The Untamed (2019)

As close as one can get from a novel adaptation.

Preamble:
The best thing to come out of this series is the soundtrack, 意难平, 恨别 and I absolutely adore Bibi Zhou's version of 无羁 which makes me wonder why the demonic flute in the entire series sounded so terrible. Could they have not made a little more effort with that?

Review:
I have to admit, from the novel to the anime, manhua and TV series, the best would obviously have to be the book (even so, I only gave that a 4/5), the worst being the anime. The anime was lacking in emotions, some characters in the anime are completely unlikable, i.e.: Jiang Cheng. In the novel itself, Jiang Cheng was not irritating, he was always envious and had an inferiority complex, but he remained loyal and loved his siblings. He only turned on Wei Ying after the loss of his sister. The TV series makes up for this somewhat because Marius Wang is pleasant to look at, and he does not come across as too much of a prick (not to mention, I love his song). On the flipside, Wang Yibo comes across as too much of a one-dimensional type of actor. It would be nicer to see instances of a glimpse of a smile or something (like in the book), whereas, all we see is a semi-constipated face. He gets credit for one tiny smile towards the very end of the series. Meng Ziyi also plays a larger role in the TV series than Wen Qing actually does in the book. This is good for several reasons, there's too much cock and balls in this series, and I am so extremely glad they picked a decent looking female for the role, I would not have survived 50 hours of visual torture.

Now to delve into this series, on the surface, the acting quality, music and even the cast is rather strong. I have some issues with it but I would still advise people to watch it because it is easy to overlook some of the minor flaws. The reason for the high score is not because they were all exceptionally talented actors, it is because I saw a marked improvement for quite a few of the actors if we compared the beginning and end of the series. That's some unprecedented progress.

One of the main issues I have with this show is the portrayal of Wei Ying as being somewhat of a 'saint' or hero. This is the total opposite of the book (the real reason this was a standout xianxia book!), whereby the characters were less 'black and white'. Wei Ying was never framed by anyone, there are no true villains in the book, they were all unfortunate circumstances and bad timing. To clarify, Wei Ying did kill Jin ZiXuan out of anger and he did lose control. He also lost control at the end whereby he dies from the backlash when he destroyed half of the amulet (not due to Jiang Cheng). It is rather accurate to say that Wei Ying suffers from a hero complex (as pointed out by Jiang Cheng) and delusions of grandeur, believing wholeheartedly that he was capable of controlling demonic powers when no one in the past has ever succeeded, ultimately succumbing to it. To make it worse, seeing as Wei Ying did give up his golden core, he had a reason to use demonic cultivation. Au contraire, later when he took over Mo Xuanyu's body, despite the lack of cultivation, he could have practised, cultivated and used his sword. Instead, he chose to continue using other means which shows his lack of remorse and greed for power. What was the real reason as to why he kept the amulet, was it really for protection or for power? What about his refusal to hand it over to other people as well? Perhaps if he did not want to hand it over to Jin sect, it was understandable, but why not to Lan sect and then request for their protection? He could have handed it over to Lan Zhan since he considered him his 'partner'.

Again, this entire theme of moral ambiguity is a bit off in the TV series. Meng Yao is portrayed as more villainous in the TV series. In the book though, he is just ambitious and opportunistic. Although in the TV series, the general audience feels sorry for Xue Yang and Meng Yao, they still come across as villains. One could argue that although Xue Yang took an unorthodox approach for his revenge, he is no different than all the big sects who wanted to exterminate the Wen clan. He is also not wrong, no matter how many lives he kills, it is not the same as his finger because the finger belongs to him. If we extend this to more than a finger, such as a family member, then, the same could be said that no matter how many Wen clan members are killed, it will never return the Jiang sect's family members, so there was no real need to rid Wen Qing's branch. However, Xue Yang is portrayed as evil while the other sect leaders are saints.

Finally, although they did not blatantly kiss or anything, the protagonists had more chemistry in this show than most straight couples. As a result, this is one of the better Chinese TV series I have watched in the past year.

Conclusion:
Great series to watch with some acceptable flaws. Lovely soundtrack. Definitely worth watching if you liked the book, it is way better than the anime (to be fair I am not a fan of anime, I was dragged into it). Nevertheless, there are a lot of details missing which may be confusing for those who have not read the book/manhua. I would recommend reading the book first (in Chinese) before watching, you'll have a greater understanding and appreciation for the storyline.

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