Worth the watch!

I work as a professor and researcher for a university in my country, and I specialize in media and film criticism. I was doing research on Queer Media one night, when the internet rabbithole led me to reading about Chinese media censorship. Turns out censorship in China is quite intensive, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ content. The boiling point came during the airing of the massively successful "Addicted (originally entitled Heroin)" series, which was so controversial that it not only had to suffer massive scene cuts, but its last three episodes were pulled off air and removed from official streaming sites. The lead actors were banned from doing events together, being photographed in the same frame, or even seen on the same stage. A recent interview with one of the leads, Timmy Xu, revealed that he lost job opportunities and suffered intense bullying for YEARS after doing the project (thankfully he and Johnny Huang, the other lead, are now successful stars in China so they managed to turn that around).

This was around the time when BL was gaining popularity in inner circles, but was still considered a laughing stock by mainstream media. Fortunately, BL is now gaining the recognition it deserves, and we thank the dedication of the LGBTQ+ community for its advocacy of representation

So my curiosity led me to researching more about Chinese media, and I stumbled upon this BL novel that was taking their country by storm, called Mo Dao Zu Shi (translated as "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation"). It was about the power politics of clans of "exorcists" (or cultivators) set in a fictional point in Chinese history. The novel was adapted into a manhua, an audibook, and then a donghua, and it was BEAUTIFUL. It's got everything I associate with my favorite shows: fantastical history-based clothing, gratuitous violence, intense swordfights and lots of murder-happy people, demons and zombies galore, people randomly flying and leaping off of roofs, two leads who can do the smolder (at each oth--, um, never mind). The novel, and the manhua is canonically tagged as BL, which depicts either subtextual or contextual homosexual relationships. These kinds of texts are heavily censored and disallowed by the Chinese government, and the manhua barely makes it past the censorship (they cut a lot of the story out for this to work).

Given its politically-charged nature and the sensitivity of the plot, I thought the animated series would be a dud. But what blew my mind was they didn't just adapt it into a highly-successful, two-season donghua, they made a live action of it.

A LIVE ACTION of a BL novel. In China. The manhua even had to censor kissing scenes in the original text because it was "perverse"... then they hired actual people to play these characters. And the live-action (titled "Untamed") became the highest grossing Asian drama of 2019, and one of the highest-rated Asian dramas of all time. It is also one of the few Asian series to be distributed on international streaming sites.

And they managed to pull it off by passing it off as a "bromance" with lots of incidental chemistry. A splattering of intense eye contact and shy smiling. And the two leads called each other soulmates and saved each other a lot. But ya' know, no biggie censorship gods, just distract them with blood and death and zombie demons. I mean, a show about shi warriors stabbing half-dead cretins could never be gay, uh uh, no way.

They cast Chinese idols Xiao Zhan (from Chinese boyband X-Nine) and Wang Yibo from Kpop Idol group UNIQ) to play the two leads, and you can tell that they put their hearts and souls into it. There was never any awkwardness between their interactions on-screen, their acting was subtle but flawless, and they managed to convince viewers of their intense yearning through microexpressions and body language. The actors are very talented (especially the lead, Xiao Zhan) and showed a deep understanding of their roles. Behind-the-scenes footage of their discussions with the directors revealed that the whole cast, including the leads, considered these characters as "boyfriends", they used "love", "longing", and "heartbreak" as character motivations, and during the tragic cliff scene, Wang Yibo was apparently instructed by the director to act as though he had lost "the most precious, most valuable thing in his life", and he conveyed it so well.

Aside from the acting, with the budget it received, I was amazed at how well-made the whole production was. Each clan was given its own beautifully-crafted set design, complete with castles, communities, and forests. They had their own defining costumes, symbols, weapons, interactions, governments and sets of rules. They featured fantastical beasts, a bit of Taoist philosophy, a bit of Chinese history, and a whole score of family values. The villains were also given their own subplots (one villain in particular, Xue Yang, received two important story arcs throughout the series). The whole thing is 50 episodes, but at the end of it all I wanted MORE. I couldn't get enough of this fantastical world they've crafted. It deserves a Game of Thrones-style length of eight seasons, with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji just going on night hunts together with their son A-Yuan (spoiler alert!!!), battling evil spirits and beasts while running the cultivation world as a power couple.

It was a well-portrayed homosexual love story that managed to breeze through the censorship boards, conveyed with acts of service, kindness, yearning, patience, and unconditional love and sacrifice. Goddamn revolutionary GENIUSES. I am so down. Go off you beautiful monsters. I am such a fan.

This series means so much for the BL genre, especially for critics who tag it only as low-budget, clichè productions for people who fetishize boys having sex. So it's definitely worth the watch. 10/10 solid.

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