The Untamed (2019)

I'm not a big fan of BL projects, no matter how good the storyline is, which I understand can limit me to some amazing stories. When I heard about The Untamed coming out, did I roll my eyes? Why, yes, I did. Short reason is I don't like the fetishization of gay romance/love for the enjoyment of straight people. BL, as a whole, is a genre marketed toward young girls. People can easily enjoy gay & lesbian intimacy without as lifting a finger to advocate for their rights or can sometimes even hate on gay culture when it doesn't fit their fantasy. Even the author of the novel is a woman, but of course we cannot assume she is just a straight woman with fantasies of hot gay men going at each other. I'm sure there are a lot of lgbtqia who enjoys projects like this, and for them I'm glad.

The fans of the show did make me feel as though The Untamed was put on a pedestal as though other dramas throughout the last year was complete trash. Uncalled for, but it inspired me to watch the show.

I was surprised by the lack of filler scenes. Almost every scene was interesting, everything needed to be watched in detail. I really give kudos to the writing team, production team, cast and everyone involved in the ensemble. The story flourished with immense strokes of progression and amazing acting.

No character was ever 2 dimensional. Not to name any C-Dramas but many of them populate the dramas with villains... who are just bad for no cause, greedy with no reason, and cruel because the heroes needed someone to defeat. Every villain in The Untamed had a backstory that made you understand why they did the horrible things they did. That added so much more depth to the villains, and made for a much more conflicting experience. All the anger and resentment made sense because you felt it justified.

Acting was so good. Xiao Zhan did such an amazing job as Wei Wuxian. The emotional journey and inner struggle he went through frustrated me and had me rooting for him the entire time. The character is a well-rounded one so that we would support him and stay connected along the journey. He's selfless and that's also his flaw. Impulsive and cocky. He frustrated me with his holier than thou attitude at times, but that's his character and at his core, he represented heroism and good.

Wang Yibo as Lan Wanji was absolutely dreamy. He's fit and has a blank expression when in character. He's definitely hubby material, and it made sense why they were in love in the novel and ambiguously in the drama. He's a simple character with restrictions, so I think Wang Yibo did a good job restraining his emotions while still portraying someone with so much warmth towards his friends and family.

The actress for Wen Qing got some heat from fans for becoming having a "love line" with Wei Wuxian. However, that doesn't even make sense as she never said she hinted at that and her character was just extremely thankful to WWX. The interaction between WWX and the newer generation of clan sect disciples was also really fun. It illustrates his growth as a cultivator and his natural talent of genuinity drawing people to his side.

Another duo of great people I cried buckets for were Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen. They were such good buddies and met the ending we do not want for Lan Zhan and WWX. Xiao Xingchen will always have a special place in my heart, and I really like the actor who played him, he did amazing. I hate Xueyang and I don't think he is redeemable, but I applaud the actor who played him so viciously and also seductively.

I really liked the portrayal of sibling love between WWX and his senior sister. It was a really pure and refreshing relationship that we don't get to see often. All the other side characters did amazing in their roles. They're all so talented and wonderful in their craft, and I hope to see more of them in the future.

The world of The Untamed reflects a lot of social norms in society that often we don't think about. It did make me ponder and nervous how quick we can change our views on a single person as soon as they become public enemy. It shows viewers how dangerous it is to judge others without knowing what really is happening. How important it is to have the people who really know you remain at your side. And without them, you feel completely loss. WWX went through all of that, but in the end he only needed one person's validation. The person who proudly remained by his side while others didn't especially the ones WWX never expected to desert him.

People really hated Jiang Cheng, but I think his anger and hatred for WWX was what you could only expect from a man who had lived his whole life with everything just taken away. WWX lived as an orphan, knew how to be resilient and rebuild his character. JC struggled with that. One thing I didn't really like about his whole ordeal is the fact that he was written to always be second to WWX. It's such an overdone, completely cliche element to have this brotherhood where one is always second to the Male Lead, and the Male Lead is just so good at everything. JC thought even if his parents died as long as he had WWX and his sister, he could rebuild Lotus Pier and they could be happy. But then he lost his sister, and ultimately he lost WWX to demonic cultivation/rebellion. He hates WWX because he immaturely (of course) blames WWX for the destruction of his home and family. But also because WWX broke his trust and wounded his heart, he truly loved WWX as a brother. Not that he didn't do his part either, but he could have stayed strong for WWX and remained by his side as well. All in all, they sacrificed what they thought the other needed and ended up missing the mark.

OST is great, awesome, beautiful, haunting. I made a playlist and cried for each song lol. I love the personalization of each soundtrack to match each character. I really loved Shi Jie's song for Ah Xian about Lotus Pier.

Re-watch value is about medium for me. I think the emotional turmoil is too much for me to watch over again and again, but it was such a good first watch.

The story of The Untamed is not a totally original concept. It has the black sheep equation with wrong place, wrong time equation. It still weaved a very enjoyable story and thrilling show. The actors did such a wonderful job and so did the editors, directors, producers, staff members!

I'm glad I gave The Untamed a chance because I am looking forward to these actors in new roles, and the story makes me appreciate the message it's trying to send.

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Below average.

Plot - banal. Out of 50 episodes, I was only interested in one thread. Additionally, the plot is absurdly chaotic.
Pictures, costumes, scenography - typical. After you've seen 10 costume c-dramas, this one doesn't make a better impression than the others.
Special effects - as if I were watching cheap productions from the 1980s.
It is even worse with music, because its idiotic pathos reminded me of Hollywood blockbusters about ancient Rome "Quo Vadis?", "Ben Hur". "Cleopatra" etc. shot in the 60's.
All this would have disqualified this drama for me if it weren't for XZ. Sorry, that's my personal opinion, I hate WWX, which is terribly annoying, but XZ played it so daringly that it knocked me to my knees with his acting. I learned to ignore the cheesy special effects, annoying music, endless boredom of the plot and a whole host of shortcomings, errors and absurdities, because I was seduced by XZ's acting. Due to the XZ, I don't give this drama a well deserved 1 star. I don't care if fanatical CQL fans find my review intentionally malicious. For me, this drama is below average.

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Overhyped, greatly.

I only watched this because I've seen the anime and also read the book. And it is because I've seen the anime and read the book that I was able to make myself finish it.

I don't understand why this became so hugely popular considering the acting was mediocre at best, and the plot whilst they did their best under censorship laws, lost what made the actual story so great and riveting - the gore, the horror of dead corpses, the actual BL romance and not 'bromance', etc.

It is definitely one of those dramas where it was painful to watch throughout - terribly acted out scenes, inconsistent CGI quality, lacklustre fight scenes - but something you can't completely regret watching. I've got to hand it to Xiao Zhan though, because that last cut of his smile actually made me forget how terrible the entire drama was, so I guess there's some reasoning to why he's so famous now.

But no, this is not 'the best drama ever' 'high-quality acting' bla bla. It's just a drama with two good looking leads, a somewhat unique storyline, and a free pass to ship two men because the original storyline has these characters in an actual relationship. Just know that there's also a lot of inexperienced acting, low budget extras and CGIs, forced fanservice by way of OOC lovey-dovey glances from Xiao Zhan to WYB, and a typical plotline of good guy forced to turn evil, rather than the original good guy forced to create evil, which is what makes both the novel and the anime so much greater.

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So I have watched a considerable amount of drama before writing this and there were good ones among them. But literally I never wanted to EVER write a review. But for this drama I must. I am not going to babble about the synopsis, it's a little bit of everything. A little bit of horror, romance, fantasy and 75% bromance. It's those bonds which are really precious in this drama. The sibling bonds and the friendship/slight yaoi bromance bond. I once got to know of this drama because Xiao Zhan is a member of my favorite c-pop group X-nine. I have already watched Oh! My emperor and his acting was epic for the role of Moran. In this drama I must say, his acting was quite unexpectedly impressive. Knowing his personality and previous roles, i can tell he had to give a lot of effort to do this. and it must have been a little bit cringey for him. When I first watched it, I was so surprised because he was doing a role which is so unexpectedly contrasting.

On Wang Yibo's part, I have seen so many people criticizing his acting saying that since his personality is so simillar to Lan Zhan that he did not do a good job. But imo he was the pinnacle of the whole series. How often do we get to see a role such as this? I'd say its pretty rare. It's a rare role and it takes a lot of effort to do it too! Lan Zhan might not speak more than 10 words for a single episode but he had to do a lot of work with facial expressions. I rewatched his scenes more than like 10 times and there were many moments I wondered how he is going to tackle his reactions. He had to not smile and smile which is not even a smirk in some scenes and doing that requires a lot of skill. Also his drunk acting is super epic. The other characters were really impressive too, like Wen Ning and Jia Cheng. They did a good job in terms of acting.

The music of the drama is what made the whole drama so memorable and increase the re-watch value. I listen to Bu Wang and QuJinChenQing literally everyday when I work out. So beautiful lyrics and such beautiful voices. The OSTS are indeed impressive even the background instrumentals. And beautiful china btw, watching all these scenic shots makes me realize I'm taking a vacation by watching the show itself. I gave the Drama a 9.5, because I personally enjoyed the interactions with the two male leads. After, the second rebirth of Wei Wuxian the drama was melancholic and it was ok but got a bit boring at the end. Maybe, because it did not have much interactions with the main male leads. However, overall this literally could be the best drama I watched for this year hands down!

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Please read and don't judge a book by its cover

The show was amazing. I heard of it in 2019 but I thought it was like a really weird story and that I wouldn't like it but then my sister started watching it in 2020. She became obsessed with it then forced me to watch it. I will say the first few episodes are slow but since I was forced I had nothing else to do. Later on, it was getting really interesting and I couldn't stop watching it. So yeah, don't judge a book by its cover, I don't regret watching it, and I think if I wasn't forced to watch the untamed, I would have missed my biggest chance to watch the world's best drama.

Even though in this show you never really get to hear Lan Zhan clearly confess his love to Wei Ying, but there are some parts that really sweeter than honey, that you can truly see Lan Zhan's love for Wei Ying. Cultivators don't say "I love/like you," they say "The feeling of sticking to the single-log bridge till it’s dark is indeed not bad."

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10 is not enough to rate this masterpiece

100/10 for the rewatchability.

Rare are the moments that we find such gem in the sea of dramas. I was very very cautious starting this. I don't really like costume dramas, and BL is not really my thing, but there was some spell that changed everything in me.

The lightness of the start, even though it began with WWX dying. But all the happening in the Mo Mansion was so light that already gave roundness to the protagonist bubbly personality made me push into knowing what else is there in the cultivation world.

It was amazing to find idol actors who really can star their roles like this. I honestly didn't think I would like Yibo in here as I didn't like him so much in his other hetero dramas LOL. But he was born to play Lan Wang Ji. The grace. The presence. Just the mere presence is enough. I can imagine the producers looking at him come through that door and say, we found Lan Zhan! And it actually happened. I saw in one interviews of Yang Xia that they really didn't think they will find someone to cast for Lan Wangji. Through pictures they passed Yibo twice already, but when he came in the audition, it was really the end of it. The coldness without the arrogance. The reticence. And Xiao Zhan, my dear Xiao Zhan. I've seen him in Oh My Emperor, and I liked him. But in here, he simply owned the show.

The contents of the story is so intricately made. If somebody is reading this review, and has not watched this, please please do yourselves a favor and try. Everything works in here. The story and the casts are amazing.

Like the others who have convinced me to watch this, yes, I'm eating my words now, I may also find it hard to get over this drama. And its very rare to find something like this if you've been a drama watcher for 15 years or so.

I love The Untamed!

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Guys I am not satisfied!

As we all know that this drama is based on BL but is censored. I really loved and enjoyed the drama, all the characters played by actors were wonderful. But what I really wanted and expecting was the very romantic and kissing scene between Wang Yibo and Sean Xiao. But because of china's censorship it didn't happen. And ended up showing bromance and friendship between them ; with which i was not very satisfied! Honestly I am a big fan of BL...
And my expectations for a BL drama about romance is very high.
But the drama was really great and everyone should watch it. After watching drama I am really in love with both male leads and i really want both of them in other 80-100 BL dramaaaaa.

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I gained 10 years of the time I lost watching mediocre dramas

Well. I just registered here to rate this one because it has been a month but I'm still repeating the Untamed. Look at me. I'm not a BL fan. And I'm super obsessed with a big old hetero OTP because I used to imagine myself as the female lead.

But this? This is revolutionary. Everything that is unorthodox to an old drama fan like me. I've been watching dramas since Stairway to Heaven days, and I just lulled into this saturated state because everything is just repeating. The quality of the dramas just degraded in my case because they can't simply pull off conflict-heavy dramas in this day and age.

But still, I keep on watching with a bored heart. I liked a few dramas occassionally. Bubu Jing Xin? Healer? Master's Sun? The Hong Sisters dramas. Some Day or One Day.

But damn, I think nothing will come close to the rewatchability of this drama. It was like a drug. You just can't watch this once because you need to feel things again on second watching, or even third. Because you will surely miss things and that's deliberately planned. On first watch, you will just follow the adventure. But once the truths are revealed and you finally figured out who the characters were on the different timelines, you will feel so hurt or happy in your heart.

The leads were amazing. I've never shipped a m-m CP before. And I was so late to jump into the WangXian train but here I go. Completely eating my words that I will never watch a popular drama just because I didn't really like Goblin or DOTS that much.

I think I am in love. I think I'm back to the good old days where I really look forward to come home and play my kdrama DVDs.

Thank you tencent.

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No. 1 series

I have a lot to say about this series, The first one is their portrayal of the character is so on point especially xiao,
they really give justice to the great novel.

Story: The story so long that I really want it to not end because of how the author writes it with a never-ending plot, the story and how the actors act here is so perfect that I really feel that I'm in the series too, the emotion that they give is so fulfilling.
Acting: Again these series give everything that I want in a whole series or a novel, it gives the vibes that make me want to be there too.
Music: The music is so touching I really want to cry just hearing "Wu-ji" it gives me chills while recalling everything in my head
Rewatch: I eagerly want to watch it again and again The story is not tiring to watch all over again, every time that you watch it again a new feeling is given by this series.
Overall: Overall these series set the bar too high, that other series is made look like a 'mehh' in this series when it compared to this.

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Characters who grow on you

In the beginning all I could think about was "there's no way I'm watching 50 episodes of this" then I watched the 1st one.

I believe this story has a moment for everything in life and a journey full of lessons, some more difficult than others but watching every single character grow makes everything better.

Still not sure if it was the music, the wonderfull outfits, the beautiful story, my sense of justice, the amount of times I felt proud for Wei Ying, the amount of time I felt Lan Zhan's pain... my juniors (OMG I love my juniors so much) or my precious, Wen Ning.

All I know is that I'm not the same person as before.

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