The Untamed (2019)

WHY DIDNT I WATCH THIS EARLIER ?

This is the first drama I've written a review for bc I really want ppl to know how amazing this drama is, if ur wondering if u should watch it, DO IT NOW.

I don't know how to describe the story but it got me hooked from the first ep, I was hesitating when I saw it was 50 ep but now I wished it was more, I would watch it even if it was 1000, I'm not even exaggerating.

The music is mesmerizing. I loved all the songs, especially wuji the theme song. I got them all on my Spotify playlist and I even memorize the lyrics.

The cast is PERFECT..I cant imagine anyone else for the roles. The chemistry was everything even tho they were just looking at each other.

Ngl, I can't say there wasn't a moment I wasn't bored. I skip a few scenes but ONLY a few scenes..each and every ep was worth watching and got me hooked till the end.

I've never read the novel, manhwa or watched the donghwa but I watch and read every version bc of this cdrama.

TU introduced me wuxia, xianxia and danmei but Idk if thats a good thing bc when I watch other xianxia or danmei, I would think 'meh, the untamed is better' or 'its good but it can't beat the untamed'.. i don't think if I'll ever get out of my TU era, ig I'll just keep on rewatching it till I get bored, which I prolly won't 😅

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Best Drama Ever! PERIOD

I am in love with this drama. I've already watched it three times & I still can't get enough.
Although the drama does not follow the novel in its entirety ( due to censorship laws), it still has a beauty of its own. I love how the creators depict the relationship between the two main leads. The way they interact, the way they look at each other, the slightest touch, in every word left unsaid, the affection shines through. It's the purest form of love I have ever seen on screen.
The drama is engaging from the beginning and progressively gets better and better. It's such an emotional rollercoaster. While some parts will leave you in awe, frustration, & utter heart-wrenching sadness, others will make you squeal, Literally! And it's not one of those dramas where you only care about the main leads while the other characters are just there to fill in. Every single character has a unique element to them & they all add value to the drama.
The casting is perfect. I wouldn't have it any other way.
The music WOW. I highly recommend you check out the theme song for Lan Wanji's character with subtitles(if you don't understand Chinese) and of course the main theme song for the drama.

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You should be brave and patient to watch it.

It was my first time that i watched wuxia dramas. At first i thought that i would Dropped it easily but my idea was false and not mature enough.
Story: The story begins with really sad scene and it'll make you say wow. Wei wuxian says: Lanzhan let me go(my English is not as well as you guys sorry) and after that his bro comes and he kills him and after that he fells off form the Cliff. This part of story made me cry whole time and I was like : No what's happened it's the last scene of drama that came first of drama? And these thoughts surrounded all over my braincells. From episode 2 the main story starts and you will understand why he is alive and what happened to him. Ep 15,16,17,18 are such an important episodes and after that he borns again. The story is full of plot twists and again make you say wow :) mostly I liked the comedy side between Lanzhan and Wei wuxian. Why i said you should be brave and patient? Because some scenes make you sad or uncomfortable. Also it has 50 episodes .So you should be capable to watch it completely and don't drop it asap.
Acting: All of the actors and actresses in this drama were good enough and they are all professional. Emotional parts was acted well without any mistakes. So if you want to watch it, it is really worthy.
Song: BGMs( background musics) are good and pretty soft for listening so search it at Google and listen. But know it guys my comment is really different from yours.
Rewatch value: to tell you the truth, I watched it 3 times and again it's not enough for me. Not only the casts but also whole the story is valuable to watch it. When i rewatched it i already knew what was the whole story but again i said: then what happened and etc.
I hope you guys find what you love and like most in the world:)

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If you told me that one of the most gloriously, unapologetically queer shows I’ve watched would come from Mainland China, I would have been . . . skeptical. But here we are, and The Untamed is a thing of beauty indeed. It’s a masterclass in how to tell the story you want to tell in the face of repressive censorship, and a breath of fresh air after years of watching Asian dramas where LGBTQ+ characters, if they exist at all, tend to be marginalized or pathologized. Better yet, the protagonist is presented as not only completely comfortable with his sexuality, but as explicitly rejecting the warrior codes that define manhood through ego, status, and how aggressively one waves one’s, uhm, sword around. Also, while there is a great deal of angst in the show, virtually none of it comes from the central relationship. Love in this drama is a source of strength, not shame – something to be embraced and defended, not cast aside as weakness. While the production team may not be able to show the physical progression of the romance, they lean into the emotional beats instead, understanding that “I love yous” shown through actions are more powerful than those expressed in words. The cast's acting levels vary, technical elements can be shaky at times, and, with one exception, the female characters are much less interesting in the guys, but these are minor issues. In a world of thousands of rules, the show suggests the only one that really matters is choosing people over power. It may not stop all loss and heartache, but you’ll have others there to catch you when you fall.

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Exploring the themes of The Untamed (looking beyond the BL / Bromance)

This review is way overdue. I've just watched it the second time and appreciate it even more.

I'm not going to talk about the BL / Bromance aspects of it, not because I don't love it, but because I think it's already well covered by all the other reviews and comments. Instead, I would urge non-BL / Bromance fans to look past the production value and nominally BL / Bromance label of this drama and appreciate the well-crafted story that has intricately woven themes of morality, good vs. evil, and exploration of various human psyches. (NOTE: All quotes are paraphrased from memory because I'm lazy..)

Good vs. Evil - The oldest theme in human history, and as of late, we've certainly seen more explorations of dubious morality. Obviously the biggest representative of this is Wei Wuxian, our 'anti-villain' / 'hero.' From WWX stepping in to help various peers during the campaign against Wens, to when he saved the Wens, there's a constant question of what is good vs. evil. Sure, Wen Ruohan and Wen Chao are pretty standard 'bad guys', but they are not the primary plot point. Instead, the more important plot point was the treatment of the Wens after the fact. And subsequently, WWX himself. The drama / novel is constantly questioning what is right and what is wrong, and you can see the gradual descent into gray morality through the lens of the righteous Lan Zhan's interactions with WWX. The other aspect of this is that everything is always multifaceted. At the end of the day, no one is fully good or evil. A person can be good to one person, and evil to another. Jin Guangyao's speech at the end sheds a lot of light on this theme. He's done many terrible things, but the one thing he's never done is intentionally harm Lan Xichen, because he truly does love / respect him.

Righteousness - From the top of the hierarchy to the bottom, every single person beats their chests in righteousness. Obviously, the biggest commentary on this is that all these people scream righteousness when it's convenient for them. They leveraged WWX's abilities when it was in their favor, and screamed righteousness when it wasn't. But what I love more about this story is that *every* character has made mistakes over this, including WWX. The cultivation public screaming righteousness over killing WWX is ironic, but what's more subtle is the commentary on WWX's own mistakes in righteousness. Although it's certainly not his fault that the Wens decided to massacre his sect, and it's not his intent to have murdered Jin Zixuan, the fact is that he might have been a cause. This was mirrored in his remark to Wen Zhuliu, the core-shattering bodyguard of Wen Chao's, when he asked the latter, 'Why does your desire to repay kindness [to the Wens] require other innocents to pay?' Even though Wen Zhuliu stays by Wen Chao's side in a righteous desire to repay a kindness, his actions do bring harm to other innocents. Another foil to all of this is of course the story of Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan. They were the epitome of righteous and upstanding, and certainly no one (sane) can blame them for the tragedy that unfolded. Yet reality is a bitter world and this drama showcased very well that your intent to do good will not always be repaid in kindness.

Mob justice - The is extremely critical given China's cultural background. China, and other Asian countries, is a very community -oriented and also hierarchical culture. Deference is woven into the language itself, and so the impact of peer judgment, pressure, and the stakes of position in hierarchy are greatly heightened. Throughout the drama, you constantly see random side characters or strangers making comments. Part of it is to give way to narration and share information with the audience while keeping them fully immersed, but part of it is to illustrate the toxicity and lethality of the mob mentality. Wen Qing's farewell to him basically sum it up. "Whether or not you actually cast the curse is no longer important. They've already determined you to be the perpetrator. It doesn't matter if you even have evidence that you're *not* the perpetrator. They'll find an excuse anyway." The lesson here is that opinions, especially those of a mob, can have very real and very drastic consequences.

Cycle of power, corruption of power - Although the first half of the drama consists of the battle agains the Wens, who are your typical bad, the more important conflict is what follows. And I love that they portray the multiple cycles of power here, and show that it isn't just one person, or one clan, but the position that ultimately 'corrupts'. And they showcase this not just through the 'viillain's like Wen family and Jin Guangyao, but a little bit through WWX himself. Although WWX's intentions were always pretty good and certainly more fair than the other two's, the fact is that he also grew too confident in his ability to control a situation.

Self-serving bias and hypocrisy - This is laughably apparent in all the mob justice mentality. And WWX of course directly pointed all of this out in his monologue atop the roofs of Nightless City. When someone used underhanded tactics to surprise attack him, and then he in return killed the person, the mob once again cried injustice. And he remarks through angry tears, "Why do you not ask who instigated this?" and goes on to finally remark, "Oh I understand now. If you attack me, it's justice. If I in return defend myself by attacking back, it's a crime." Some more subtle moments reflecting this theme, are when Jin Guangshan makes up excuses to retain Xue Yang's life. "Who personally saw him commit these crimes, hm?" which is a stark contrast to when they were persecuting the remnants of the Wen clan, and said "Just because no one saw them commit the crimes, doesn't mean they didn't!" And of course reiterated in WWX's monologue where he snubbed to an outspoken bystander, "Well if you're claiming I can't prove I'm not the perpetrator, what about you? What evidence do you have that you're not the perpetrator?"

Difference in human psyches - What I love most about the drama / story is how well fleshed out all the characters are. WWX's character is most obvious to us, given he's the main. However, Lan Zhan's gradual development of his morals through his understanding of and interactions with WWX is brilliantly gradual. Given his personality, you can fully see how his mind works. And this isn't limited to the 'good' guys. Both Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang, although they can be considered villains, are disturbingly real in their motivations and way of thinking. Both of them clearly lack a form of empathy and value their own well-being entirely over those of others. While they are irrational, we can see how they formed their logical basis for making all the decisions they did.

Privilege - Privilege is also a huge theme here, as highlighted by Jin Guangyao's speech at the end. Both him and Su She were not born to privilege, and so way people treated them from the get go were different. For Jin Guangyao, even though he shares the same father as Jin Zixuan, one son was favored and the other was kicked down the stairs. Even if this doesn't excuse any of them of their crimes, the fact remains that they had to endure more hardships than people like Jin Zixuan and the Lan brothers. Any respect, they had to claw to keep. And of course, a bit more subtle relation here is WWX's usage of the demonic arts. Ultimately, the theme here is, if people have the ability to choose, who wouldn't choose the 'proper' path? Who in their right mind would intentionally choose the criminal path?

Satisfaction with the unknown - Finally, there is a lesson in letting go of the need to know everything. You're never going to find all the answers in life, and a lot of times, you're not going to know a person completely.

Honestly, there are so many good lessons and examples here, but I'm trying not to write an analysis essay here. While I *love* the romance and relationship development between Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian, I think focusing on just that is grossly undervaluing the drama. I've not really seen another drama with such a good balance of characters, story plotline, and story themes.

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A drama that will remain in your heart

I chanced upon this drama by pure luck (came across a post on my ig explore page when I don't even watch dramas). As a fan of BL and childhood love for wuxia, I decided to give it a go. It did not hurt one bit that the actors and actresses were all so gorgeous (the main actors, ofc, but I was also a little in love with Xue Yang). I started with minimal interest, confusion, and wondering, "wHeN kIsS?" as I had no idea about censorship then.

Then it transformed into something I did not expect. We open the scene with Wei Ying's death sixteen years ago, and then his confusing interactions with Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan (and other 'minor' characters) sixteen years later where he wakes up in another person's body. The 16-year flashback introduces these characters and lays out the plot. It was very intriguing and I was curious to know what led to the death of his shijie whom he loves very much. I wanted to know what led to such a strained hateful relationship between Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng. I wanted to know how this kid became the grandmaster of demonic cultivation. This is why I continued on with the drama. Watching their familial love and the development of Wei Ying's relationship with Lan Zhan, the story takes a turn for the worse. I do not want to spoil the story so all I will say is that I bawled my eyes out throughout the rest of the flashback, and some more after.

I might receive flak for this, but I actually do not mind that they remove the very explicit scenes from the novel (although against their will hahah). In the novel, I feel like the relationship between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan turn explicit or physical relatively fast (the licking scene felt rushed and awkward in my opinion). The slow realisation of Lan Zhan's love for Wei Ying was more realistic. That being said, I'd have paid to see these men hug, hold hands, or something more physical than eye contact (which I loved but come on). I had to cling on to every fainting episode and that ONE piggyback scene to see ANY physical contact.

When it comes to acting, I can't see anyone else other than Sean Xiao playing Wei Ying. His smile is what does it for me. It just has that natural playfulness that the character embodies. Wang Yibo plays a decent Lan Zhan. He does not have many lines but manages to pull us all in with his eyes. Notable mentions: Zhang Jing Tong (Madam Yu), Wang Haoxuan (Xue Yang), Zhu Zan Jin (Jin Guangy Yao).

I never expected to fall in love with this drama, but I fell hard. I completed this drama last week within 5-6 days, and I still watch some scenes. The drama portrays each significant character and their background perfectly. You are privy to their intimate moments and thoughts. The drama builds these up right up to the devastating death scenes. Putting aside the BL, the plot of this story is great enough for any wuxia lovers to watch. It's 2021, tbh. The love between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan is pure and beautiful. If you are tolerant, the hints of BL should not be an issue.

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THE BEST DRAMA IN CHINESE DRAMALAND

THIS IS THE BEST DRAMA I EVER WATCH. PLEASE GO WATCH IT!
This drama has the best castings, ost and plot. Everything about this drama is so gooood. I rewatch 3 times and cry like a baby everytimes. And censorship who??? they obviously can't censor the way the characters look at each other. WY and LZ look at each other with so much love that I can't comprehend how is the actings so good. You know how you watch a drama and you know the actors are acting right? BUT for The Untamed, XZ and WYB bring these characters to life. I never once view all these as ACTING. Watching The Untamed make me realize you don't need romantic scene or anything to be a good drama (I'm usually a romance drama watcher).

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I was contemplating if I should write a review or not but after several weeks of having nothing else in my life except for this drama, I decided I need some form of closure. I haven’t read the novel and only seen the first episode of the anime before I watched The Untamed, so this review is from my own opinion about the drama.

Production:
First thing first, let just put it out there that this is consider a financially “poor” drama. From what I heard, the cost to produce this drama was relatively low. That becomes apparent throughout the show with bad camera lightening and poorly done fight scenes. If you are coming into this drama expecting perfection, then I would say to not even give it a try. With that being said, I do believe that if the funding for this drama was higher and that it was better constructed, it could potentially be THE drama that goes down in history of C-drama.

Story:
I came to the conclusion that this drama isn’t aiming to tell an amazingly unique story or to test the intelligence of the viewer by any means. It is a typical wuxia, but instead of focusing on the story, it focuses primarily on its characters and how each event that occurred affects the characters and how they grow as the story progresses. The show seem to have a very clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses and doesn’t try to be something that it’s not.

Characters/Actors:
Now, the gem of The Untamed is hand down it’s incredible group of characters. At first glance, the characters might just be your basic everyday wuxia characters that you can find in almost any novel. The amazing part of this show is that the characters are put into these situations that truthy determine who they are as a person base on the decision they make. While you may not agree with every one of their actions, at the end of the day you can still come to sympathize with them. Seriously, this show even explained to you the reasons why characters I believe to be “NPCs” behaved such a way they did. An unexpected life-lesson this drama has taught me.

Wei Wuxian, our protagonist yet the “villain” of the story, come off as those happy-going, carefree kind of character while Lan Wangj is the silent, stoic type that must only wear white. At least that is how it is expected to be, but no, they are definitely much more than that. I generally favor character like Wei Wuxian but they can potentially hit the danger zone of being too annoying or foolish. Wei Wuxian not only have the perfect balance of that character but also have that slight hit of innocence that make him so relatable and so humane yet is hated by the world. You see these scenarios all the time, but in The Untamed and the world that it has created it become convincing that such things happened the way it did. Xiao Zhan portrayal of Wei Wuxian is so on point that with even the tiniest facial movement you can see the life and fresh of the character. After this, I honestly cannot see another Wei Wuxian beside him.

For such a young age, Yibo did exceptionally well in his role as Lan Wangji. You can see the pain and longing he has every time he looks at Wei Wuxian. Romantic feeling or not, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are truly soulmate, and Xiao Zhan and Yibo are the perfect match with each other.

Conclusion:
Lastly, this drama isn’t for everyone; if there ever exist such a thing. Unlike a lot of people, I didn’t watch this drama because of the BL. And I believe that it is a lot more than just that. I grow and learn with the characters, and a part of me definitely has changed from this experience. Not just the two main leads, but all the side characters are so great that they deserve to be leads of their own show. 50 episodes might be enough to tell the story of The Untamed but give me another 10 episodes of our favorite gang just staring at each other with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji not-so-subtle flirting and I wouldn’t even complain. If you’re still not convince, here’s more text for you to read (Note: the article isn’t written by me). https://www.soompi.com/article/1347833wpp/8-reasons-to-watch-c-drama-the-untamed-a-study-in-how-to-rip-your-heart-to-shreds-and-mend-it-again

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I had this title on my PTW list but with the thought of watching it sometime later. After a recommendation I went to watch the first episode. The first episode was followed by the next ones and after a couple of them I liked this so much that I couldn't stop. I just finished this drama so all my feelings are fresh and maybe still subjective therefore. I haven't watched any other adaption and didn't read the novel (yet) so this was my first time "meeting" Wei Wuxian, Lan Zhan and the others.

First of all, this is my 7th watched C-Drama and I have already seen really good and average ones. The Untamed gave me the same good vibes I got while watching Guardian (2018) before (first favorite C-drama of mine). I agree it's not everyone's cup of tea but if you enjoy historical, fantasy with some horror elements and Xianxia dramas you should give it a try.

As for the story I really liked it. Maybe it's because I didn't know anything about the setting but the first episode was a bit confusing for me at first. The drama starts with the male lead character's present and then jumps back in time for 16 years in episode 2. More than the half of the drama is spent on telling the back-story which might sound like a lot but I found it well balanced and the pacing absolutely fitting. There wasn't one episode that didn't entertain me so a thumbs up from me. The story is interesting and I liked the mix of action, sad and funny scenes. It sent me on a rollercoaster of feelings and I had my moments when the scenes were so touching that I shed tears (which I rarely do while watching something and only when it manages to totally capture me). The story comes to a (in my opinion satisfying) closure.

Which leads me to the cast. I'm a sucker for a good cast and characters with depth and development. All of that you'll find in The Untamed. The acting was on point and supporting characters had their fair share of screen time and didn't turn into colorless props like I've seen in other dramas. Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo made it straight to my favorites list among some others and I'm looking forward to see them in other dramas. I haven't seen any of them before and can't compare their previous works but think that every one did a great and absolutely convincing job here. Without downgrading the others, Xiao Zhan's facial expressions were such a joy.

The soundtrack is totally to my liking. It has many great instrumentals and of course the character songs as well as the opening and ending tunes. It's a pleasure to listen to on its own and I do so often.

For me it's already sure that I will rewatch this drama. I liked it from the beginning to the end and can't believe I finished it so fast. I kept being curious as how it would go on and always looked forward to the next episode.

Overall I can only recommend to give this drama a try if you're curious. I fell pretty fast in love with it and don't regret anything. It's really a gem.

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