Definitely a must-watch drama. The leads are on fire - so much chemistry, character, and foxiness from both of them. Delicious lines, yummy not-so-obvious plot. Mind you, romance is not at the center of this revenge series, but it's done very intricately and delicately, and is very believable.

The murderous ex-husband also delivers a stellar performance - you can really see how conflicted he is about what he did, but he still goes far beyond redemption with the evil princess (his kinky love/hate relationship with her was also far from boring and you don't see something like this in cdramas a lot).

All the side characters play well (Tong'er so cute, and so are Duke Su's bodyguards, A-Li's evil mother from the Jiang family is so cunning and evil, with her own back story). All in all, the plot is actually very entertaining.

Visually, it's a masterpiece - I love the colors, floating hair/clothes, pretty lighting, and all those close-ups that really make the viewing experience more intimate (Wang Xing Yue's eyes are magnetic). I've never seen such a filming style before, it's quite refreshing, and overall the beauty and esthetic levels are high in this one.

I didn't mind the ending. They could skip the whole war thing, of course, but then we'd miss those cool fighting scenes and that moment when Xiao Heng takes the pendant given by A-Li into his mouth - oh boy, those were some pretty shots! So, from that aspect, I really don't mind the extra scenes. And they did end up getting back together, so no loss here))