If there’s one thing that stands out about The Road to Splendor is how much of the story allows itself to revolve around the women and their place in society. And the drama manages to do that without modernizing the women too much or making them stand out within the time period the story is supposed to take place in or making them into girlboss-feminism characters. It focuses on how women shape society within the shadow of the home, a complex network of friendships, and even gossip.
Everyone is very formal with each other and talks in riddles and metaphors within the dialogue which and it adds to the atmosphere of the drama, as well as put the audience well within the timeframe, and shows them the limited frames that society allows them to act in as they have to be careful with every word they utter. It makes quite story down-to-earth and realistic.
No matter where the story takes us, it always manages to be rather mundane, down-to-earth and often quietly domestic. The main conflict is not on some battlefield or truly within the politics of the court, but within the walls of the homes, and the consequences and causes that the character must deal with. The problems are often small and personal even within the larger narrative.
At times, I felt that many of the problems were too easily solved, but at the same time, it fit very well with the themes of the story and its scope. Because even though our characters move up and down in society, enter politics and gain power and higher status within society, I never felt that it became anything more than a slow character study that is taking us through the endless current of life and all the victories and sorrows, loves and losses that come with that journey.
All the characters we meet along the way have their own story, desires and needs, which then all come together or collide in these complex relationships and dynamics that they have with each other. Each and every character has their own purpose within the story, and each one is interesting in its own way. Not all of them are likeable, but each one has down-to-earth, real quality to them and the story puts in the time to carve them into individuals.
No character seems to be some monotonous, boring antagonist who is there just because of that just to annoy you or be a nuisance. The story allows each and every one to be messy, and sinister and lose themselves a bit in order to strive for something, love, acceptance or a place in society and it also takes time to show how that quest fills them with bitterness, frustration, envy or even greed and affects what they are doing. And that’s why every moment within the story manages to be interesting. The story is never wasting your time.
Each plot point serves a purpose, flows into the next part of the story, and has a lingering feeling within the story. Each location, every scene has a function within the story, and every shot feels like it has some intent behind it. The quietness of it might make the ending a bit anticlimactic as it is not some a grand epic, but that was never the story The Road of Splendor was telling or building up to. The story is just these characters; Zhao Ling and Xie Tingyun and their journey to find some safety and status within society and to all the challenges that come with it. It is a lot of work to free yourself from the cage that society has put you in, and even in doing so you can so easily end up in another cage if you are not careful.
And in that careful but quiet introspection the drama also manages to show a clear contrast between Zhao Ling and Xie Tingyun and their partnership, and Fan Yake and Yu Jingxiu who never manage to work together. And with that comes also the position of the women, because all the women within both the Zhao household and the Yu household are trying to improve their lives within a society that doesn’t value them. So they go to great lengths, and play a game in the shadows, gossip and plot and compliment the right people to move certain mountains and improve their position through the men in their lives. And thus comes the importance of finding a good man.
In the end, that’s exactly what makes the drama so fascinating. It’s a character exploration first and foremost. A story that allows its characters to breathe, thrive and be chaotic, bitter, overly ambitious and faulter, and all the different ways people look for safety and shelter, whether it comes from love, a good family or wealth and power. It is that down-to-earth and mundane feel that surrounds the drama, that is cultivates so deliberately to frame this very detailed character driven story of the inner conflicts of the characters and how that shapes their lives.
Everyone is very formal with each other and talks in riddles and metaphors within the dialogue which and it adds to the atmosphere of the drama, as well as put the audience well within the timeframe, and shows them the limited frames that society allows them to act in as they have to be careful with every word they utter. It makes quite story down-to-earth and realistic.
No matter where the story takes us, it always manages to be rather mundane, down-to-earth and often quietly domestic. The main conflict is not on some battlefield or truly within the politics of the court, but within the walls of the homes, and the consequences and causes that the character must deal with. The problems are often small and personal even within the larger narrative.
At times, I felt that many of the problems were too easily solved, but at the same time, it fit very well with the themes of the story and its scope. Because even though our characters move up and down in society, enter politics and gain power and higher status within society, I never felt that it became anything more than a slow character study that is taking us through the endless current of life and all the victories and sorrows, loves and losses that come with that journey.
All the characters we meet along the way have their own story, desires and needs, which then all come together or collide in these complex relationships and dynamics that they have with each other. Each and every character has their own purpose within the story, and each one is interesting in its own way. Not all of them are likeable, but each one has down-to-earth, real quality to them and the story puts in the time to carve them into individuals.
No character seems to be some monotonous, boring antagonist who is there just because of that just to annoy you or be a nuisance. The story allows each and every one to be messy, and sinister and lose themselves a bit in order to strive for something, love, acceptance or a place in society and it also takes time to show how that quest fills them with bitterness, frustration, envy or even greed and affects what they are doing. And that’s why every moment within the story manages to be interesting. The story is never wasting your time.
Each plot point serves a purpose, flows into the next part of the story, and has a lingering feeling within the story. Each location, every scene has a function within the story, and every shot feels like it has some intent behind it. The quietness of it might make the ending a bit anticlimactic as it is not some a grand epic, but that was never the story The Road of Splendor was telling or building up to. The story is just these characters; Zhao Ling and Xie Tingyun and their journey to find some safety and status within society and to all the challenges that come with it. It is a lot of work to free yourself from the cage that society has put you in, and even in doing so you can so easily end up in another cage if you are not careful.
And in that careful but quiet introspection the drama also manages to show a clear contrast between Zhao Ling and Xie Tingyun and their partnership, and Fan Yake and Yu Jingxiu who never manage to work together. And with that comes also the position of the women, because all the women within both the Zhao household and the Yu household are trying to improve their lives within a society that doesn’t value them. So they go to great lengths, and play a game in the shadows, gossip and plot and compliment the right people to move certain mountains and improve their position through the men in their lives. And thus comes the importance of finding a good man.
In the end, that’s exactly what makes the drama so fascinating. It’s a character exploration first and foremost. A story that allows its characters to breathe, thrive and be chaotic, bitter, overly ambitious and faulter, and all the different ways people look for safety and shelter, whether it comes from love, a good family or wealth and power. It is that down-to-earth and mundane feel that surrounds the drama, that is cultivates so deliberately to frame this very detailed character driven story of the inner conflicts of the characters and how that shapes their lives.
Was this review helpful to you?
