Road Home (2023)

Road to Nowhere

Do I really need to see Jing Boran change a light bulb? That’s just one of many niggly questions that comes to mind as I plod my way through Road Home with a gnawing itch to drop it. It’s a lovely angle of him to be sure (as any would be) and perhaps the audience has missed the point that Tan Songyun’s character Gui Xiao is absolutely enamoured with Lu Chen when she fixes her adoring eyes on his strapping figure as he does what most men worth their salt can do at the drop of a hat. When Li Xian changes light bulbs at the boarding house in Meet Yourself, there are multiple reasons for it. It tells us something about the ubiquity of his character. It shows that he’s a handy fellow. It was yet another bit of confirmation that he was the heart and soul of his village — a one man economic engine. But when Lu Chen is swapping out light fittings, it feels like the director and/or script writer don’t really have any idea of how to integrate all of the elements around the romance. Which is the general feeling I get as the “story” progresses. It’s like watching a reality travelogue that I didn’t sign up for. The thing is, the light bulb scene is meaningless here because it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know about Lu Chen. The guy is a bomb disposal expert. What’s a light bulb when there’s an explosive device with a complex web of wiring about to go kaboom? Road Home is a show that should be watched at 1.5 x or 2 x speed or not at all. Which leaves me with a conundrum: Jing Boran’s alluring sonorous vocals gets lost in translation.

On paper, Road Home should have the potential to be equally effective but the mistake is putting an obvious conflict-free romance at the centre of the story. Except for the godson, none of the other characters have interesting arcs of their own. Worse still they feel disconnected. Their sole purpose is to dance around the leads and support their journey as they inevitably pair up. I’m about 15 episodes in and I still don’t find Gui Xiao a compelling character in her own right. Lu Chen gets to do all the exciting cop stuff while she panics around in the dark wondering if he’s going to live to see another day. It’s by the numbers. There’s no curiosity about any of the characters and how they get to the point that they do. 30 episodes is just too long for a show where there’s so little build up or suspense. By the time the leads tell us that they’re tying the knot, most of the key reveals have come and gone.

It’s a mistake to think that slice-of-life dramas have no plots. (Or meander aimlessly without one) They do. And the really good ones do such a good job of juggling multiple threads that those who watch that the balancing act is actually easy. Part of the problem too with Road Home is that Lu Chen’s SWAT activities are far more interesting than anything else in the show. Consequently I inevitably come to this conclusion about these types of police procedurals — they are veiled recruitment propaganda. Ad campaigns for law enforcement because no one in the their right mind would sign up for SWAT and EOD without overt prodding and/or flag waving. It’s one thing to insert propaganda in a crime show, it’s another in a romance. It’s deadly.

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Life at it's finest!

I am so engulfed in this story, to the point of going back and watching from Episode 1 again, oh alright several times re-watching again! .... I usually do not re-watch dramas unless I find the topic or cast members interesting but this drama has given me both of those. It shows how not everyone is meant to be "book smart" as in going to college or being capable of the intense training such as the SWAT team. Each person is an individual with individual strengths and weaknesses but love has neither. Love does not discriminate; love does not acquire social status or to place blame or fault. Love is pure and in this drama, it shows how love can remain in your heart even after a separation. JBR and TSY have to be two of the most natural actors and I am glad they did this drama. Even down to their kissing scenes, there movements are natural and not stiff. It's like watching your two best friends find their love again for each other. It would be great to see these two do another drama together. This drama has been added to my All Time Favorite list and I will watch again when I need a good dose of love and life at it's finest.

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Slow-moving but lovely

This is wonderfully well written, no unnecessary side-stories or plot-drivers, simply a very detailed overview of a relationship that only developed over many years. It's so slow-moving that it's almost the same speed as living your own life, and it has that quality of real thoughts and emotions slowly developing, too. Over time we get to know why things were so difficult to get going and cheer on the main couple as they choose to make it work anyway. Highlights of the series so far: adult children choosing their own partners even if the parents don't approve (!!!) Also the funniest marriage proposal ever (ep 27 I think, not the main couple.) Lesser actors than Jing Boran and Seven Tan could not have carried this story but these two manage to make it riveting. If you like a lively plot or action, this is not your show. But if you can get into a deeply felt relationship between two people, this is all cake.

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MUNDANE DIALOG

Don't get to watch Jing BoRan much, in 'The League of Noblemen' he's kind of a flamboyant character - not liking his character so much. But I always adore Seven Tan, in her many drama I love her more.

The story went back to Junior High, Seven Tan was always great as a young student while to BoRan looked too muscle up and older compare with other students around. They've fallen in love and promised each other not to breaking up, as they grew older with their choice of education, they grew apart and broke up permanently. One was to becoming a financial-investor who live in Beijing while the other as a Captain in SWAT Elite Team in Qining City. They met again and rekindle the relationship. There're hurdle about debts, family dynamic for both, long friendship, fostering a child, and work.

Jing BoRan is hot but a lousy man (in love), pretty serious character and little (or boring) conversationalist. They both still love each other but with nothing much to talk about, I wonder how this relationship going. He's though pretty straight forward 'do you like me' and 'do you still love me' and 'I'll save money to marry you', besides all that was mundane dialog. Thus, Seven Tan character wasn't any better!! Didn't say much. I don't know about the novel, I think the screen writer needs more practice to make dialog more witty and lively, lots of time they both were just staring each other without much exchange. Still ep 15, done trying to watch this drama. Cute puppy though..

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Long Distance Relationship at its best

the ending is a bit disappointing. they managed to showcase their relationship beautifully; from the childhood love, their premature breakup, how they amend their relationship, their coping mechanism to complement each other. it makes us realize LDR needs both side effort and understanding. it is difficult but doable.

but their daughter in few last episodes seems like didnt exist. there's no loving moment as a complete family. the direction still as loving couple rather than a family of three. on another perspective, it is quite logic; LDR makes you feels every moment is fresh and awkward.

other than that, this is a slow burning gem. if you like Le Coup de Fodre, this is another binge for you.

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romance all the way

super excited to watch this show since the poster came out. love the casting of tan song yun and jing boran as the main leads. i really love romance show that shows a healthy relationship, no crazy drama and mature.. so to me this show really did well. the chemistry is a 10/10, with the cinematic all it's really a very sweet romance.

actually this show is not hard to understand at all. but all the flashbacks makes it very confusing sometimes, because they show the present time and flash back sometimes. there are a lot of flashbacks but nothing very impt to take note as to what really happened between them. development of the story is ok, but sometimes the timeline seems to jump abit for me and idk how long time have past or anything. for example, when did they have kids??? when was she pregnant??? when was her kid like 5 years old alr??? or like everytime luchen went off for work it felt like very long. this would be a really good show if it is shorter imo. still, love both leads!!! and jing boran looks super hot soooo why not

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second half of drama is more watchable

__*Road Home 2023*__ - 8/10 cdrama

first few eps can be described just by one word :Awkward:. I know it was intentional awkwardness, but it made whole story boring to watch and that dreary vibe didnt helped too...
had urge to end stop watching or at least give it 7,5 score, but later half of drama saved it little and upped it to average drama ratings.

Shortly if you get through hard start you may get to like this drama by end or at least wont hate it as much.

__*plot*__ - FL and ML are exes which didnt see each other for long time and never truly managed completely break their relationship. Now they meet again and may as well get together, but whole thing got problems... family problems, long distance relationship cause of work etc.

__*genre*__ - romance, melodrama

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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.

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If every day "Chen Xiao" is this beautiful, I don't want sunset!!!

JBR and TSY is one of the dream pairing I could ask for, I had wished long time ago to see them together, as I thought they would look super good and my wish came true, and waited for this series to pass, and when it came, seriously it was worth it.

Everyone who knows TSY, they know how hardworking she is and how much commitment she has for her work, and on to of that she is among very few CN actors, who can be crowned among many top actors around the world. It is always love to watch her in any role is graces.

JBR had me much earlier with his modeling days, his sexy instagram pictures, and photoshoots really is one of a kind. He is a pure "dongbei ren", sometimes his face looks bigger (lol) but he is way too handsome, and not to mention "good" at his craft and not just flashy face and body.

I came to love the series, although the aspects of nationalism, and patriotism robes my attention as it feels forced fed, and as per readers that in book these elements are also greatly incorporated - I would have just loved a simple love story. Anyway it is not something that can do anything about, so leaving it as it is and focusing on them.

They shot in northern Xinjiang, of Altay region in Hemu village, known to be one of the most beautiful villages in the world, I really admire the actor to do their in such tough conditions. The scenery is really really beautiful. I love how actors channeled their love for their each other, growing from their mistakes, fighting for what they had to, and reached where they wanted to.

Shout out to the kid acting, very handsome "xiao gege" sublime, and mature acting, hope when becomes an adult he will gets his due leading role, as he is amazing at his job.

Loved this series and when it comes to CN series, I shut my critic valve and look for other aspects that I know I will love.

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Jing Bo Ran a discovery

This is a nice one with beautiful scenery. Very nice acting and Jing Bo Ran a handsome discovery for me, i saw some other dramas with him, but didn't pay so much attention.
The series go well, but very slow.
Loved the places been filmed, loved the snow and part of the story, but i think it should me more imput from ML. I didn't like when the FL was pregnant and he said he will not be there for her. Even though they had parties within their base. I didn't like when they were in the hospital and his baby was born, he didn't go there to see her or the FL to bring her for him to see her. Everyone came to see him, so they could've make this moment very special.
I do understand the thing being is Special Forces/ army you have to give up more on your family, but for life events like this you should be there. In all China is only one person that can do the job? I just didn't feel his love in the end.
Well this was my rant :), but i still enjoyed it.

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