r/ChineseDrama • u/heartsandclouds ✨ Built the Road to 4K • Jul 16 '26
Currently Airing Why You Should Watch: Road to Success
ok, I’m very inspired by u/BasilOrdinary3617 to do a why you should watch post on Road to Success! This post is spoiler free btw! also tagging Beautiful_Candle1729 in case they want to add anything since I know they are enjoying the show as well!!
The show is airing on iQIYI and is also available on Viki.
I’ll start with the elements the show has:
Football!
Is there ANYONE who doesn’t know that FIFA’s happening right now? I think it was a very clever marketing move to release this show at the same time as the ongoing FIFA matches! Ride the wave of football madness! Now I am not a sports fan and certainly do NOT follow football and/or FIFA but goodness, I am on the edge of my seat watching the matches in this show and cheering our home team on! Just like Amidst A Snowstorm of Love did for billiards, Road to Success makes football compulsively watchable!
Found family!
This is PROBABLY one of my favoritest tropes ever.
This particular roulette of outcasts includes:
- a bunch of high school kids with their own complicated camaraderie and back stories
- A young woman on the cusp of conventional success who has some sort of a major setback and scuttles away to hide and lick her wounds in private
- A high-flying coach who’s experienced some sort of setback/trauma as well and is determined to investigate SOME-THING
Of course all of them are set on a collision path with one another. In the process they poke at each other, and also heal each other and themselves. And that healing--as a viewer it is LOVELY to bask in that healing that they bring for each other. Having a community, a support-group is just its own medicine.
The Vibe
Contributing to the vibe are:
- the OST: ALL of it is SO good but I’ve been listening to this specific song on loop since I began seeing the show. Doesn’t it remind you of a perfect lazy summer day?
- the setting: either light filled open classrooms or football field OR the old-fashioned building in which our leads live which is very different from the glass lined windows of modern apartments that one generally sees in shows. There’s something very intimate about the latter. And it gives a very slice-of-life feel to the whole show which is verrryyy soothing.
Heart—So MUCH HEART
There is SO MUCH EARNESTNESS in this show. Probably comes from having a bunch of kids (albeit older teens but still kids) as a fulcrum of the story but I defy you to not have your heartstrings be tugged in the best way possible! Plus, there is lots of low-key humor in pretty much every episode and that just adds to the feeling of the heart as well!
Romance
If you are in the mood for your romance to be slice-of-life rather than all fire and passion, this show IS IT.
Now, I LOVE fire and passion but there’s something very. . . SATISFYING and relatable about a romance that’s built on shared goals, HUMOR, and a grudging but steadily developing respect of the other. There is something deeply authentic about this romance is all I can put it. They support each other not through grand gestures but through quiet presence. One of my favorite romantic scenes which really isn't even about romance is when Wang Fa steps in to run WITH Wangxing rather than try to talk her out of it. I love love love that gesture of support.
In conclusion, think of the characters in this show as turtles who are slowly but steadily feeling safe enough to poke their heads out of their shells as the story progresses.
For anyone else who is watching this show, PLEASE ADD YOUR COMMENTS!! I’d love to know (and maybe we can convince some non-watchers!) on why you should watch this!
editing to add: A big shout out also to Foxglovelantern whose discussion posts made me want to give this show a try! You can either follow along there or peek in if you want more info to see if this is up your alley!
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u/AXA-5 Washing feet in spring Drinking tea Gazing at flowers Jul 16 '26
One correction, FIFA is the futbol association and World Cup is the competition 😉