Road Home (2023)

A potential Masterpiece (story, great actors) but spoiled by a clumsy production

Series with two Great leads (Jing Bo Ran in ML & Seven in FL), but slow and rather painful narration for the 1st half of the drama.

Plot: Reunion of 2 ex lovers 10 years after they broke up due to family issues & long distance relationship. They still love each other but have to recreate a relationship despite multiple difficulties: annoying love rival, ML's father drunken and abusive behavior, etc.
The drama's tone is happier after the make-up of the couple.

PROS:
+ Quite realistic story with everyday details + a big part to the glory of SWAT & the nation.
+ 2 great leads and an excellent cast with endearing characters
+ Good OST, beautiful images, beautiful landscapes

CONS:
- slow pace, and I mean slow, slow, slow...
- The drama's chronology, including many flashbacks, slows the pace. Let's not talk about the final episode where we discover their very first exchanges in high school. Quite questionable chronology, therefore.
- obvious errors, particulary the child actor supposed to be the one-year-old daughter, is at least 3 years old.

=> Good drama, which had the potential to make a Masterpiece (story, great actors) but spoiled by a clumsy production
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Super leads (Jing Bo Ran en ML & Seven en FL), mais narration lente et plutôt painful pour la 1e moitié du drama.

Plot : Retrouvailles de 2 ex lovers 10 ans après leur rupture due à des problèmes familiaux & à la relation à distance. ils s'aiment toujours mais doivent renouer une relation malgré de multiples difficultés : peste rivale amoureuse, père du ML ivrogne et maltraitant, etc. Dieu merci, la 2nde partie du drama est moins sombre.

PROS :
+ Story assez réaliste avec les détails du quotidien + hymne à la gloire du SWAT & de la nation.
+ 2 super leads et un casting global excellent avec des personnages attachants
+ Bonnes OST, belles images, beaux paysages

CONS :
- rythme lent mais lent, lent, lent...
- La chronologie du drama, incluant de très nombreux flashbacks, ralentit le rythme. Ne parlons pas de l'épisode final où on découvre leurs tous 1eers échanges au lycée. Chronologie tout à fait discutable, donc.
- des erreurs évidentes notamment l'enfant acteur censé incarner la fille de un an, a au moins 3 ans.

=> Bon drama, qui avait le potentiel pour faire un Masterpiece (story, great actors) mais gâché par une réalisation maladroite

Leggi di Più

Messy writing but beautiful couple

Leads are great together. They have good chemistry, love all of their skinship and cute scenes. I just think it felt a little rushed how they got together too fast. Maybe they could've take a little more time to reconcile and we could get more angst and the drama could focus on why they broke up before they make amends. But regardless of that, they were good. But still I think the actors deserved better than this drama for reasons I will explain below.

I'm an advocate for cdramas not having 30 eps or more. It's always a little slow on pace, and this drama was no different. After they get together it's like they went around in circles between his father being an a**hole, their flashbacks together in the past, and chinese police propaganda. Then she gets pregnant and it's all them and their long-distance relationship which felt a little repetitive. It felt like there was no story for real and nothing really happened. I'm usually a fan of these kinda shows where it's more focused on the characters rather than plot, but here it was neither one nor the other. They could've talked other things like why he got into the police (we know it's bc of his deceased stepfather but that is never really portrayed), or her parents' divorce which was done superficially. They could work on this and we would know more abt their characters. The dialogue is the worst. Things are poorly explained, if they happen to be at all. The timeline is a little confusing too. Flashbacks felt sudden and out of nowhere.

ML is annoying. He's too serious, never laughs or softens (sometimes not even with FL) and all characters like to praise him for smth. I mean, it's like he's perfect but not in a good way, more like a robot. And I simply can't forget the time he called FL too innocent and silly (I think those were the words) just cause she's always smiling and in a good mood. It was just patronising. The whole time he acted all macho like he had no weakness at all. FL tried to take some feeling from him but he doesn't loosen.

I also felt there were too many characters and none of them had screen time and space for their stories. It bothered me that:
- We didn't know if Mingyu and Duan Rou got married;
- ML had siblings who never showed up, why say they exist in the first place if they have no part in anything at all;
- That FL's friend who is a doctor had more screen time than he should, there was no need to know his story;
- Mingyu's son was left aside during the drama and it's like his father doesn't care abt him. He just goes from one person to another and must understand everything. He's a kid, he needs security and to be taken care of!!
- We didn't get to see the face of ML's cousin who introduced the leads until the last ep, she was like a ghost, we could only hear her voice, I don't know why;
- Why did ML's parents not divorce?! His father was an abusive father and husband. Even if his father was trying to be better in the end, she still should've divorced. FL's dad cheated on her mother and they got divorced but ML's dad beated on his children (especially ML's sister cuz she's a woman) but that can be forgiven. Ugh!!

Although side stories are usually not that important, they shoud at least be told right. It's like they opened some paths but never took time to finish it. That's just disrespect with the viewers.

All the chinese propaganda was one of the worst things of everything. Cause the couple is really good, I can handle some drama as long as it's abt them. But the show spend some time just showing how SWAT works and it was just boring yn. And sometimes it's played to show how awesome and badass ML is, but I don't really like him, he's too forced.

All in all, it wasn't bad. It was a little boring and the narrative is lost, but the leads form a beautiful couple. If you focus on that maybe it was better than I made it seem. But for me a drama is not just a couple, but also narrative and writing, which here could be way better. Overall rating goes for the couple.

Leggi di Più

Yet another drama where Tan Song Yun shines like the bright light she is!

Before going into this drama, I read a few reviews and saw many praising Jing Bo Ran for his looks and performance, for me thought Tan Song Yun was the star of this show. I did like Jing Bo Ran but his character Lu Yan Chen/ Lu Chen was a bit hard to pin down for me, I liked Lu Chen sometimes, but others he just didn't seem like a person who pursued things other than his work. Gui Xiao, on the other hand, was a treat to watch.

I especially loved the flashbacks, which gave us complete look into how each of them felt for each other. Lu Chen was far too reserved so the flashbacks helped reveal a bit more about his feelings for Gui Xiao. Their breakup had me reminiscing about the decisions made when I was that young, how easy it is to be swept away with emotions. It also showed us how two different people dealt with their problems in different ways.

But you still have to give it to Lu Chen, even though Gui Xiao broke up with him, he didn't hold on to the resentment for long. He was more understanding than most MLs.

The romance part was good, the leads have good chemistry. However, there made up very suddenly. It was a bit underwhelming but I was happy for them both.

Leggi di Più

Calming, healing, romantic watch.

struggled slightly before I decided to watch this show - reviews were mixed. some said good, some said boring, some said too long.

3 words: I loved it.

Pros:

- Cast - I always loved Seven, esp since I watched Go Ahead. I think it might be the first time I am seriously watching JBR but love love love.

- Easy watch (ZERO angst) - as I’ve always reviewed, I hate shows with angst, push and pull. this barely had any, maybe in the first couple of episodes with the weird ZMS trope but solved so quickly, no complaints.

- Great wrap up - while some reviews I’ve seen online have mentioned that it’s 10 episodes too long, I love that the last episodes feel like it’s giving us a great wrap up. I love that the ending wasn’t 10 mins of bliss but really episodes and episodes worth of bliss. Almost every issue was also wrapped up, some maybe done lightly but still well done.

- Easy watch - did I mention this already? while it may seem too long for such a simple plot but I loved how it’s just slice of life, romantic, about a second chance romance, about how their first was ruined by misunderstanding and distance but the second chance fairytale like due to their maturity and longing for each other

Cons:

- ZMS trope - don’t want to spoil it but that was strange, felt unnecessary

- ML’s father - seemed too easily forgiven but might also be realistic in a sense that blood ties can’t be that easily broken? not sure, but in my eyes, too simply looked over

- overly perfect - my god, UNNECESSARY!!!! creating all these expectations for the perfect husband ☠️ I kid, without this, it wouldn’t be that sweet. (where’s my handsome, fit husband that’s a good cook, doesn’t talk much, sweet, caring, understanding)

If you want a light watch, watch this. If winter is coming and you want something to warm you up, watch this.

Leggi di Più

a painful watch and not in a good way

I came for Seven Tan after watching her amazing acting in Go Ahead and I tried not to let the mixed reviews stop me fron watching this drama.

Oh My God was this storyline confusing and I found a lot of the acting awkward between the characters. The timeline skips around from 2008 to 2018 back to 2010 and then to 2020 and by the time I thought I was in real time my mind was blank. It didnt like the flow of the drama and the supporting characters were bouncing in and out (besides maybe the friends son).

Dropped at ep 6 and I dont think I’m coming back.


p.s. I even found a shorted summary version on Youtube and couldnt finish that either.

Leggi di Più

Nothing Much to say, perfect and beautiful

I already read the novel twice, and I love the novel so much. One of my favs novels.

How come Jing Boran can capture the 'presence' of the Lu Chen novel version perfectly?

First and foremost, I was kinda bit disappointed when I saw Jing Boran cause I never watched his drama or movies, and I kinda avoided watching his drama but was surprised!

Do not judge before watch it!

I remember when I watched Lu Chen (Jing Boran), got the feeling the way back when I read the novel.

Kudos to him, he's such a great actor.
He's make me think that
"Oh, Lu Chen is real, there's someone who like him"

The character itself, not so much "drama version".
Like So perfect, and got no flaw, whatever..bla but he's character is like down to earth. he's also feels insecure, have family problems.
I mean, he's real.
The one of drama that portrays male character perfectly. So much humane.
Not focusing 'oh he's so handsome or whatever'.
If you guys watch some Cdramas, sometimes the male characters like "fake". Like a....human robot but not Lu Chen.

The Chemistry is noch top.
Their scene so much warm.

Because of Lu Chen, have i been falling in love with Lu Chen itself
And...

And I want to give a hug to Lu Chen and Gui Xiao.

They deserve each other.
They deserve their own world and happiness.

I can feel, their love is so strong.
I love when Lu Chen always soften his expression when they together.

I also want to say thank you for Lu Chen and Gui Xiao, cause it's keep remind and soften my heart when think about love and relationship.

Lu Chen-
He's characters remind of someone,
Someone's who not good at talked but he's showing you through action.

Gui Xiao-
I always think Seven Tan is one actress who can portray any role this is given to her.

The story is satisfying cause read the novel itself,
So not much different.
Maybe ia m bit biased cause I love the novel so when it comes to the adaptation version, should not be a problem for me.

The story reminds of beautiful story.
I think beautiful is the perfect word to this story.
I can't think other words than this.
Oh, maybe you think it might be cliche but trust me, it's beautiful.

Beautiful in.....warm way.

Will come back again.
If you want to judge whether the drama is the best or not, you will only have two feelings after watched it:

You feel regret cause why you not watching the drama earlier
Or
You feel regret cause you already watched it cause the first time feelings that gives to you when you pick up the drama, its wont be the same anymore.

So, its highly recommend and i satisfied.
The novel and the drama.
Kudos to Director, actor to make this drama feel like a real 'road home'.

One of the successful adaptations version from novel to the drama.

Leggi di Più