The Untamed

This is hands down my favorite Chinese drama, and possibly my favorite drama of all time as of now. I have heard many things about Mo Dao Zu Shi before the drama even aired. I've ran across trailers and clips of the animation, and I have heard about both the novel and Manhua, but I never actually ended up watching it. I only saw a few trailers, but I never had the time to pick it up until now. The live action version is the first adaptation that I picked up, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. This is probably the best decision of my life, deciding to watch this drama this summer.

As a fan of BL dramas, I was a bit disappointed that they had to take out a lot of romantic and skinship scenes from the original novel between Lan Zhan and Wei Ying, but I decided to give this drama a go anyways. This drama is PHENOMENAL even without all the BL scenes that I originally was watching this far. On top of depicting the beautiful love and connection between Lan Zhan and Wei Ying, this drama teaches very valuable life lessons. We see themes of betrayal, love, hatred, forgiveness, and regret all throughout this story, and it really touches your heart deeply seeing how so many characters are actually misunderstood and sometimes, there was nothing that they could do to change how others view them and how to make the situation that they're in better. Wei Ying is an extraordinary character who radiates love and forgiveness even after everything that happens to him. He lost so much in his life, but he never lost his love that he has for other people. Even when the world was against him, he stood for what he believed was right, willing to accept any hatred and false accusations against him.

Lan Zhan was also such an amazing character, the total opposite of Wei Ying personality wise, but he was just as righteous and as willing to fight for justice as Wei Ying. The relationship between the two is just out of the world. Even though the censorship didn't allow for romance to be explictly shown between the two, it was just so obvious that they loved one another, especially through their facial expressions and actions towards one another. Actions speak more than words <3 Having a person like Lan Zhan in Wei Ying's life made me so emotional and happy especially after everything that Wei Ying went through: Lan Zhan stuck by his side from the beginning and never betrayed him or swayed to other people's side. Oh how I wish people like Lan Zhan exist more in today's society XD

The OSTs are perfect. I listen to them on repeat! It's been around a week that I've seen this now, and I am still obsessed! I've rewatched this drama at least 4 times now! I've also read the novel twice! Read the audio drama as well <3 This story is just too beautiful to NOT rewatch several adaptations of!

Xiao Zhan is literally the PERFECT person to play Wei Ying. He definitely did justice to this character! Wang Yibo was really good as Lan Zhan as well. The casting this time is amazing! I could not imagine anyone else playing the leads. Plus, their chemistry on and off screen is off the charts <3

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What I enjoyed:
• Themes: good vs evil, loyalty, selfishness vs selflessness, mob mentality and group think, justice vs revenge, exploitation and corruption of power, privilege, justice, forgiveness, relationships (familial, romantic, friendship, brotherhood, siblings, parent/child)
• Music: I loved the soundtrack. I enjoyed the instrumental soundtrack more than the character songs
• Locations and sets: I loved the whole aesthetic behind different sect/clan principal residences. Especially Cloud Recesses and Lotus Pier
• Love story: It was a joy to watch their beautiful, but tragic love story unfold
• LWJ looked fresh, beautiful, and ethereal during second half of the drama
• Costumes: The different colors made it easier to tell the different clans apart

What I didn’t enjoy:
• Majority of the female characters were killed off and there weren’t many to begin with. I think only 3 female characters with lines survived
• WWX looked terrible in the second half. I’m not sure if it was a director’s choice, but he looked sickly, unwell, and deathly pale
• LWJ becoming chief cultivator. This just doesn’t make any sense. LWJ has shown zero interest in leadership roles. He outright ignores the other cultivators so it’s unbelievable that he’d have any capital to procure the chief cultivator position.
• It took forever to wrap up the JGY arc. Seriously, just kill him already. I totally agreed with WWX when he blurted, “Can we stop talking and just start fighting?”
• Plot: plot was confusing for the first two episodes
• Extra long flashback: When the flashback ended, I couldn’t recall what happened in episode 1 and 2
• JGY has the most punchable face and his dimples did nothing for me. He was also hammy in several scenes
• Wang Yibo looked dazed, sleepy, and unfocused in early flashback scenes episodes. It was a bit distracting
• Styling: I wished the director would have styled WWX differently after his resurrection. But he essentially had the same hairstyle, same look, same feel
• LWJ appearance: He looked ethereal and beautiful, but I felt that Wang Yibo should have bulked up for the role. His character is supposed to be more muscular and stronger than WWX.
• Noticeable continuity/editing errors. On repeated watch, the errors will become more noticeable
• The Ending: Initially, I was so confused by the ending. Did they end up together? Did they go their separate way? After doing a bit of research, I came to the conclusion that they did spend some time apart, but reunited after some time.

Overall, I LOVED The Untamed. After watching the drama, I read the novel, watched the Special Edition, watched BTS videos, watched interviews with the actors, read up on all The Untamed content I could find, and watched fan made music videos. This is the only drama that has captivated me (I've seen several dramas)

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Execution is not perfect but the drama is perfect nonetheless!

One of the most amazing story with characters that are so vivid amd understandable it's imposible not to feel for them. The Untamed has been graced with a cast perfect for the amazing chemistry they all have. And the script is so well done that the deveopment of the story can be considered even more cohesive than the original material of the novel. A must watch not only for the BL undertone between the two main lead but for the comment on our society that is one of the most interesting aspects of this drama.
This is a drama that proves how a well done script and a good casting can always overshadow techincal problems of the production.

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I feel bad for those who are yet to watch the untamed because why?

Preview;
I can’t believe I’m finally reviewing this in 2022, I first watched it 2022, and I just watching it yesterday for the nth times. One thing about this drama? You can’t get tired of watching it, I can watch it over and over and over again.
I remember the first time I watched it 2 years ago, it was really hard to understand, I was really close to just dropping the drama because I wasn’t understanding it, but I kept watching because of how handsome the actors and actresses were😉, and also apart from their looks, for some reason I could drop it.
ACTUAL REVIEW
The untamed is one of the best, if not the best drama I’ve ever seen in my whole life, I personally love every bit of it. It’s funny, it’s cute ( Lan Zhan and Wei ying moment) , also sad moments, tbh this drama is like a ride of rollercoaster.
ANYWAYS , YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY WATCH THE UNTANED 😍

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At times I felt that I must somehow be watching a different drama from everyone else …

I initially wrote a review for this drama a few months ago when I decided to drop it at episode 27. But I ended up giving it another chance, and this is now me rewriting my thoughts after finishing all 50 episodes.

I REALLY should have liked this drama. It has fantasy, epic bromance, sweeping landscapes, touching loyalty, battles, an ancient setting, undying devotion, powerful magical objects, tragic friendships, and famous swords. It’s basically like someone took everything I love (aka all the ingredients of The Lord of the Rings), put it in one drama, and somehow came up with a far more unsatisfactory result that I would have imagined possible.

There was a lot in this drama that just wasn’t as good as it could have been. I largely blame the lackluster directing, which somehow managed to bore me in scenes that should have been powerful. There were a handful of moments when I genuinely felt touched by the connection between the two leads, but unfortunately those moments were rare highlights in 50 episodes that I otherwise felt indifferent to.

The storytelling is muddled, to say the least. It jumps back to the past and stays there for about 30 episodes. In principle, I don’t have a problem with a nonlinear timeline, but it didn’t really work here. I don’t think the importance of the time skips were clearly communicated to the viewer. Though learning that Wei Wuxian betrayed everyone was certainly an intriguing hook, I spent so long waiting to see how that would come about that by the time I actually reached that point, it was rather anticlimactic. If it had just gone chronologically, it could have been a heart-wrenching twist, rather than a disappointment. The transitions between scenes sometimes felt abrupt. There are also times where they hide information from the audience for the sake of dramatically revealing it later. Perhaps they thought it added a bit of mystery to Wei Wuxian’s character, because we were missing pieces of his story, but I didn’t see much point.

Even though I think there was a pretty good overarching story, I was often bored out of my mind while watching this drama. I guess I could say that this drama had pacing issues, or that the dialogue scenes were too long, but I don’t think that’s truly my problem with it. Some of my favorite dramas/films are slow-paced and dialogue-heavy. The problem is that the execution of these scenes often made it feel unbearably tedious, even when I thought I should be interested in what was going on. Far from being compelling, the acting often felt cheesy, the script was bland, and the directing brought little interest, except in sometimes succeeding at being simultaneously overdramatic and exceedingly dull. “Humdrum” and “uninspired” adequately describe the execution, and when you stretch that out over long back-and-forths between characters, it’s not something you can really get away with. Every so often, I did feel like the director had put some thought into how to construct a scene beyond the most obvious, utilitarian option, but there are only a few scenes in the entire drama that I would really say were well-done.

As for the plot itself, the first half primarily consists of the mustache-twirling-evil Wen clan plotting to kill everyone and a steady stream of fantasy-action scenes wherein the good guys fight the bad guys or the evil monsters they’ve conjured. This would probably work if the action scenes were really epic, but the choreography is boring and special effects aren’t particularly good, so not so much. The second half is pretty much Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji hunting down mysterious evil-doers, followed by a face-off with the bad guy. My impression was that it was a little lighter on the action scenes and a bit more focused on the interactions of the leads, which is probably why most people seem to like the second half better. However, I have to say that the only part of the plot that was particularly interesting were 5-10 episodes in the middle of the drama.

Unfortunately, the climatic battle is pretty laughable, because all these extras are randomly swinging their swords at nothing. I’ve been told that they’re battling invisible “resentment energy” or something like that, but that hardly changes the fact that all these supposedly seasoned martial artists look like they belong in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So people are dying and I’m supposed to be sad, but all I can think is “Lol, look at that extra.” I don’t have particularly high expectations for well-executed battles in Asian dramas, but this was a new low. If you can’t make the fighting look good, at least make it inconspicuous enough not to distract from the other elements.

I was quite surprised to discover many people consider this drama rich in moral themes. On further inspection I admit that some of these themes are there. However, I don’t think they can really be said to have been well-developed, explored in depth, or presented in a new way. Personally, I never once found this drama to be thought-provoking. The only themes I felt were treated with some consistency were rumor and reputation, but even then, I’m not really sure what I got from it other than, “people are judgmental and will believe what they want to believe.”

I have to say I was also a little disappointed in the development of Wei Wuxian’s character. He’s certainly interesting, but some of his character transformations were not very well communicated. I also thought he was shaping up to be a pretty great character around the midpoint of the drama, but I didn’t really feel like it followed through on all the potential. Nor did I think the morality of his actions was really explored in a satisfactory way. Lan Wangji is less complex, but I found his progression to be more even and satisfying. There were a few supporting characters that I thought I should like or find interesting, but the only real emotion I felt towards any of them is some petty annoyance at the villains.

The acting is below par. There really isn’t a single strong performance in the drama. Actually, Xiao Zhan was occasionally excellent. The problem is that he was very inconsistent. He would go from good to bad to great to mediocre. Overall he was definitely the strongest actor in the drama, but it was far from a top-notch performance. I do think he’s talented, just very unpolished at this point. I would call Wang Yibo’s performance barely passable. He was never terrible, but he was rarely good either. He did manage to hit the right notes in a few important scenes, but spent most of the drama playing his stoic character a bit too stone-faced. Perhaps the even bigger issue, though, is the number of supporting actors who were overtly bad. Sometimes it was just a bit annoying, other times it completely ruined tragic scenes, because all I could think was how fake the actor’s crying looked. I think Jiang Cheng, in particular, was far too important a role to be portrayed so incompetently.

In terms of cinematography there are some pretty landscapes and moody blue-tinted shots, but it’s not 2009 anymore, so that doesn’t really constitute a stunning drama. Plus, there are a lot of awkward camera angles, dated-looking zooms, unattractive color grading, etc. The design of the sets and costumes had some nice details, but they often looked rather cheesy. And well, since I’m being a gloomy storm cloud anyway, I may as well just say that I have some issues with the design as well, particularly many of the materials they chose for the costumes. I mean, wrinkled (faux)leather hanfu? Seriously!? I do think this drama made an effort with the visual aspects, but the result wasn’t so great. By 2019 standards the production is mediocre at best.

I initially had very little opinion about the music. It simply wasn’t very unique or memorable to me. However, since people raved about the soundtrack so much, I started listening more carefully. Unfortunately, rather than appreciating the music more, I began to notice how unsuited some of the background music was to the scenes or the drama in general. I think I know what they were going for, but it really didn’t work. It was just bizarre. I will say that some songs/pieces were very pretty, so the music definitely had it’s high points, but it also had some low points, and overall I can’t say it’s a particularly great soundtrack.

It probably seems like I absolutely hated this drama. I really didn’t; there were a few parts I even liked. It was just incredibly frustrating to me, especially since the longer I watched without becoming immersed in the story, the more my nitpicking tendencies took over. Had there been some element that was truly brilliant, I might have been inclined to overlook this long catalogue of flaws (I can be pretty forgiving if you give me a reason to be), but even the things this drama got right, did not strike me as exceptional.

Overall, it's a story with potential, hampered by poor execution. I can kinda understand this drama’s popularity. However, given the very mediocre quality of the acting and production as well as the lack of compelling direction or storytelling, it’s hard to rate this drama as anything more than average (personally, I think it's below average). I really fail to see how this drama could possibly merit the oft used term “masterpiece,” when the skill and craftsmanship that created this drama is far from extraordinary.

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As a person who didn't read the novel...

I picked up this drama because of the hype and because I had heard of the novel and manhua beforehand. I think the high rating comes from people who have read the novel and therefore are attached to the characters in a completely different way compared to me. I tried to like it and understand it. I honestly tried. However, I could not rate this drama any higher. (Please don't kill me.)

Story - The story was very hard to follow as a person who had no knowledge of the plot beforehand. I'm familiar with the concept of cultivation (vaguely), but there were some points I just didn't know, like the "golden core" concept. I had to google quite a fair bit about the plot while watching to understand it as well as explain it to my mother (yes, I watch dramas with my mom). The names in particular were hard to remember because every single person had like 3 names so I really wish there was a chart of the characters out there like there was with Nirvana in Fire.

Anyway, I had no idea what was happening in some points. I didn't really realize that Wuxian gave his core to Jiang Cheng until later which then led to him developing demonic cultivation. I didn't even know what happened when Wuxian fell into the graveyard. The entire first 30 or so episodes is dedicated to a flashback segment which kind of left me bored, but I understood that they needed to hook you. A lot of parts were dragged out. I literally hated that it took 4 episodes for Meng Yao to explain his whole evil plan. So yeah, the plot was a drag. I did appreciate the key moments between Wuxian and Lan Zhan though.

Acting/Cast - I really liked Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan, and some others. The acting was decent for the most part. The most annoying thing was the way the zombies acted. Every time they were getting ready to attack, they just stopped and yelled out.

Music - I really love the theme song. I streamed it so many times on Spotify already. Yanli's song was a nice addition too. There was this one instrumental that kind of threw me off though because it was very modern(?). It just didn't fit.

Effects - I was actually impressed with some of the effects because they looked a lot better than those of 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms. However, there were still some moments that I just died laughing because of how bad the effects were, especially the dog-dungeon scene.

Overall - For the average drama watcher, I wouldn't recommend this. It's too confusing and long without proper context. If you're a fan of the novel, go ahead. Most fans enjoyed it so I don't see why you wouldn't.

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NO REGRETS!!

To be honest, I do not like watching lengthy drama series at all, and 50 episodes was just too much for me. I started watching this out of boredom and let me tell you the only thing I didn't like about this was that it has only 50 episodes. I have never loved a drama this much. The story might be a bit complicated for those not aware of the wuxia/xianxia genre and related terms. But if you know something about them, this series will keep you hooked. Although, there is no apparent romance between the MLs but the chemistry speaks way too much. This is the only series without any flaws, according to me. I have watched many Chinese series after this, but not one has come to par with The Untamed. If you really want to enjoy it, I would recommend watching the original 50-episode version than the special 20-episode one. Also, some certain controversies have stopped fans from mentioning this drama on online platforms etc, but our hearts are forever filled with love. No one, absolutely no one could have played the lead roles better than WYB and XZ. This story was written for them. You won't regret watching this, trust me!

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I love it I can't stop rewatching

I gotta admit that when I first started watching it I couldn't take it seriously. The visual effects were actually not good, we all know that. I also was not a fan of watching old time dramas. As it started it was really confusing, I wasn't understanding anything so I dropped it for several months. This year I decided to keep going, with a more open mind. I was not expecting to get to a point where I didn't want it to end at all. As I kept watching, everything started making sense and I loved the characters more and more. Everything just got me so emotional: Lan Zhan was such a strict guy but he helped the most messy person because not only he was in love but he knew that doing the right thing was beyond following all the rules or being on the other clans' side. Wei Wuxian could be a pain in the ass but he was such a great person and it was so unfair how most people treated him. The couple against the world is one of my favorite tropes and just seeing them together against everyone was everything to me. I also loved so many characters and the villains were so well written and executed. The visual effects could sometimes be terrible but I just laughed at some things like the giant dog. The costumes and soundtrack were impecable in compensation. I finished it and I had to start over 'cause I became an orphan of this series.

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This show is very confusing but stick with it

I’d heard about the Untamed and decided to give it a try, not knowing anything about it. The first episode was very confusing to me, and I had to do a bunch of googling to even get a grasp. If anyone goes into this show as their first Chinese drama, they may also find the names confusing- there are many characters introduced very quickly. It became better as I slowly understood more, but I was still a bit confused and waiting for the show to become more exciting. I was at the point of, “if it doesn’t get better soon, I’ll drop the show”. However, I’m so glad I stuck with it- things took a turn at a certain episode and suddenly the show was much more emotional and intense. It became so good that it didn’t matter that I was confused at the beginning- and once you watch the whole show, watching the beginning again makes a lot more sense and you can see all the hints that were woven in.

(More spoilery from here)

The Untamed really wonderfully dealt with a lot of themes and issues, and each character was complex and layered. Wei Wuxian’s descent into madness was for me, unexpected (despite seeing how he was “evil” at the beginning, because I was so confused that I forgot about that) but fascinating and satisfying. The Wen clan initially seems like the main antagonist, but then it turns out that our protagonist is the villain, at least in the eyes of society. The Untamed showed so much about the struggles between what is right or wrong individually, vs within relationships, vs in society, or when someone has no choices... making bad choices for good reasons, or vice versa...

The character development is amazing and each character was complex enough to be the protagonist of their own show, in my opinion. Even most of the villains were so dimensional that I couldn’t dislike them. I can see why people call this show a masterpiece, and despite my initial confusion, this turned out to be one of the best shows I’ve ever watched.

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This show might just be perfect.

ᴍʏ ʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ ꜱʏꜱᴛᴇᴍ: 10 = [ʟᴏᴠᴇᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ɪᴛ, ɴᴏ ᴄᴏᴍᴘʟᴀɪɴᴛꜱ, ɪɴ ᴍʏ ᴏᴘɪɴɪᴏɴ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱ 'ᴘᴇʀꜰᴇᴄᴛ', ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʀᴇᴄᴄ ɪᴛ]

I can rarely watch a show more than once, but I've watched this twice and could probably watch it again a few more times without getting bored and despite it being 50 episodes long, it's THAT good. Despite the changes and deviations from the novel, this show still managed to tell a fantastic and interesting story, it goes beyond being a BL drama, it's a genuinely great story and plot which just happens to have an incredible same-sex lead couple, that's how I saw it. Censorship aside, the actors who play Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are brilliant at letting the audience know they're (ultimately) more than friends in the moments where it counts. It's excellent and doesn't detract or feel like an aside from the story plot, in fact, their relationship is what brings the entire plot together so well. The pace and narrative are all on point, the cliche's are few and subtle enough to not be annoying and the chemistry between all of the main cast members was comfortable and organic, whether friend or foe in the show. BL fan or not, this show is worth watching.

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BEAUTIFULLY DONE.

This is my first BL drama and it is a life changer. I can never judge a drama by what I assumed I won’t like anymore. Who knew such a beautiful love story existed between two males under such strict censorship by the Chinese government? It is 2022.. 3 years after the drama release and this is still an amazing drama. I’m sad I discovered this so late but better late than never! That being said, I am now obsessed with wuxia BL dramas.

The chemistry between both leads are sensational. You feel the unspoken love just by how they look at one another and the simple touches. All of their scenes together are absolutely breathtaking. The story itself isn’t anything too special but trust me.. watching these two leads will get you hooked. The tenderness in their gazes, the soft words, the simple yet special touches and overall chemistry between both beautiful leads took my breath away. Wang Yi Bo and Zhao Xian were made for the roles of Lan Zhan and Wei Ying. I’ve never seen such handsome males on the screen.

Also.. don’t watch the last 5 minutes of the ending here. Search the special edition online for the actual ending. Due to the censorship, they had to move the order of the scenes around to not show a “happy” ending of the leads being together. The special edition is the actual ending with the satisfying end.

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