The Untamed Special Edition (2019)

Has its pros and cons

This “special edition” is the condensed version of the original, 50 episodes long series, and was compiled for fans of MDZS, not for the average watcher.

If you haven't read the novel or watched The Untamed, then go back and do at least one before you watch this version, otherwise it will be nigh impossible to follow.

The by far biggest positive aspect is, that the main characters, namely Wang Yibo as Lan Zhan, have done a pretty decent, sometimes even splendid, acting job - he shines during emotional moments.
It's much less visible in the original version because it's overshadowed by horrendously acted scenes, of which many have been cut out here.

While the music is nice overall, using so many flute tunes when flute music has a specific meaning in the series, is a very unfortunate move that leads to nothing but confusion.
Generally, they have gone overboard with the incidental music, it's especially obvious in this shortened version when overly dragged out scenes blast the same few tunes over and over.
Dramatic mood evaporates when you try to extend it endlessly, all the music on this planet isn't going to change that, even more so with such a low sound quality and poor variety.

Due to most of the fillers being cut out and with it some of the worst acting, it's somewhat cleaner and crisper, action sequences are mildly entertaining if you can overlook the flaws like bad choreography, people fighting with air, swords obviously being made of rubber and bending when they hit someone/something, characters that weren't present suddenly popping up in the next shot...

One of the bigger crimes they committed was, to turn a novel for adults into a series suitable for children.
War, revenge, raising the dead, thousands of deaths, I don't understand how anyone could read this and think “I can totally make this PG 12 without losing anything”.

Wounds look like cheap school-theatre make-up, people get their ankles graced by a sword and die, are heavily wounded but bleed like they suffered a paper-cut at most.
At some points, especially when no close-ups were made, the “blood” didn't even have the right colour or thickness, it looked like dyed water.
In some battles there were spots in which someone obviously died, but they forgot to put a corpse in, so only a heavily diluted, gigantic “blood” puddle was shown.

It's hilarious, but not in a good way.

Funny thing, other scenes are so explicitly brutal that most of what they left out would have paled in comparison, there's no rhyme or reason to why some thing were too violent but those weren't; I can only assume that China's censoring brigade has its own rules for that.

Without all the fillers, it became very obvious that they forgot the changes they made at the start, which leads to massive inconsistencies in the middle of the series when things were mentioned in the way they happened in the novel, not in this series.

Considering that this special edition was made mainly for fans, I will give a quick rundown of the changes compared to the novel, for readers who want to experience this amazing book visually – you won't.

No real spoilers, of course.

1. Characters have been changed.
Blatantly obvious, Wei Ying. The founder of demonic cultivation is no longer a demonic cultivator with grey morals, but a goody-two-shoes who never did anything wrong, much less raise the dead. Everything grey he did, all of his flaws and wrongs, have been attributed to other people – he's a pure white knight maliciously slandered and defamed by evil forces.
Some of the most notable things he did, the saddest tragedies he caused, either didn't happen at all or were done by others, his playful personality is so exaggerated that he seems borderline insane or mentally disadvantaged; there really isn't much left of his character.
Others were relatively well preserved, sadly that won't save anything when the MC was so heavily altered that he's a completely different person.

2. Story was changed.
They made up completely new story elements that serve absolutely no purpose but used some of the ideas from the novel to fill in the gaps, and that's basically what this is, not an adaptation but “inspired by”.
All the iconic moments from the novel weren't included, and most of what did make it into this, got badly mutilated.
It has nothing to do with this version, the original is the same.
If you came for epic zombie battles (or zombies at all), there are none. Demonic cultivation? None. If you wanted proper revenge-deaths... none. The ending? Changed, of course.
I even dare say if you came for cultivation, there is none, nearly all battles are fought with swords, probably to save money on CGI, not to mention that the big-scale fights have maybe 15 or so actors in it and we are expected to believe hundreds more are just not in the shot.
As an added bonus, the sound effects used when spiritual weapons are summoned are just comical - they fit old American cartoons very well.

3. No romance.
It was to be expected, thanks to censorship. They did their best to hint at it but it's still far from clear, if you aren't prepared to see it or above the age that makes you believe only true lovers can be so close, then you'll see sworn brothers, not a couple.
4 out of the 5 people (32-47 years) who watched it with me didn't pick up on any romantic feelings, only one was suspicious – who happens to be a BL fangirl. You need a strong eye for gay-coded characters and the conviction that everyone could be gay until proven otherwise.

To summarise it, it's a mess, just a slightly smaller one compared to the original series, with more yet still shallow Wangxian content.

If you really want to watch The Untamed after reading the novel, I would recommend this version, it spares you most of the worst acting and fillers, and gives our favourite cultivation couple some well deserved time together.

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