De Retour du Gouffre (2023)

Du rire et une jolie romance, un été qui s'annonce sous de beau auspice !

Il pleut. Si pour certains vacanciers, c'est une plaie durant la période estivale, c'est une aubaine pour le nord de la France. Avouons que pouvoir rire de bon coeur sous son plaid, alors que l'orage gronde est plutôt plaisant.

L'intrigue nous amène cette fois dans le royaume des mortels où se côtoient taoist et démon. La sémillante Yan Hui expulsée de son clan y rencontre l'esprit millénaire dragon, Tian Yao. Ce dernier à la recherche de certaines parties de son corps, éparpillés à travers les 4 coins du monde après une trahison de sa fiancée Su Ying, comprend rapidement que Yan Hui possède une partie de ce qui lui appartient. Et voilà notre duo de choc, envers et contre tous, sur les routes afin de reconstituer notre dragon millénaire.

Envers et contre tous. C'est un peu le thème de notre drama. Derrière le ton léger et drôle, du moins durant la première partie, se cache le problème de cette normalité que l'humanité a imposé depuis des siècles. A travers l'histoire de Yan Hui et de Tian Yao, c'est l'universalité de la différence qui nous est montrés. Qui est le monstre? Qui est l'humain? Cette peur de l'inconnu, cette idée de ce qui est différent est obligatoirement mal. J'ai vraiment apprécié la morale de l'histoire et c'est joliment mis en scène à travers les différents couples humain/démon mais aussi ce rejet que chaque protagoniste rencontre au sein même de son clan.
J'aime que rien ne soit blanc ou noir, la nuance se glisse partout que cela soit chez les humains ou les démons.

L'humour omniprésent allège considérablement l'atmosphère et on se surprend à rire de bon coeur, du moins dans la première partie. La seconde partie devient plus dramatique et perd un peu ce côté étonnant et loufoque mais n'en reste pas moins agréable à suivre.

Les personnages? c'est le point fort et une belle réussite dans ce drama.
Yan Hui est le personnage central de ce drama. C'est un personnage féminin pétillant de vie dont la joie et la bonne humeur ont illuminé le petit écran de ses répliques détonnantes d'intelligences et de drôleries! J'ai totalement craqué pour ses actions inattendues et ses mimiques ultra "cutes"! J'ai adoré sa force et sa féminité, c'est un personnage superbement interprété par Zhou Ye! Je découvre cette actrice et j'avoue que j'ai été bluffée par son jeu. Je pense que Yan Hui fut le pilier de ce drama.
Tian Yao, moins exubérant, apporte ce contraste nécessaire dans notre duo, rendant le côté loufoque de Yan Hui encore plus évident. Leur couple fut adorable malgré je l'avoue une petite perte d'intensité pendant une partie du drama (je vous laisse deviner à quel moment....).
Les personnages secondaires ont été soignés, et nous prenons beaucoup de plaisir à suivre chacune de leur histoires.

C'est donc un drama extrêmement agréable à suivre avec une sacrée bonne dose de bonne humeur!

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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.

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