Yi Lu Chao Yang (2023)

Finally! A Story with Substance.

I admit, I choose dramas with hot eye candy leads and a whole lot of romance. I have only recently started watching modern day dramas, preferring the historical costume dramas instead. All the Way to the Sun made me happy I have crossed over.

It was very satisfying to see characters with such depth. It was even more satisfying to see female characters who were not silly, petulant, helpless ninnies swooning and fighting over men. Landy Li and Naomi Wang were superb in their roles of Li Mu Jia and Tian Rong. Very worthy of mention was Yuan Ran's performance as the lady boss. What a strong, classy woman! Wang Yang was swoonworthy as the older, wiser, more reserved leading man. Loved his expressions and the way they showed his emotions even when there was no dialog to go with it. Xu Shao Ying's portrayal of Wan Bing was so down-to-earth and sincere too.

The writer did a wonderful job bringing this story to the screen, and the director guided the actors to make the characters real and relatable. The OST was very appropriate and beautiful, enhancing the scenes and situations. All around, this production was so well done. I hope to watch more dramas by all of these players.

Dramas like these touch on so many relevant themes - family, culture, human flaws and weaknesses, relationships, romance (I would have loved a little more of that). These stories draw us in and make us feel like we know the characters or perhaps even have experienced some of these situations ourselves. I really enjoyed watching this, and did relatively very little fast-forwarding and anticipated every episode.

I will very likely rewatch some time when I want something that is not only satisfying, but doesn't rely on silly tropes and a lot of overdone dramatics.

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Best Drama of the Year 2023

This is the best Chinese drama I've come across and even as a whole any industry-wise.
A real Gem.
It is based on a novel.
The story goes into a bit of narration but with time lapses from 2008 to 2022.

The leads are 2 FML.
Both surprisingly share equal onscreen time.

Both are fresh law graduates and it shows their struggle in life.
How both of them make different choices and what leads to them where they end up at last.

This drama has quite a lot of ups and downs with the characters just like any real person would.
You rarely see such writing depth anywhere.
Each and every character stays true to what they could potentially evolve into, lose their path midway and then make strong comebacks.
Phenomenal writing I must say.
The novelist deserves an award, and I'm dead serious.

Also one of the unique parts of this drama is the involvement of side characters, each side character has their own personality, which they maintain throughout the drama.

We have a 3rd couple whose screenplay is considerably low but ironically they're the best couple in the drama.

~ What the writer does is, give two the perspective of the two FMLs, involve them in certain real-life situations according to their personality, and develop their characters throughout while comparing them to the 3rd couple which gives us a fair idea of how distinctive people can be.

And how we should appreciate the choices we make, but there are consequences to those choices and how the 3rd couple is what's required most of the time.
The hidden message after all.

The drama focuses on how we live our lives by trial and error method.

How the young period and your 20s are for you to explore the world and find what you really want and never settle for anything less.

How the things we're meant to pursue change with time.
How it affects our life overall
How in the end, the family becomes important despite the differences, the ego and the choices.
How marriage is a crucial part of your life.
And how dating affects you, how the way we select our partner develops us or stops our growth.
How the arguments could create differences but that's part and parcel of whatever you're trying to achieve.

How feminism destroys your thinking criteria when it really matters

How important it is to be kind and forgiving.
How the corporate work culture can be toxic and how to counter it, learn and grow from it.
How important it is to have a mentor in your life.

How you would end up making a perhaps wrong decision in love, or that your feet would get cold and why it shouldn't.

How you end up using some people and how the others end up using you,
There's balance in everything.
How necessary it is to be versatile.
How chasing money blindly won't give you the satisfaction you want.

How the meaning of life lies in experiencing rather than the focus on winning

How the world is filled with all kinds of people.
How Growing up means facing them with an open heart.
Fight with them if you want,
Get away if you don't.
Wave goodbye and walk freely.

By no means this drama is perfect.
The reason is, that this drama wasn't made to be perfect at all.
It was made to be realistic and fun while being inspirational
So that you feel that you're part of the journey, both the FMLs make.

Since I've mentioned all these appraisals, one of the most annoying or missed parts of this drama to me was, that they didn't focus on the ML as particularly as they should have with the character development.
Or you could say there was no ML but the brilliance of his acting and the impact he left onscreen, left us wanting for more.

You would have your likes and dislikings with certain traits in this drama but the best part is characters do evolve, and while some don't,
which makes you piqued.

~ Also, I really love the ending song of this drama.
Such beautiful lyrics and the voice of the singer.
Mesmerizing.

~ The cinematography is top-notch, not even a single scene felt rushed.
The direction was focused on the story as a whole and the episodes do end up abruptly but that's the new charm.
Rarely do you see such happening, since everything these days is to grasp your attention and bind you to look forward to the next episode.
This drama doesn't even try to fake end things on a cliffhanger.

~ The actors, gosh this has to be one of the greatest castings ever made.
Each and every actor played their role in the most significant and impactful manner they do.
You could feel connected to each and every one of them and their perspectives.

Even I as a viewer feel proud of them.

I can add a lot more.
This drama has so many things to give to a viewer that it can be rewatched multiple times...

But I'm just glad I somehow ended up watching it.
I don't remember how it came to my watch list but there was this sudden instinct after looking at the poster and the title that there's something special about this and Boi, it was the best decision I took to watch something this year.

Also, Don't let your quick evaluation of binge-watch destroy your expectations of this drama.

The plot changes a lot every 6-7 episodes and it's worth it.

I had a great time watching it and hope you do as well.
Till then.

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