The Untamed was one of my very first historical C-dramas to watch. I really enjoyed it the first watch. And I…
"Plus, these are the only historical C-dramas released (at least well-known ones) so far, like that's it?" There's like one bazillion wuxia and xianxia shows.
šŗ In episode 09, what is up with the Wan Song Bai map plot? š¾ Wan Song Bai has a map of the Shu region.…
So "he wants the treasure for himself" is the explanation, and the only hint given for that is the word 'treasure' used in one sentence in the episode? o.O
Is the rating high mainly because of the BL between the leads?I am at Episode 11 and honestly aside from decent…
Per the reply to you above, I made it to 15 and past. But even through ep 17, nothing improved.
Story: not able to judge yet, but it's not really promising. Acting: a few actors do a good job, but most are really one-note. Production: full of silly mistakes. Fight scenes: largely laughable (1990s Power Rangers style).
There is something I really don't understand about EP 09.
šŗ In episode 09, what is up with the Wan Song Bai map plot? š¾ Wan Song Bai has a map of the Shu region. He denies this, and refuses to hand it over, despite that this can supposedly get him, his family, and even the Cheng family killed. He fakes being drunk to seem harmless and preoccupy Ling Bu Yi. Why does he do this? I've tried really hard to understand.
His mother knows about all of this as the keeper of this map, and she makes sure Cheng Shao Shang takes this map and gives it to Ling Bu Yi. Afterwards, speaking to her son, she "thanks Ling Bu Yi on behalf of the Wan family", and then gives him a substantial beating.
Is there some additional back story to this plot arc that did not make it into this TV adaptation?
+ - Much like in The Long Ballad, you pretty much need a map of characters and relatives to follow everything.
+ + There's clearly a lot of effort put into everything from communication rituals to the words used. Fight scenes are decent and satisfactory. Villains are dispatched quickly instead of lingering for many hours.
- - Half the show happens off screen, including resolving cases, finding clues, war expeditions, and the happy end. At the same time, so much inconsequential stuff is filmed. Some of it has a Reply-like slice of life quality to it, and additionally there are subplots that either go nowhere, or are resolved very suddenly with the involved characters never seen again. Some of the villains and their motivations are very far fetched. The writer's attempts at comedy virtually never hit the mark and semi-frequently cheapen the characters in unfortunate ways.
+ - Much like in The Long Ballad, you pretty much need a map of characters and relatives to follow everything.
+ + There's clearly a lot of effort put into everything from communication rituals to the words used. Fight scenes are decent and satisfactory. Villains are dispatched quickly instead of lingering for many hours.
- - Half the show happens off screen, including resolving cases, finding clues, war expeditions, and the happy end. At the same time, so much inconsequential stuff is filmed. Some of it has a Reply-like slice of life quality to it, and additionally there are subplots that either go nowhere, or are resolved very suddenly with the involved characters never seen again. Some of the villains and their motivations are very far fetched. The writer's attempts at comedy virtually never hit the mark and semi-frequently cheapen the characters in unfortunate ways.
The "full" version can be 8 episodes of 30m length. About 1.5 minutes of very spoilery intro and 2.5 minutes of very spoilery outro, both btw somewhat identical, shorten it to 26 minutes actual runtime per episode. There's a 3h 18m single video release, I would assume it also has the entire content but I am not totally sure.
The Viki subtitles are better than the WeTV subtitles. The WeTV subtitles are better than the YouTube "Drama Box" subtitles.
The FL gets a bit less annoying after a while (or the viewer just gets used to it), but this is an overall much weaker drama than say The Killer Is Also Romantic & Butterflied Lover.
Something I really don't understand in the first episode(s):
Why does the swarm of butterfly slaves beeline for the female lead to kill her? She's not yet revived via irresistible unicorn blood, and if anything, she should appear as friendly/neutral to them as a fellow butterfly slave.
Starts out strong with vibes similar to a CW show (think casual teenage vampires, except there's no vampires here). Plenty of fluffy couple scenes, far more than in some 30 hour dramas. However, the 7h runtime only has about 4h of story, with some patches where nothing really happens. The drama is fairly pretty in 4K. The sound crew didn't have their best day: some sounds like footsteps are off/misplaced, and the effect they place on whispered monologues is horrible. At least there's no animal noises for jokes, except for the crossover cameo.
Speaking of that, you can find The Killer Is Also Romantic (2022) https://kisskh.at/724971-the-killer-is-also-romantic content in episodes 4, 6, 12 (additionally, the use of kites, and the character of Mrs Hong, who however is barely recognizable personality-wise).
Intros and outros are very spoilery, but it's worth noting that there are three different intro sequences (every 7/8 episodes).
The ending isn't open in a way that leaves you offended that the writer is too lazy to finish their story. It's open in that there are several ways you can take it. And some are more like happy endings and others more like bad endings.
Iām so confused on the ending I felt like I might have skipped a few mins lol. The time jump was a mess., or…
Pick any: - ML survives, SML dies to Mokui pollen - ML survives, SML survives ā both presumably through Mokui soup and three years of uhh accupuncture - ML dies to Mokui soup or Mokui pollen, SML dies to Mokui pollen (ML is MIA in the cave where he's supposed to be chained up, but someone arrives at the end of Ep 21; SML might have died as a butterfly slave while SFL was in a coma for more than a month)
- Ep 22 is entirely a dream of an unrealistic happiness, and FL wakes up to see ML alive - everything including Ep 22 is a dream / premonition, and FL wakes up to see ML at the start of the show, now with the knowledge to avoid some pitfalls [groundhog day story] - pretend Ep 21 doesn't happen, nobody else dies, happy end for all, etc - after a 3 years time skip, ML and SML are back and healed, and ('ghostly' ML and child appearance at the start of 22; FL waking up at the end of 22)
I've seen comments that SML and SFL are the Butterfly Lovers in this story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers But IMO for that SFL would have to die shortly after him, which wastes his sacrifice, and I did not see anything in the show indicating it.
It does feel like that there is a lot missing between 21 and 22 to give the story a clear & understandable ending.
There's like one bazillion wuxia and xianxia shows.
Edit: Ah, you mean BL.
Story: not able to judge yet, but it's not really promising.
Acting: a few actors do a good job, but most are really one-note.
Production: full of silly mistakes.
Fight scenes: largely laughable (1990s Power Rangers style).
Wan Song Bai has a map of the Shu region. He denies this, and refuses to hand it over, despite that this can supposedly get him, his family, and even the Cheng family killed. He fakes being drunk to seem harmless and preoccupy Ling Bu Yi. Why does he do this? I've tried really hard to understand.
His mother knows about all of this as the keeper of this map, and she makes sure Cheng Shao Shang takes this map and gives it to Ling Bu Yi. Afterwards, speaking to her son, she "thanks Ling Bu Yi on behalf of the Wan family", and then gives him a substantial beating.
Is there some additional back story to this plot arc that did not make it into this TV adaptation?
Much like in The Long Ballad, you pretty much need a map of characters and relatives to follow everything.
+ +
There's clearly a lot of effort put into everything from communication rituals to the words used.
Fight scenes are decent and satisfactory.
Villains are dispatched quickly instead of lingering for many hours.
- -
Half the show happens off screen, including resolving cases, finding clues, war expeditions, and the happy end.
At the same time, so much inconsequential stuff is filmed. Some of it has a Reply-like slice of life quality to it, and additionally there are subplots that either go nowhere, or are resolved very suddenly with the involved characters never seen again.
Some of the villains and their motivations are very far fetched.
The writer's attempts at comedy virtually never hit the mark and semi-frequently cheapen the characters in unfortunate ways.
Much like in The Long Ballad, you pretty much need a map of characters and relatives to follow everything.
+ +
There's clearly a lot of effort put into everything from communication rituals to the words used.
Fight scenes are decent and satisfactory.
Villains are dispatched quickly instead of lingering for many hours.
- -
Half the show happens off screen, including resolving cases, finding clues, war expeditions, and the happy end.
At the same time, so much inconsequential stuff is filmed. Some of it has a Reply-like slice of life quality to it, and additionally there are subplots that either go nowhere, or are resolved very suddenly with the involved characters never seen again.
Some of the villains and their motivations are very far fetched.
The writer's attempts at comedy virtually never hit the mark and semi-frequently cheapen the characters in unfortunate ways.
There's a 3h 18m single video release, I would assume it also has the entire content but I am not totally sure.
The Viki subtitles are better than the WeTV subtitles.
The WeTV subtitles are better than the YouTube "Drama Box" subtitles.
The FL gets a bit less annoying after a while (or the viewer just gets used to it), but this is an overall much weaker drama than say The Killer Is Also Romantic & Butterflied Lover.
The drama is fairly pretty in 4K.
The sound crew didn't have their best day: some sounds like footsteps are off/misplaced, and the effect they place on whispered monologues is horrible. At least there's no animal noises for jokes, except for the crossover cameo.
Speaking of that, you can find The Killer Is Also Romantic (2022) https://kisskh.at/724971-the-killer-is-also-romantic content in episodes 4, 6, 12 (additionally, the use of kites, and the character of Mrs Hong, who however is barely recognizable personality-wise).
Intros and outros are very spoilery, but it's worth noting that there are three different intro sequences (every 7/8 episodes).
It's open in that there are several ways you can take it. And some are more like happy endings and others more like bad endings.
https://kisskh.at/746597-butterflied-love#comment-18886799 or https://kisskh.at/discussions/butterflied-love/109689-thoughts-on-the-ending-ending-spoilers
- ML survives, SML dies to Mokui pollen
- ML survives, SML survives ā both presumably through Mokui soup and three years of uhh accupuncture
- ML dies to Mokui soup or Mokui pollen, SML dies to Mokui pollen
(ML is MIA in the cave where he's supposed to be chained up, but someone arrives at the end of Ep 21; SML might have died as a butterfly slave while SFL was in a coma for more than a month)
- Ep 22 is entirely a dream of an unrealistic happiness, and FL wakes up to see ML alive
- everything including Ep 22 is a dream / premonition, and FL wakes up to see ML at the start of the show, now with the knowledge to avoid some pitfalls [groundhog day story]
- pretend Ep 21 doesn't happen, nobody else dies, happy end for all, etc
- after a 3 years time skip, ML and SML are back and healed, and
('ghostly' ML and child appearance at the start of 22; FL waking up at the end of 22)
I've seen comments that SML and SFL are the Butterfly Lovers in this story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Lovers
But IMO for that SFL would have to die shortly after him, which wastes his sacrifice, and I did not see anything in the show indicating it.
It does feel like that there is a lot missing between 21 and 22 to give the story a clear & understandable ending.