When I Fly Towards You

I must confess, I'm a cry baby....  I cry at the most unexpected moments.... Phone call, doggy talk, randomly recalled memories, movies, shows, TV adds.... To TV show group we can now add When I Fly Towards You 🙈😭 Seeing the comments online, I was ready for something like Hidden Love, which was an excellend drama but (....) Fly Towards You is far from it. I found it boring for episodes 1 to 5/6 to a point that I was struggilng with every episode. It upgraded to fine till 10th and acceptable by folowing 4ish episodes. Just after that, somewhere about 15th or 16th, I finally started to enjoy it! and wanting more! Little did I need to be able to cry like a baby at the last episodes 😅😇 

What was happening between episodes 1-24?

One day in Autumn 2012 Su Zaizai encounters handsome Zhang Lurang and falls in love with him at first sight. They see each other for the first time in the local store but meet at high school where Lurang is famous for his amazing performence in every subject given.

These two couldn't be greater opposites of each other - he quiet, diligent and insecure inside; she bubbly, courageus and bright. The more they get to know each other the more Yin-and-Yang they become towards each other. What's more, Lurang's life changes when he spend more time with forward Zaizai, her cheerful bestie Jiang Jia and his extraverted old-new friends Gu Ran and Guan Fang. The members of the group learn from each other and together enter the next stages of adulthood and first loves. 

This time minuses first:

1. Slow pace - as I wrote in the first paragraph, till about episode 12 (so half of a drama!) it was somewhat boring. I have literaly felt asleep twice while watching first episodes. Later it speeded up but in over all the pace was super uneven and bothering. 💤
2. Prolonged scenes and too many recaps - there is nothing more annoying for me than prolonged scenes. I hate even in real life when something takes too much time, not talking when in happens on screen! I definately don't have Lurang's patience. In every episode there is one or two moments where time goes mercilessly slow plus the producers add memories of something that happened an episode or two ago. I had to speed things up many times. 💨
3. Chaotic scene composition - some episodes were a bit incoherent and not very enjoyable to watch. I didn't know whether the scenes were happening simultaneously, sequentially or with a time interval and it was mostly in the early episodes so highly affected first impressions. 😐
4. Childishness of main female characters - both their behavior and clothes were too childish for me. As a European, I have the impression that they dressed like local 14-year-olds throughout the drama and it was hard for me to take them seriously. I know they weren't much older than that because the drama starts when they are about 17 but for me their characters should be a bit more mature. In addition, the drama takes place over the course of about 5 years, and in their behavior and clothing, puberty is slightly noticeable. It doesn't look much better in the male main characters, but it's better.😟

Is there anything I liked? Yes there is:

1. Antagonism of the leads - they are extremely different, but they understand each other and complement each other perfectly. I haven't seen the actors in other productions yet, but I already have one for each on the watchlist. They played their characters naturally and well, so I'm curious to see what changes they will make in other dramas (wait for reviews!). 😈😇
2. Strong female lead - however you look at it, Zaizai was a strong independent woman. She set a life goal to be with Lurang, and so she did. No other woman would hang around him unless she allowed it. She always said what she liked and didn't like. Although Zaizai is on the one hand overly cute and childlish, she has a strong backbone and it's hard not to like her 😁
3. It's not too sweet & cute - although the first episodes could indicate it, luckily it didn't happen. Despite the slightly too childish female roles, the whole drama is not overly sweet. Chinese productions unfortunately tend to make dramas where the characters have no natural instincts towards the opposite sex. This year's dramas have slightly broken this taboo and the closer to the end of When I Fly Towards You, Lurang is more and more masculine and flirty 😈 (and gaining my liking)
4. Secondary characters - fantastically created secondary couple that I couldn't stop looking at. Although Jiang Jia and Gu Ran get on their nerves, can also help in important moments. Their story (from friends to lovers) reminds me a bit of Love Is For Suckers because of hiding feelings from fear of losing a friend. For several episodes, I preferred watching their adventures over the sometimes boring main couple. Meanwhile, Guan Fang was a lovely forever single 😂 Funny and lovable weirdo with a fantastic relationship with an endearing grandma. I wonder what happened to his parents, it's a pity that the producers omitted his background 😤

I had a problem where to set the happy ending because it's a huge moot point. On the one hand, I liked it, but on the other hand, such a stereotype and a pink ending is boring and a bit annoying because every other drama ends like this. Happy ending is what I expect in dramas where whole world is against the couple (like in current The Real Has Come or previously watched Flower of Evil), here it wasn't needed because the couple had no enemies or problems 💞

When I Fly Towards You was highly recommended by a vast amount of k-drama community and started to watch it under their influence. Such a move does not always pay off. In this case, it's half-half. I definitely came out better with it than with Shopaholic Louis, which will probably forever be my most hated kdrama 😡 But funny enough, looking at the reviews on different platforms about both dramas, I have the impression that I watched a different show than the others. (....) Fly Towards You gets constantly 10, 9 and 8 points where best I can give is 6,5.... Those high ratings are unthinkable for me because even though it is a good drama but still rather average when it comes to plot and characters 😌

It is a very calm drama where the emphasis is on the development of love between two teenagers over the course of several years. A beautiful concept of first & last love, getting the best out of each other and continuing friendship at every stage of life. In this respect, When I Fly Towards You is fantastic and has a 9/10 from me 👫 But its execution leaves much to be desired. It was the technical stuff that leveled down the show 😑