Indulge in the rom-com aspects of Back from the Brink, from the interactions of the lead couple (both inhabit their respective characters with charm, wit, and delicacy!), the side characters, not to mention the cute and fluffy CGI creatures, and then there are the kiddies! Naive yet tongue-in-cheek feel at the beginning, and at the same time all deadly serious if our eye-candy Heroes (Yan Hui and Tan Yiao) are to succeed on their Quest (rescuing not only themselves, but their supporting cast). A light-hearted identity misunderstanding begins their journey (through different lands), but our romancing couple soon sort out who is who (and who's boss!) and work to help each other (with a bit of assistance from a relationship-testing character obliged to help while hindering!) in life-threatening situations. They have some well-intentioned friends to support them, some arch villains to thwart them, and some unexpected obstacles to try their resolve and commitment to each other (which they have in buckets!). All of which are intertwined as they progress from xian to human to demon realms and back (with some enchanted side trips for good measure).

Early costuming is entirely appropriate to their wandering-in-search-of situation, together with a penchant for steamed buns and gambling away the money that's made (although no shortage of means to make more - they are resourceful, after all!). Their costumes become more gorgeous as their circumstances improve, black has a special meaning, as does bathing in moonlight and cold water! Music is very much in sync with the slightly gamed feel to many scenes in drama; elements of RPG run rampant in very charming ways, but as the angst ups, more orchestral melodies can be heard and the game aspect tones down. The OST is one of the most refreshing and appropriate to be paired with a drama recently.

It's Xianxia, there is heart-wrenching angst, there are knife-edge decisions being made, there are multiple sacrifices (this couple ooze a deep heart connection) and much misdirection...if all goes according to their entangled fate, despite overwhelming odds Tian Yao and Yan Hui will win through to their happy ever after.

Spoiler ALERT!!! - Keep reading only if you are willing to be spoiled!

The drama is NOT the same as the novel . . . scriptwriters have added in very different subplots and motivations and depowered Yan Hui at the commencement of the drama. Still recognisable from a personality perspective but from a power perspective - entirely dependent on the other males to help "activate" or "rescue" or whatever verb you want to use when a female has her agency removed, as the means to kick-start the action. A pity because the novel really has a tightly knit structure with internal consistency in both motive and plot devices - neither overpower the other, and all characters don't require particularly much suspension of disbelief to agree with their actions. The drama on the other hand starts out with some shaky premises and then veers into some very la la land motives, reactions, consequences. If you come to this after having read the novel, it's fun, the leads are ever so easy on the eyes, and Yan Hui eventually becomes a powerful force of nature (although you may gnash your teeth until she does), but the novel has been dismembered more or less like TY and his body bitz, without the redeeming arc and journey. The other characters are less characters and more caricatures of the novel originals, to their detriment.

JLFX (novel author) was ostensibly involved with the script for the drama. It's not unusual for an author to want a second bite at the cherry and her presence legitimises changes. The variations of the drama from the original novel rely heavily on some worn out tropes, but when this drama stays true to the novel it shines (in no small part to the two leads sensitively inhabiting their characters, despite the dialogue and out-field plot development). But the online reactions that have occurred to various episodes suggest that Youku/producers/pursestrings in the background were always aiming at maximum notoriety - and by the time the drama was one third through they achieved that aim spectacularly: heat indexes, weibo, tik tok, twitter charts/comments/whatevs stratospheric with activity. It's entertainment, so engagement with viewers is a sign of success, but the sense of cynical manipulation suggests the plot twists and turns, the deviation from the novel, the speedy reaction to online uproar, were all a calculated effort to keep this drama in the glare of the spotlight, not because of storytelling excellence and the integrity of the original material, but as a vehicle of sheer obeisance at the temple of advertising revenue. For this novel reader, Back from the Brink wasn't so much an adaptation as a compromised adoption of misinterpreted aspects of Hu Xin. Oh for what might have been.....