Story:
What makes this drama outstanding is the complex and detailed story telling of the world that our characters are set in. It is a little difficult to get what is going on, since there are elements/traditions which are unfamiliar to us. Reading the novel really helped me understand the plot a lot more (exiled rebel scanlations has a translated version of the book online, and it’s great). But once you get into, man do you get into it.
The attention to character development is fantastic, as well as the character motivations. I love the moral dilemma that Wei Wuxian undergoes throughout the drama, and his understanding of the hypocrisy of human nature is explored through his own transition from seemingly good to seemingly evil. Lan Wangji’s understanding of what is black and white (good and evil) is also explored, and he asks questions of whether you can judge someone based on the rules and laws that the world forces upon you - this is heavy since he is someone who is righteous and sincerely believes that rules can hold a person upright. However, his view ultimately changes when he meets, and develops a connection to Wei Wuxian.
Acting/Cast:
Our two main leads are phenomenal. Xiao Zhan really carries his performance of Wei Wuxian exceptionally - from mischievous to menacing, his range as an actor stands out here. Wang Yibo plays Lan Wanji, and while you may have a negative impression of him at first, I really do believe his portrayal of Lan Wangji is true to the novel. It’s extremely difficult acting out a cold, indifferent, character with little to no lines in a way that is not arrogant or boring. We often associate characters with no emotion as lack in acting skills, but Wang Yibo conveys his emotions through his eyes, and each movement is deliberate as are his words.
Their relationship throughout the drama is not neglected, and this is a major reason as to why this drama stands out from the rest. Despite the possible backlash, they still emphasised the deep connection that these two men have (despite their genders), while also not detracting from the overall story. While it is not romantic in traditional means, I appreciate how Wangji and Wuxian’s relationship can be up to the viewer’s interpretation - and it is acknowledged that the two do love each other (whether it be romantic or not, up to you).
I want to delve into the rest of the cast, but then this would make this review too long, but I do want to point out that everyone casted (including our juniors cast) are amazing and really portray their respective characters well.
Camera/Directing:
Something that is difficult for the novel to portray is visual aesthetics - and this is what The Untamed shines at. Every shot is no joke, breathtaking. The depth of field, as well as the camera directions all contribute to the story, and that’s why every promo pic you see of The Untamed is freaking gorgeous.
The CG effects though, can often times degrade the beautifully shot scene. Sometimes it would be awkwardly placed, and you can easily tell as a viewer that it’s not meant to be there and it looks cringy. However, there are some moments in the drama, where the CG adds to the episode, and enhances it. I think this is uncontrollable though (because of budget etc) but that’s one thing to keep in mind when watching.
Music:
The music within the drama plays an important role in story telling since our two main leads play very popular instruments. The music within the show enhances the visual performance as well as aesthetics, and are well arranged. Though sometimes certain songs/melodies would be overplayed at times, but I think the different renditions of the songs really helped this. Not only is the soundtrack of the show great, the original songs part of the soundtrack is fantastic.
Conclusion:
I am so glad that they created a live action of this amazing story. The aesthetics is consistently gorgeous, all of the actors fit their role almost perfectly and the story is well written and adapted despite censorship in China.
That was my long winded review, if you managed to read to the end please comment or message me your thoughts!
If you’re still deciding if you want to watch it or not… WATCH IT ASAP!
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A must watch
Almost everything is perfection. It shows that even if you have a monstrous censorship bureau above you, you can still make things work by elaborating the script and acting. And it turns out to be a even more romantic drama than those cheesy ones kissing, playing sweet all the time. This drama has changed my taste to one that prefers love conveyed in a more poetic way, in a single eyesight, or within a touch. It's just so aesthetically pleasing to realize the love within a trivial interaction between the main characters without even asking them to confess to each other.I'm now very anti-"if you don't say it, how would he know?" sorta logic, because this drama sets a contradiction to that argument.
I don't think I'll watch love dramas for a long time because so far nothing can compare the elegance of love in this one.
But still there are things that could be improved. For example, the pace of Guanyin Temple arc is too slow. I feel there are some unnecessary scenes in this arc like JGY spit out blood to dispel the ghosts summoned by Wei, and possessed Wenning attacking Jinling, and the scene where Weiying cleanse the sword spirit is dragged too long and they didn't even completely finish the CGI part. This arc can sure be reduced and sped up a little bit, and then make Yi city arc longer as i feel the storytelling of Yi city arc is incomplete, especially about how XXC found out who XY is, and what happened during these 3 peaceful years.
The acting is sometimes not on spot, but mostly in the first part of the story. JC's and XY's acting in early stage can be improved a lot, though in later episodes I would rate them 10/10, especially Yi city arc and golden core revelation. JGY in guanyin temple arc should speak faster because when he speaks slow I feel like I'm watching a Broadway show on a stage instead of a final boss scene that's supposed to be emotionally intense.
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A life changing drama.
*Review edited on 09/04/2022*It's been about two years since i watched 'The Untamed' and it's still on my mind ever since.
To say that it changed my life is not an exaggeration!
From story to production, soundtrack, acting and dialogs, i love everything.
It's exciting and everything else that you need to enjoy watching a drama to the fullest, at least from my perspective.
50 episodes may seem like a lot to some people, but as soon as you start watching it, time goes by so quickly, that's how good it is!!
I already rewatched it once and plan on rewatching it many more times in the future.
It's one of my favorite dramas ever.
btw i love Wangxian so much okay thank you bye :')
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Average
Like what some of the reviews I've read have mentioned, as someone who has not watched/read the anime version, I personally felt that this drama was overrated and over-hyped. Story was overall decent with it's ups and downs but can be at times confusing - with poorly thought out and timed flashbacks. Was initially pulled in by the story at the beginning but had to constant wait for the timeline to be pulled back to the present - which I've heard had taken 34 episodes out of 50 to happen! Furthermore, there were certain plots here and there that were not explained or written well IMO - for example, the scene whereby Yunmeng clan chief went back to help his wife only to be stabbed in 5 seconds?? (Really??? he was the clan chief for heaven's sake!), the scene where Wen Chao cut of the ropes trapping many of the clan juniors in the cave (honestly, some of them are martial experts and the cliff was not vertically dropping???) and many more...Production wise, it was obvious that it wasn't exactly high quality with poor CGI all round and shoddy camera works on multiple scenes. Some of the actors were definitely not up to par though I felt that the main leads acted out their roles well and it definitely improved as the series went on (at least up till the point i've watched). Music was great as well - the top redeeming point for me.
Overall, I am shocked that drama of this quality is able to top the ratings in MDL - overtaking the likes of masterpieces like My Mister, Signal and the much better Nirvana in Fire. For someone who had no inkling of the storyline beforehand, this was at best, an average drama.
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its a decent watch without any drag...
this is my first wuxia drama so there was some stuff that i didn't understand and it took me 6-7 episodes to get used to everything... so i might not have enjoyed it as much as people who like this genre enjoyed this drama as i was confused with some things that happened... i also know that this is based on a BL book and i haven't read those books so my perception of characters might be entirely different from those who are a fan of the books... books give more insight towards each character than dramas...the overall story was very good and i didn't feel that it dragged anywhere even though it was 50 episodes... but even though i was very invested in the story i wasn't emotionally invested in any of the characters... when major characters were killed off i didn't feel anything and i just wanted to know what's gonna happen next in the story...
the overall flashback story reminded me of empress ki( as in everyone was united to bring down the big bad guy but after that, they started fighting among themselves)... i guess one of the reasons why i never got emotionally invested in any characters is because of the acting of most of the cast... even with the main 2 guys i really liked wei wuxian's acting but lan wangji was literally having single to no expression for 50 long episodes... the actor playing wwx has an expressive face and he seems to naturally have a very mischievous look which went perfectly with the character as well... so he was very believable as wwx who does what he believes in rather than what others believe in... but lwj looked like a robot in the majority of the scenes... i know he is like this cold guy who rarely shows any emotions but bad acting or lack of acting was clearly visible... there are lots of asian dramas with characters like him and there are some actors who made those characters look real rather than a robot...
when i read the synopsis i thought the drama is about wwx and lwj but for me, it felt like an overall wwx show... even the name untamed seems to be based on his character... at some point, i felt even jiang cheng and wen ning had a more important part than lwj...
for me, some aspects of the drama were very well done but other aspects were average like the vfx and sets were amazing but the makeup was bad... i dont get how they can master in vfx but screwup with the makeup... some characters had so much foundation on their face that they looked more like the ghost general than wen ning did...
Jin Guang Yao and xue yang were perfect as the evil ones.. their smile in every situation literally got on my nerves and as villains, it was a good thing but since they looked so irritating to me i didn't feel anything towards their sad past and was more than happy when they died... none of their justification for how they turned out made me sympathetic towards their tragic past... they were too villainous to have any sympathy towards them... they were the same as the head of wen clan and his son who were simply bad guys and power-hungry... i hated all of them the same way...
one of my major issues with the drama is the lack of female characters... there were only 3 female characters that held some kind of importance and 2 of them died.. i was really impressed by how mianmian stood up in the court for wwx against all those powerful people who badmouthed wwx and thought she might play a major role in the rest of the story but after that scene, she just simply vanished and came for just one scene which didn't have any importance to the main story... yanli even though had a very strong bond with jiang chang and wwx, outside of that she is quite a weak character... all she did was cook soup for the guys and get bullied by jin zixuan only to end up marrying him... why wasnt she involved in the cultivation when there were clearly women who did it? she went to lwj's home with jc and wwx to attend a seminar but she was never shown to attend the classes... did she just go there to make soup for the guys and get insulted by jzu? the only female character with some kind of talent as well as importance was wen qing but she was killed off and even her death was just brushed off... wwx was shown to atleast remember yanli but wen ning seems to have completely fogotten about his sister whose entire life revolved around him... atleast she could have been kept as an important character till the end... also none of the head of the clan were shown to be women.. if 1000 yrs ago lan clan can have a woman head why were no woman clan head 1000 yrs later? at least just for the namesake, they could have shown a woman heading any of the minor clan or at least show mianmian creating her own clan and leading it successfully...
i really liked some scenes and the last 4-5 episodes were literally perfect... i loved the conversation b/w wwx and the rest of the clans before he died 16 yrs ago... his counterattacks on all the allegations on him were very powerful... that scene literally showed why he is superior and why the rest of them hated him even though they knew whatever he said is right... i also love the bond b/w jc, yanli and wwx... i personally liked the brotherhood b/w jc and wwx more than the bromance/romance b/w wwx and lwj... the only scene in the entire 50 episodes i got emotional was the final confrontation b/w jc and wwx inside the temple...
i also liked how nie huai sang manipulated everything and put an end to jgy.. he literally used jgy ways to end him... even if he used manipulative ways to end jgy i didnt mind it because he and his brother genuinely loved and respected jgy at one point of time but jgy used that to get ahead, the relationship b/w wwx and wen siblings...
i also liked how subtle they played the bromance/romance b/w wwx and lwj... if people want to see it as a friendship then its friendship but if they want to see it as a romance then its romance... as viewers we can interpret it the way we want to...
except for some bad acting and lack of emotional connection towards characters as a viewer, i really liked the overall story and wwx is one of my favorite characters of all times but i dont think i will rewatch this drama... maybe i will watch some scenes i really liked but i am not sure if i will rewatch the entire drama...
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AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE
I freaking love it! This show has been on my drama list since 2019 because I saw it everywhere on social media so I added but I have never got to the show because I was just eh when I read the summary of the series. I regret not watching it earlier but during this year's quarantine I went through my list of dramas and I decided to try it out. I'm glad I need it because this drama is amazing. I remember when I was younger I always loved watching those historical romance dramas, understanding those emotions, and putting myself in their shoes. Watching through this drama made me go through a roller coaster of emotions. Understanding friendship, family, lovers, choices, sacrifices made. I swear I have never cried so much over a drama. The scenes are beyond what I expected and the theme has such a deep meaning. I remember the first time I watched this I was like, why in the creature world are these boys so beautiful and I thought I was good looking. I think I have met the dream of my dramas, I can watch this so many times but I do have school so can't really.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
If the plot makes your eyes occasionally roll so hard they hear the clang in the next valley, watch it for the acting. The two leads are terrific. All the more amazing since apparently this is their first such role. But they are excellent al the way through. Lan Wang Ji is a dancer in real life, and it shows in all his movements, especially in his fight scenes.
The climax is one of the most lugubrious I've ever seen, as everyone stands around for extremely long teary speeches, with occasional sudden stabs so they can bleed, then yet more talking. But the story was not written for plot, it was written for BL, and in that it served its purpose very well.
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I found my all-time favorite Chinese drama. OK... It stands on the second or third place among Chinese dramas, but the others top it for different reasons.
'The untamed' has an amazing plot. I like every bit of it. The storyline is so well thought out, what is mistery is that for a reason. And everything has a logical or philosophical reason. You can think it through and figure it out.
Totally badass cast. Like, attractive. Over the top. Ok, you know when you want to decide if the drama is ok to watch...? When the plot is okay, but not too inviting, and the acting is okay, but not the best and you have an inclining that maybe this isn't your drama... Well, this would be my drama to watch even if the storyline would suck and the acting would be really bad. Because the actors are freaking attractive. That's what I mean :D
I think here is one of the best acting I've ever witnessed in Chinese dramas. The emotional turmoil they attempt to show is paying off big time. There are great Chinese actors, who act awesome, no doubt about it. But as acting in a collective state of mind, I like this almost as much as I do my top favorite dramas. They not only act well together, but the actors leave you with a feeling that if one of them was missing, everyone else would do as well and no hole is to be felt... Usually, when I watch a drama I feel like.. if that particular actor would leave the set, then the others would not be enough to fill the script, to play it out... And if I take the main actors as a whole, this cast does not make me feel that way.
And the 'bromance' part of the story.
The two main characters, I think I will want to write them a fanfic.. not gay-themed... They have such amazing chemistry... I want to act on that... The thing what pulled me to this drama was the eyes. The two actors eyes on the poster. Not the plot description, not how handsome they were, nothing of sorts. The eyes. They have amazingly intense eyes. I think I will probably move them very up in my Chinese actors list.. maybe 3-4th place...? So the bromance I felt from their gaze. It feels mesmerizing, and fond and kind, and worried and hopeful and pleading... like everything all at the same time. I would probably be the best person in the world if I had this kind of friend beside me.
Forgive my emotional review. I can't make it shorter and everyone has a right not to read this. I just wanted to share my emotions of this drama with more people, than there are in this cafe, I just finished 26th ep in. As I'm sitting here I have to hold my mouth shut forcefully to not scream or laugh or cry... Well, I did cry already... but it's acceptable when you shed a few tears in public, but they will probably freak when I laugh out loud right now or thrill a loud shriek :D My mind is bubbly.. And I'm glad there is this place like this awesome page like 'Mydramalist' where I can enter this kind of reviews too :)
Hope many of you share my sentiment.
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To understand the main leads
It's a beautiful chemistry between the main leads. Space, respect and trust from both ends. It's totally addictive. By the time you end you will re-watch a minimum of 3times.its that great.It's has beautiful music. Because of dubing you might sometime fine it different with lip movement but you will surely forgive them as you will be in love with the series. Enjoy it. It's worth your time and read the novel. It's more detail. You will get to know a lot of physical activities which can't be shown in the series due to all the Chinese television shows in China as its a romance novel.
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If you are in doubt to watch this drama or not i will suggest you should definitely watch this. Ofcourse it will put a good impression on you.
It will be awsome if there is part 2 of this drama with same characters but i don't think it will although we got some spinoff of this drama.
Olay okay i will not make this review too long so i end it here.
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This is the first Chinese show that I've seen that I would rewatch with pleasure. I loved all the characters 'good' and 'bad' and I enjoyed being able to relate to different characters. The sets and costumes were exquisite, and the soundtracks to this series have become one of my favourites.
The cast for this show was perfect and the emotions and chemistry that they poured into this show was really felt through the screen.
When I finished the last episode, I was crushed that it was all over so soon, but there is so much content in this fandom which I am very grateful for.
Overall, I would 100% recommend this show. You won't regret it!
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