Back from the Brink (2023)

How to train your dragon koi.

This rom com xianxia is a barrel of laughs. It is about an ancient spirit dragon Tian Yao who falls for the wrong woman, a rancid Taoist harpy called Su Ying. She steals the guileless Tian Yao's heart and scales at the altar, dismembers him and stashes his core magical parts in different directions. A shadow of his former self, he encounters a dauntless, money loving, ousted Taoist disciple Yan Hui. They form an uneasy alliance that subjects the embittered Tian Yao to the indignity of becoming her demon familiar, a dragon koi. His plight wins Yan Hui's empathy and she vows to help him recover his shards. She soon discovers that learning how train your dragon koi is an arduous and dangerous task. Despite his deceptively benign appearance of an odd hybrid of koi, deer, pony and dragon, Tian Yao is a very dangerous creature. Apart from having deadly taste in women and friends, he also has a nasty habit of stabbing first and asking questions later.

The interference of a mysterious shadow cupid Bai Xiaosheng comically advances their romance until the enabler turns into an obstructor. It is pretty much three's company as they go on many adventures, picking up lifelong friends along the way. Despite some run-of-the mill xianxia tropes and cardboardl villains, the friendships and adventures shine and are the high points of the drama.

Zhou Ye again proves her mettle as one of the most promising young actors out there. Her Yan Hui is spellbinding. She infuses the role with that effervescent joie de vivre and passionate idealism of youth that inevitably eludes older, perhaps lovelier and more seasoned actors. She looks shockingly good with Hou Minghao, whose acting is to say the least, a work in progress. But dang, he is so drop dead gorgeous that I barely register that he looks constipated at the most inappropriate moments. In some ways, his casting is brilliant as a rather uncomplicated and overly good character that loves and hates with equal ferocity. After all, dragons, kois, ponies, deers are all creatures with bigger hearts than brains. So he does some really (let's admit it) not smart things but he is so pure hearted it's almost impossible to fault him. Notwithstanding some acting rough spots, this splendid pairing had me rooting hard for them all the way.

As for the plot, its biggest criticism is that it strays from the original beloved novel in some unforgivable ways in terms of both Yan Hui and Tian Yao's characterisations. I didn't read the novel so I won't opine on that. What I can observe is this drama hooked me from the start despite the low budget and the somewhat cartoonish CGI with phenomenal storytelling. I loved Bai Xiaosheng and found him to be a wickedly good accretive addition to the original story. Unfortunately, about halfway through the characterisations of Bai Xiaosheng and Tian Yao take an abrupt nosedive. It is as if a different writer took over and defaulted into the worst, laziest tropes out there. Although the narrative recovers from a massive hiccup in the middle, it falls well short of the beginning momentum. The writer failed to capitalised on such a fresh and unusual character such as Bai Xiaosheng and turns him into a tired trope that gets sidelined toward the end. Nonetheless Wang Yilun is hugely entertaining in this role and though not as pretty, he is incredibly charming and out acted Hou Minghao. As for how Tian Yao's character is assassinated, I have no words and although he more or less redeems himself, I wish they had not gone there. I am told Yan Hui is also diminished in this adaptation but as far as I am concerned, she is perfect in her imperfections. She elevates Tian Yao to the extent, that I can forgive his character's stumbles in the middle.

While I enjoyed this drama from start to finish, there are too many shallow sub-plots in the latter half and the theme of love obsession is over-exploited. The ultimate antagonist had repetitive indifferently narrated motivators that while hateful enough, lacked depth and complexity. In fact, Su Ying was a more interesting villain than the final boring mastermind who is just beyond meh in terms of motivation, acting and complexity. Overall, this is a humorously told story that re-hashes well explored xianxia themes with no profound new revelations. Indeed the underlying substance, emotion and message of the original works is perceptible but is neglected and abused in the telling. I had big fun and many laughs with this drama but I can see how it missed the opportunity to be a whole lot more and can only rate it 8.0/10.0. I may have gone with an 8.5 had they rolled out Hou Minghao in that spectacular white wig earlier on in the drama.

Read More

BEAUTIFUL MASTERPIECE THAT I WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER

This has become my second favorite xianxia ever!! I laughed l, I cried, i was pissed off, I love so many characters here. So many range of emotions in me during these 40 episodes. I wish it would be longer.
I really congratulate all the casting members, writer, director, production and each member that made possible this BEAUTIFUL MASTERPIECE!!! Tian Yao and Yanhui now are my favorite couple! I’m going to miss them so much!! ???
Yanhui and Tian Yao met because she mistook him from someone else and from that moment their beautiful journey started. She didn’t have a place to stay because she was expelled from her sect. He took her to live with him and his (fake) grandma. Tian Yao was unable to love anyone because he was betrayed 20 years ago by the woman that he fell in love. Time goes on and Yanhui started to like him because of a supposed love potion but then she realized that she has fallen in love because who he was and for the many things that they’ve lived until that moment. Because of the betrayal, he had decided to close his heart completely and to not love anyone anymore. His anger and desire of revenge for what the biatch SY did to him were his biggest impediment to fall in love but after so many beautiful things and Yanhui’s tender heart and all the great things that she did for him, his heart started to open and fell deeply in love with her as well.
They would do anything and everything from each other which made them my favorite couple ever! Their chemistry is something out of this world!

I’m so thankful for this drama in so many ways and that Liu Feng’s family had it to remember their son.
PS: I’m still waiting for them to consummate their marriage and a proper kiss from them. I would love to see them together in a modern drama ❤️?❤️?❤️

Read More