately, due to mistaken identity, the young prince is killed and the Crown Princess Consort realizes her daughter was disguised as her brother. To save the life of the only child she now has, Dam-yi's mother requests that she continue in the role of the Crown Prince, her brother. As the years pass Dam-Yi (Park Eun-bin) yp keep people from discovering her secret she maintains both physical and emotional distance from others earning her the titles "the five step prince" and "Ice Prince". When her first love, Jung Ji-woon (Rowoon), is brought to the palace to tutor the "Crown Prince" she finds that the womanly feelings she had buried for so long start to emerge. Now Dam-yi must not only keep her true identity secret but also protect those around her in an environment where many factions seek the crown.

I loved the premise of this. The reason she had to act as her brother was both logical and believable. The interactions between her and all of the characters around him/her were interesting and engaging. The love story between the two main characters was well paced and heart warming. There were multiple villians and they were very much love to hate. It had a Mulan sort of feel to it overall. Spoilers** The only slight detractors were I felt we never found out what happened to her cousin who was mortally wounded in the end. If he lived and there was a possibility that he would although unlikely, he would come for the crown again. I thought the young prince being killed was unnecessary. It was very disheartening because she had told him he would be okay. Hyun never expressed any interest in the crown and they did not explain how it came about that he wound up being the one to ascend to the throne. I mean he was more or less the last in line that they talked about but still there was no mention of how he felt about it. In general the monarchy was portrayed as weak, they did whatever their vassals wanted to the point of maids and the eunichs somewhat bossing the royals around. I am sure some of that went on but it seemed to be very prevalent in this one. She is very petite and feminine to "buy" that she was a man. That is not unusual though, every one I have seen with this trope you have to allow artistic license and just "play along." I mean if the queen seemed to buy it, and the rest of the royals who would question it? I don't expect movies to match reality - they are movies. People generally cannot bound between two buildings, jump out of moving cars, take on 50 guys, but we accept all that in action movies. So, I didn't mind that she was a very "feminine" looking man and that those around her bought it. Overall I loved it though and those minor points were very minor. I loved how strong her characater was and all the things she had overcome. I would watch it again and totally recommend it to anyone that likes this genre. Very well done. The acting was amazing, costumes were beautiful, settings were eye candy, and the characters had a lot of depth and development.