This review may contain spoilers
A beautiful work of cinematic art
Like many of us today, I have the attention span of a goldfish with ADHD. However, this drama had me gripped me from start to finish, without skipping or fast-forwarding. The cast and crew did a phenomenal job, especially for a drama with almost 40 episodes. I’m sure it took a lot of hard work because the result was a beautiful work of cinematic art.I have a list. A very short list of dramas that keep me thinking about them for a long time. Road to Splendor is now on this list.
THE DIALOGUE AND CHARACTER ARCS
There are two elements of the writing I think were executed really well. The first is the layered dialogues. I loved how warnings, advice, and instructions were often hidden so you had to read between the lines to get the real messages the characters trying to communicate to one another. The second element I loved were the character arcs. Three characters in particular stood out to me: Fan Ya Ke, Zhao Ling, and Madam Yu.
***SPOILERS AHEAD****
Let’s start with Zhao Ling. Shoutout to DYX for his portrayal of this character. Absolutely incredible. Zhao Ling is first introduced to us as a man whose circumstances pushed him to live outside the law to survive, yet he remained principled and morally-upright. As we follow Zhao Ling’s (relatively) quick journey from the bottom, we see him rise in rank, but fall in spirit. By the time he’s the emperor’s official right-hand man, Zhao Ling is a shell of his former self. As time went on, he realized that the things he was losing or was at risk of losing, were actually the important things. And that the things he’d gained weren’t what truly mattered.
The second character arc is Fan Ya Ke’s. This character made my blood boil like lava. The actor portraying her was fantastic. Fan Ya Ke’s desperation for external validation made me think about how this is it is in real life. When we want a certain car, or want to travel to a certain place, do we really want those things or do we just like the feeling of knowing other people know we have them, or have had done them? Anyway, in the context of this drama, the lesson we learn about reputation is a nuanced one. On one hand, especially in historical times, gossip can literally ruin lives, like we saw in Ting Yun’s case. On the other hand, shackling oneself for the sake of reputation, is not worth one’s happiness or freedom, as we see at Yan Ke’s.
Last, but most definitely not the least, Madam Yu’s arc. Shoutout the amazing actor that portrayed her. She captured the cold, calculating, and cruel nature of this character perfectly. Madam Yu is a monster in fine robes and she knows it. She wants to keep her influence and wealth, and she will not let anyone or anything stand in her way. At the end of the drama, not only had she lost all the power she schemed and killed to keep, she had also lost her sanity. It was easier for her to lose her mind, than to accept the fact that she was now a commoner, a fallen noble, with the road back to splendor closed to her and her family for generations to come.
HEARTBREAKING SCENES THAT MADE ME CRY
It takes a lot to bring me to tears but these two scenes had me weeping on my couch.
The first scene was when Yan Yu Cheng died. All his life he’d wanted to crawl out of the mud. He’d worked hard. He’d done his best. Yet, it wasn’t enough. The moment he gave up, you could see it in his eyes. He was done. I burst into ugly tears when he said, “The road ahead, I can no longer walk it with you. I am too tired.”
The second time I cried was when Zuo Shi died. You know an actor is good when she makes you cry for the villainess. When she put her neck in the noose, my eyes started to water. Then, I broke completely when she said, “I spent my whole life merely existing. Now it is time to truly live.”
SATISFYING SCENES I WISH WE GOT
These are the three scenes I wish we saw at some point in the story:
1. Fu Ting Yu properly confronting her paternal grandmother.
2. The four written confessions actually being revealed in court or publicly.
3. Fan Ya Ke getting a taste of her own medicine publicly.
THE ENDING
I read some earlier comments by people who felt the ending was unsatisfying. I personally think it was ideal for the moral of the story. The journey of the MCs wasn’t supposed to be a clean straight line with them starting at the bottom at the start of the drama and then ending their story when they’ve reached the top.
Instead, their journey was supposed to be a circle. Where the characters ended up in the same position (externally) they’d began. In the end, it seemed like nothing had changed but internally, they were completed different people from whom they were at the start of the story. They'd traveled the road to splendor and realized it wasn’t what truly mattered. Instead, they’d gained wisdom, experience, inner peace and true happiness.
Was this review helpful to you?
simply amazing
I’ve been watching kdramas for about 3 years and when I tell you I literally just made an MDL account last week just so I could review this drama. I'd stopped watching dramas set in high school but decided to give this a try 'cos I didn’t have anything else to watch. I didn't expect it to be this good and emotional. I thought it would be a surface-level high school drama but it’s so much deeper than that. It’s about finding the will to keep living even when it seems like your whole world is falling apart because if you choose to live one more day, things will get better. By only episode 2, I could already tell this was gonna be my favorite drama of all time.Was this review helpful to you?
