KatiaSchwarz

Oh, wow, I had no idea about the fire nor that the show thought it was a good idea to have a straight romance replace the main romance in a BL adaptation. Big yikes on that, can you imagine? The Untamed would have been boycotted rather than celebrated. Can you link me to the BTS? *^*

Yep, already pre-ordered them! Super excited, hope it does well. The donghua is the only adaptation I haven't checked out - I opened the first ep, got super annoyed about the already unnecessary changes and closed it for a later date lmao

I definitely agree that on the grand scale of things, this is not such an important thing. The Untamed managed to capture the heart of many even with low budget and production due to the story, acting, chemistry, etc. This is more of an educational piece about what could've been done better (and why you may have felt a bit off watching these scenes) :) I also don't even go into CGI because that's a whole other can of worms that I don't care to open lmao
As for a remake/second season... I'd prefer remake as I feel like the story is complete but I also can't imagine any other actors in these roles now.

I'm afraid sound designers in dramas are just not focused on that part :/ It's probably in part because of what Roxelane mentioned - they really do have to make up the sound design of a scene from scratch, including completely matching the voices to the actors as they are dubbed. Their main goal appears to be more "uniformity" and "crispness" rather than matching the sound design to what the scene is (fight scenes get the same treatment as dialogues, etc). But I can also kind of understand that since they have such a tremendous job, and I'd venture a guess low budget production don't really care that much, unfortunately. They probably want a presentable product as fast as possible rather than a fully professional product, which is fair haha

Thank you so much for reading both of my articles! I plan to continue with "technical" articles whenever the inspiration strikes :D

Ohh, I didn't know that. Can you link me to the BTS? I'm wondering how much of it was done on green screen because there is 0 continuity in that scene so if it was all done on green screen that's even more upsetting (if you're adding the background later, you should be able to control that characters aren't looking directly where the person they're looking are only for them to not be there and then be there again the next shot when we focus on him, you know?). I didn't notice the same person being thrown back, tho lmao

The pain was real lmao Thank you so much for taking the time to read the article!

Such is the curse I live with lmao Thank you so much for reading!

Haha, thanks for reading! ^.^

Thank you for reading! And yes, that's a huge part of why you felt that way, although that scene is also badly shot from beginning to end with 0 continuity (Wei Ying is shown to stand at the base of the staircase, then Shijie looks DIRECTLY at the base of the stairs and he's "gone" but the next scene he's there again), and many people will feel a bit iffy about the premise of "not being able to find each other" when their line of sight should be unhindered lol I didn't go too much into it because this scene is the most painful for me, production wise. I wanted to cry my heart out in this scene, but instead I wanted to have a chat with the director xD

I definitely agree with all you said. I can see what you mean about Kdrama's, 100%, and I will also add my opinion about Cdramas set design - the contemporary romances tend to also have almost the exact set design for different characters - like, the female lead always has a "quirky" living space (and always way bigger and fuller than what you'd expect a down-on-her-luck, usually poor to average financially).
I think Japanese drama do a lot better with the "lived in" feeling, though.
And you should 100% write an article, I will definitely read it!

I definitely love MXTX's stories - I've preordered the physical English release of all three haha And the choice of actors here really did justice to the story imo, especially Xiao Zhan.
I could talk for hours about the story changes tho - what might they mean, culture-wise, on China and the likes (Wei Ying not being the creators of the Demonic Cultivation, making him into a completely framed victim rather than letting him keep some of the responsibility, the whole fetch quest...)

Yeah, there are a ton of reasons why they may sacrifice some elements for others. Although, the CGI in Cdramas is pretty bad lmao especially when it's more ambitious. Remember the Tortoise of Slaughter or Xuánwǔ or however they called it? the mystical monster in the cave? My MOM was like 'wtf is that' and she rarely notices things if I don't point it out to her lmao CGI is growing pretty rapidly in China so I got high hopes for what it's going to look like in the future
It's definitely a culture thing, but since they do have that ingrained in the culture, I'm eagerly waiting for when they either have more budget. This type of critique doesn't really matter in their romcoms or contemporary dramas but I wish their wuxia and wuxia adjacent they will get the budget they deserve and give us a well rounded piece!

Haha I hope my more "colorful" articles don't hurt your eyes then lmao when I do lists or stuff like that I do try to make it more visually interesting, but for essay articles I always aim to have a clean and clear format haha

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy my future "technical" articles as well haha

Ohh, you're so right! I hadn't thought about that in depth because audio design is not really my area of expertise (it's an art onto itself and I've always had a bad ear lmao) but the audio design is definitely a part of this and creating this "illusion". You're completely right - scenes didn't "sound" full. Scenes with a lot of people sound different than scenes with a few people, but all the scenes in the Untamed sound about the same, probably because it's all produced in a studio (if I'm not mistaken, most of the actors are dubbed too). Likely, they created the audio design for scratch and focused more on making it "crisp" and uniform. But if scenes "sounded" full it would've certainly helped! Thank you for pointing this out! :D

I didn't go in-depth into the whole Shijie sequences but that one was badly shot from beginning to end. There are shots of her looking at where Wei Ying was *shown to stand just a shot ago* (at the base of the staircase) but he's "not there" for her to see only for him to be there again the next scene. The continuity is a mess, the framing is a mess, and it doesn't hold up on a close watch. Unfortunately for me, I read the novel before watching the show so in a way I didn't get to experience the "first watch erases all sins" phenomenon as I knew what was coming (so my brain could focus on all these inconsistencies)
However, I definitely think if that wasn't the case I probably wouldn't have noticed or minded these mistakes to the same level because of, as you said, the acting, story, music, emotions of the scenes, etc. And despite all of my production complaints, I still really really enjoyed the Untamed, which I think is a testament to the actors' and story's strength.
I am kind of sad a lot of Chinese drama don't have the budget to quite "pull off" their premise, tho. I've seen this mentioned a few times in the comments and I think it's also something quite nice about Cdrama - compared to Kdramas and Jdrama their "epic dramas" are a lot more ambitious, in a way? Like, China has a lot more "epic dramas" than Korea or Japan I feel like, but on the flip side, Cdramas rarely have the budget to 100% pull it off. I would like to see what a Cdrama with a, say, Netflix budget could do!
Thank you so much for reading my article and keeping an open mind! Sorry for the long reply haha

I loved The Untamed but sometimes I sit in a corner and cry about what it COULD'VE been haha these scenes would have simply hit harder and had more impact with better production, you know? But, kudos for the team for creating a phenomenon, especially on a budget! :D

Yeah, I think many film critics may lose a bit of the joy of watching movies because of that. Although, I also get the feeling when they get to watch something that they consider a "good movie" they get a lot more out of it than other people haha

Oh my, thank you for reading both of my articles! I definitely plan to write more like these, when an idea or a topic I want to discuss strike I am usually unable NOT to haha

OMG I can only imagine how watching some dramas feel from a design perspective! I bet you also notice a lot of interesting things about the set design of a scene when you watch *^* Makes me want to ask if there is something you've noticed about sets or designs that you think is noteworthy, maybe even differences between American set/character design to Asian ones! (only if you feel like sharing, haha)