Reborn (焕羽) appears like a typical coming-of-age drama that litters the C drama scene. But on closer look, this is more than your average rebellious teen and a crush on a classmate story. The topics explored are deep and sorrowful. Thus, do consider giving this title a go even if you are not into youthful dramas. After all, it is only 23 episodes in length. You can check out my Reborn review below to find out more why this may be a good choice if you want a drama to binge on.
My rating: 8/10
Episodes: 23
Type: Historical romance
Aired: June 2025
Images Credit: WeTV Official Facebook
The Cast Of Reborn
- Zhang Jing Yi as Qiao Qing Yu
- Zhou Yi Ran as Ming Sheng
- Liu Dan as Li Fang Hao
- Chen Xi Xu as Qiao Lu Sheng
- Huang Yi as Qiao Jin Yu
- Wu You as Qiao Bei Yu
- Tim Huang as Qiao Jin Rui
- Wang Yi Di as Wang Mu Mu
- Sun Tian Yu as Ye Zi Lin
- He Liao Lu Yun as Chen Hao
- Mu Rui Ni as Deng Mei Xi
- Cao Wei Yu as Ming Qiu Xin
- Lu Xiao Lin as Fang Yan Qiu
- Liu Zi as Wang An Na
- Li Si Bo as Brother Hei
Main Characters
Qiao Qing Yu
Qing Yu is a 17-year-old high school student. She comes from a small town called Shuyun and has just moved to the neighboring city of Huanzhou. Qing Yu is a hardworking and meticulous student with good results in school. She can be rebellious and courageous with an independent mindset. She is also steely and has a strong sense of right and wrong.
Ming Sheng
Ming Sheng is rebellious but smart. He is the type of student that doesn’t like to study and do his homework but has good grades. He plays basketball and is a popular guy at school with lots of female admirers. Ming Sheng’s parents are divorced and he doesn’t have a good relationship with his father. He was raised by his late grandfather.
Supporting Characters
Li Fang Hao
Fang Hao is Qing Yu’s mother. She is a very strict mother with an authoritarian style of parenting. She wants to protect her daughter but doesn’t know how to open up and communicate her feelings. Fang Hao is a mother ridden with guilt and self-blame.
Qiao Lu Sheng
Lu Sheng is Qing Yu’s father. Together with his wife, Fang Hao, they run a small noodle shop to support the family. Lu Sheng is the third son in the family and comes from a small village. He is a very filial son who doesn’t know how to say no to his parents wishes. His parents have a very traditional viewpoint that favors sons over daughters and family reputation.
Qiao Jin Yu
Jin Yu is Qing Yu’s younger brother. He is the youngest child of the family. Jin Yu is not good in his studies but excels in sports. He may not always agree with Qing Yu but will often help her when asked.
Qiao Bei Yu
Bei Yu is Qing Yu’s late elder sister. She was a performing arts student and a dancer.. Bei Yu had a lot of admirers and was rumored to have many boyfriends which caused her to die of AIDS. As she was raised by their grandparents in the village, Qing Yu didn’t have a close bond with her when she was alive. However, Bei Yu is close to their second uncle’s wife, Qin Wen Qiu.
Qiao Jin Rui
Jin Rui is Qing Yu’ elder cousin brother. His parents are Qiao Hao Sheng and Chen Yan Fen. His father is the eldest son of the family. Jin Rui is the pride of the family due to his scholastic and career achievements. He is engaged to Nie Xiao Yun.
Wang Mu Mu
Mu Mu is Qing Yu’s schoolmate. She is senior to Qing Yu but becomes her good friend. Mu Mu is Ming Sheng’s neighbor. Thus, they have known each other since they were kids.
Ye Zi Lin & Chen Hao
Zi Lin and Chen Hao are Ming Sheng’s good friends in school and tend to follow his lead.
Deng Mei Xi
Mei Xi is Qing Yu’s classmate. She is interested in Ming Sheng who seems to pay attention to Qing Yu instead. Hence, Mei Xi is jealous of Qing Yu and often likes to bully her together with her best friend, Guan Lan.
Ming Qiu Xin / Dr. Ming
Dr. Ming is Ming Sheng’s father. He is a well-known surgeon and hospital director who is married to his job. He is a very calm and rational man who doesn’t like to clarify things and defend himself.
Fang Yan Qiu
Yan Qiu is a nurse in Dr. Ming’s department. They are a couple but their relationship is a hidden one.
Wang An Na
An Na is Ming Sheng’s mother. She is a successful pianist based in France. She has a cordial relationship with her son.
Brother Hei
Brother Hei is one of Bei Yu’s ex-boyfriends. He is a gangster and vengeful thug.
Synopsis
Qing Yu is a high school student. She lives in a small town called Shuyun with her parents and a younger brother. Not long after her elder sister died, they moved to the neighboring city of Huanzhou. This is because of rumors and gossips that her sister died of AIDS and had led a promiscuous lifestyle. Her mother thought of giving all of them a new life in a bigger city whereby no one would know them. However, running away doesn’t solve the problem where Qing Yu is concerned.
In her new school, Qing Yu meets Ming Sheng who is her classmate. He knows that Bei Yu is her elder sister. Later, Qing Yu’s new classmates also hear about her sister’s case. She is bullied in school not only because of the rumors surrounding her sister but also because Ming Sheng is giving her his attention. This invites jealousy as Ming Sheng is a popular boy in school.
Qing Yu doesn’t believe that avoiding the topic of Bei Yu’s death is the way to go and often clashes with her mother over it. She wants to find out the real cause of Bei Yu’s death. Ming Sheng supports her in her quest and they grow closer together. But finding out the truth comes with a heavy price for all of them.
Reborn Ending & Recap (Spoilers Alert!)
Reborn has a happy ending. Episode 23 shows Qing Yu’s university life. Her mother has also recovered from depression and discharged from hospital. The family has moved to another city and they are now much happier as things seem to be moving in the right direction. Her parents’ relationship are also getting better as the kids have grown up. Qing Yu is also working part time in a counseling organization to help people with depression. She intends to change her major to psychology for her graduate studies to help left behind kids in her village.
Qing Yu bumps into Jin Rui who is distributing leaflets to sell real estate. She didn’t talk to him but silently hopes that everyone has learned from the mistakes made and be grateful for the lessons learned. Jin Rui also hopes in his heart that all of them have moved on and begin a new life.
Jin Yu tells Qing Yu that Ming Sheng turned up at their noodle shop the night before he left for further studies. He ordered something spicy to hide his crying for having to leave Qing Yu. So, Qing Yu still pines for Ming Sheng and turns down pursuers in university. She will often go to the lighthouse area where they once spent her birthday together. After a few years, she learns that he is back from abroad. They reunite at the same place. He asks her about the last birthday wish she made back then. It was to be with him and it has now come true. The drama ends with them sharing a kiss.
When Did The Leads Get Together?
Qing Yu learns from Mu Mu that Ming Sheng is a kind and compassionate person in Episode 5. Ming Sheng also starts to find himself being attracted to her. He will quietly help her out whenever she is in trouble. He also lets her hide in his flat when she is running away from her family after exposing her cousin’s deed of impregnating her sister in Episode 11. Ming Sheng even wants to leave the city with her in Episode 12 but she knows she shouldn’t drag him down together with her.
After Qing Yu was found, he mother becomes very strict towards her. She also warns Ming Sheng to stay away from her daughter in Episode 13. Qing Yu begins avoiding Ming Sheng thereafter to prevent more upheavals in the family. In Episode 15, she tells Ming Sheng that they wouldn’t have a future together as their have vastly different life paths. He is going abroad to further his studies and she can’t possibly choose him over her family. His presence has become a burden to her.
Before Ming Sheng goes abroad, they spend one day together which also happens to be Qing Yu’s birthday in Episode 21. They have a great day together and she makes 3 wishes with the last one being a secret. They part ways after the day is over. Qing Yu learns from Ming Sheng’s best friends in Episode 22 that Ming Sheng had provoked Brother Hei into assaulting him before he left for further studies. This way Brother Hei would be arrested and can’t harass Qing Yu and her family anymore. Qing Yu is touched and tells herself that she would remember Ming Sheng for life. They get together in Episode 23 after Ming Sheng returns from abroad.
Bei Yu’s Life
Qing Yu tries to piece together Bei Yu’s life to try to find out what happened to her. In Episode 6, she learns from Bei Yu’s ex-classmate, Fei Hai, that her sister was often being bullied in school because she was seen as having no parents. When Bei Yu was in college, Fei Hai noticed that she had changed and often hung around with men. Qing Yu then contacted Bei Yu’s college mate who revealed that her sister yearned for love and would fall easily fall for a man the moment he treated her slightly better. In the end, these men simply used and then abandoned her.
In Episode 7, Jin Yu tells Qing Yu that he saw Bei Yu came to see their parents once. Bei Yu wanted to leave the village to come to live with them. Bur their parents asked her to go back and finish her high school first. During a trip back to the village for Jin Rui’s wedding in Episode 9, Qing Yu comes across her late second aunt’s diary. Jin Rui is her elder cousin brother but in the diary, Qing Yu learns that he is an adopted son of her eldest uncle.
Bei Yu and Jin Rui were secret lovers. She ended up pregnant. When she had a miscarriage, the relationship was exposed. But all the blame went to Bei Yu and she was accused of seducing Jin Rui who failed to stand up for her. Everything was hushed up to save the family’s reputation in an environment where boys are favored over girls.
Bei Yu’s Cause Of Death
After being abandoned by Jin Rui, Bei Yu started to have many boyfriends. She did become HIV+ but records obtained by Qing Yu shows that was not the cause of death in Episode 16. Qing Yu gets the confirmation that her sister committed suicide from the person-in-charge of an AIDS volunteer organization who happened to have had dealings with Bei Yu in Episode 18. Bei Yu’s medical records showing that she was HIV+ was leaked online. She started to receive harassing phone calls with gossips abound thereafter and chose to jump into the ocean to end her life. This is revealed in Episode 19.
Bei Yu also left behind a recording which the person-in-charge passes to Qing Yu. In the recording, Bei Yu mentioned that she was the happiest until she was 6 when Qing Yu was born. Their grandparents forcibly took her away to the village as they wanted their parents to keep trying for a son. She was promised that she will be able to return to her family after she had a brother. But the promise wasn’t kept after Jin Yu was born.
Thus, only her time with Jin Rui made her happy when she was left behind in the village. Jin Rui was Bei Yu’s dearest as well as salvation. As Jin Rui was adopted, she thought they could be together forever. But Jin Rui left her and never looked back after her miscarriage and their relationship was exposed. Bei Yu then met Brother Hei when he saved her from a harasser and dated him for a while. Subsequently, she had other men as she craved for the love that kept eluding her. Their parents did take care of her when she was sick. She was happy for a while until her medical records were leaked.
What Happens To Jin Rui?
Qing Yu feels an injustice has been done towards Bei Yu and her family with the continuous gossips about her sister. So, she puts a notice about what happened to Bei Yu inside the candy boxes meant for guests who are invited to Jin Rui’s wedding in Episode 10. The boxes are distributed and the matter is exposed in Episode 11 resulting in a cancelled wedding and shame to the family.
In Episode 16, Jin Rui meets Qing Yu outside her school to inform her that he has quit his job and will be leaving the city. He admits that he was too cowardly to back Bei Yu up back then. But he is thankful that Qing Yu exposed him because it set him free. Jin Rui actually feels relieved now and advises Qing Yu not to dwell on the past but to live the life that Bei Yu would have wanted to.
Ming Sheng’s Background
Ming Sheng reveals to Qing Yu that his parents divorced when he was still a little boy in Episode 8. His father is a surgeon and was always busy treating patients leaving him and her mother at home. Ming Sheng blames his father for pushing her mother away. After his parents’ divorce, he lived with his grandfather who died when he was about to enter high school. His relationship with his father deteriorated further after his grandfather’s death.
In Episode 15, Ming Sheng’s mother tells him that it was her decision to leave his father as he was always at work. She was the selfish one for leaving Ming Sheng behind and causing him to have a poor relationship with his father. As such, Ming Sheng is frustrated with his father in Episode 16 for not telling him the truth and for hiding things from him. But when his father is hit with a medical malpractice suit, Ming Sheng starts to soften towards him in Episode 17. Their relationship improves significantly after he helped his father to clear his name for his medical malpractice case in Episode 18.
Ming Sheng also sets his father up with Yan Qiu in Episode 19. He tells his father to pursue his own happiness and not to sacrifice it for him and his career.
Qing Yu’s Relationship With Her Mother
In Episode 13, Qing Yu learns through Jin Yu that their mother nearly got hit by a car while looking for her when she went missing for a few days after exposing Jin Rui. So, their mother really cares about her. In Episode 14, Qing Yu agrees to her father’s request to go back to the village to be punished for what she did to Jin Rui. Her mother rushes back to the village to protect her. She takes the blame and punishment on her daughter’s behalf.
Qing Yu also learns for the first time that her mother has been suffering from depression after a drug overdose in Episode 18. Her father lets her know that her mother fell into depression shortly after Bei Yu’s death. Qing Yu also understands why her parents wanted to cover up her sister’s death and her mother is so strict towards her in Episode 19. She discovers that her sister committed suicide after her medical records were leaked online which led to gossips and harassing phone calls. Thus, gossips can kill and her mother simply wanted to protect Qing Yu and not let her suffer the same fate as Bei Yu. This makes Qing Yu learns to see things from her mother’s perspective.
Qing Yu’s mother’s depression worsens after Brother Hei harasses the family again in Episode 21. Her guilt of abandoning Bei Yu returns. Qing Yu fears her mother is having suicidal thoughts and makes her agree to seek treatment so that she will have peace of mind in preparation for her public exam in Episode 22. Her mother is then admitted to the hospital for treatment. She also learns to let go and wants Qing Yu to have fun and make more friends as she enters university.
Reborn Review
Reborn (2025) is more than just a growing up Chinese drama. This is because it offers more than just teenage rebellion and puppy love but delves into a tragedy that the adults prefer to bury and try to forget. It involves the death of the female protagonist’s sister whereby she was rumored to have died of AIDS. Her parents refusal to tell her exactly what happened to her sister fuels her desire to learn the truth as her own life is being affected by the malicious gossips. Therefore, there is a bit mystery to the cause of her sister’s death that could get you hooked to the story.
While Reborn does have a growing up theme, the female protagonist’s process of maturity is tied to her sister’s tragedy. In the process, she learns there are consequences to an action, a mother’s strong protective instinct that may seem cruel on the surface, and parents’ hidden guilt and self-blame for the bad things that befall their children. This drama will take you on an emotional journey as the female lead handles all the difficulties thrown at her because of a dead sister. She starts off hating her for causing so much problem for her and her family even after she had died. But she ends up sympathizing with her sister for all the wrongs done to her after she gradually found out more about her life.
One of the reasons why you might like this despite the sorrowful feel is the female protagonist’s steely character. Whether she has been bullied by her classmates or quarreled with her mother, she just picks herself up quickly and moves on. There is an inner strength in her character that viewers could appreciate. However, you may find her mother’s behavior to be something else.
Mother-Daughter Quarrels
Reborn is a drama with frequent tension between the female protagonist and her mother. You may even feel she is a toxic mother at times. So, if you prefer something light and more positive akin to When I Fly Towards You for your youth dramas, Reborn will not be your cup of tea. The female protagonist’s mother is a strict parent who doesn’t know how to express her feelings and fears properly. It is a very typical Asian parenting style of parents know best which you may have seen in Best Choice Ever. With the female lead’s independent and stubborn mindset, the clashes with her mother become inevitable.
However, the mother-daughter relationship does get better as the story develops. She is over-protective of her younger daughter due to what happened to her eldest. This becomes more understandable as the plot becomes clearer. The mother is putting on a brave face and soldiering on but is suffering emotionally on the inside. This part is not explored until towards the later half of the drama.
Hence, Reborn covers more than just school life. It has a good balance among the different aspects of the female protagonist’s life that includes her late sister, family, and romance. In fact, the romance is on the subtle side which may be disappointing if you are looking for a full-blown romantic story.
Subtle Romance (Spoilers Alert!)
Of course, one cannot expect a serious romance for a youth drama whereby the bulk of the story revolves around a high school girl. Hence, the love story between the 2 leads is light and subtle for the most part. It won’t have the intensity of Lighter And Princess for sure. The fledgling love is there but there is no actual dating to be witnessed until well, the end of the drama! So, it will be a long, long wait for them to get together.
I guess the plot is not meant to be a romance drama. The romance is only a side dish to complement the main story of the female lead’s life that revolves more on her family and their entanglement in the aftermath of her sister’s death. The guy’s silent love for her helps to add some sunshine to her gloomy life. This contrast then makes the romance stand out and more heartfelt although it is not the focus in the drama.
The lack of intimacy doesn’t really take away the significance of their love story also partly because of the chemistry between the 2 actors.
Acting & Chemistry
I can feel the chemistry between Zhang Jing Yi and Zhou Yi Ran in Reborn. They may not have any handholding and kisses until the very end, but their interactions alone are emitting the right vibes for a budding romance. Their eyes say it all when words of love are not ready to be expressed due to their youthfulness.
Zhou Yi Ran has acted in quite a few youth dramas such as You Are Desire and When I Fly Towards You. Thus, his role in Reborn isn’t something new to him. As Ming Sheng, he is a brooding rebel with scars that he hides deep within. Zhou Yi Ran portrayed this character convincingly with his smiles, yearning, and anger. His desperate cry towards the end of the drama is a touching scene that could make you cry along too.
Zhang Jing Yi has had a few successful dramas to date and her acting has improved along the way too. In Reborn, she portrayed Qiao Qing Yu very well with facial expressions and body language that project quiet determination and stoicism amidst deep pain and vulnerability as a young student. The character doesn’t need to lash out and scream for us to know how she feels. Zhang Jing Yi’s depictions of the character’s innermost emotions are clear that viewers would be able to feel her anger when pushed or the defiance when she believes she is right.
My Verdict – Watch!
Reborn is a very different and thought-provoking youth drama. It has a much darker vibe than usual with sensitive topics that touch on AIDS, mental illness, and the negative side of filial piety. But don’t let these topics fool you into thinking that this would be a boring story. It will hit you emotionally as what the female protagonist and her family are going through is a very painful journey of loss, guilt, and regret.
What the drama does well is to hook you with a tinge of mystery about the female protagonist’s sister’s death at the beginning before it uses the death to expand the story. This is when the raw emotions will surface especially from the mother. So, be warned that this is a heartbreaking watch and not your typical sunshine youth drama.
The other thing to bear in mind is the strong traditional Chinese values present in Reborn. Therefore, Western audience might need to watch this with an open mind. The practice of favoring boys over girls, filial piety, and family hierarchy as well as reputation are the cause of the tragedy in the story. It will make your blood boil at such unfeeling cultural practices. But look beyond them and this is also a story of growth, learning, and empathy.
For this Reborn review, I would rate it 8/10. Don’t watch this for the romance although it may appear like a college romance drama. While there is a love story in there, that is not the drama’s main focus. In fact, the mother-daughter relationship and the mother’s sufferings take up the bulk of the heart-wrenching scenes. Having said that, the romance does make the female lead’s life less gloomy and it is a meaningful part of the story. So, overall, watch this for its emotional depth.
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