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.