This is definitely the best wuxia drama I've ever watched, the plot, actors, ost, everything is perfect!!
I’m not exagerrating, this series just change my life, literally not lying.
This show is the best, so beautiful just everything, I dont know what to say but this is definitely a masterpiece. It surely will change your live!!
The actors? ahhh it's so perfect, just imagine Wei ying is not Xiao zhan?? aughhh I can’t imagine!!
Also Wang Yibo as Lanzhannn, perfectly casted!!
Their friendship was the best, everything is perfect.
The ost😫 achhhhhhh probably the best ost I've ever heard, Wuji is so perfect, the singers??? so perfect!!
I don't know what to say na!! Its just literally so perfect😭‼️ This is a whole level of a masterpiece and no one can defeat this freaking show!!!
Everything is perfect!!!
This show deserve it's fame goshhhh!!!
The untamed is just so perfect.
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First 15 episodes were meh then BAM episode 16 the quality suddenly improves
As somebody who has never read, or even heard, of this story, this is a completely unbiased opinion. Truly unbiased as I primarily watch kdramas and stumbled across this show while browsing the Top Rated shows on MDL. The only other cdramas I've watched are Rise of the Phoenixes, parts of Nirvana in Fire, and Prince of Lan Ling.Overall, I liked this show. It was entertaining, but don't expect it to be absolutely perfect. It's goofy, with cheesy CGI and plotlines, but fun to watch. The characters are a bit exaggerated in their movements and acting, but like I said, it's a fun show. To be honest, this show reminded me of a Saturday cartoon or a video game in its storyline, but I grew attached nonetheless; basically, the storyline felt juvenile at times, and the characters' logic seemed flawed, but the characters and the fights are what keeps you watching--as well as the comedy.
Something that threw me off a little and reminded me why I don't really watch Chinese dramas is the dubbing. It's hard for me to get used to the added sounds and mouths not exactly matching. As far as I could see, The Untamed was dubbed just like most cdramas. That was my biggest complaint, but it is not a con since it seems to be the norm for cdramas. Also, I got used to it as the show went on.
One thing that was hard as a viewer with no other context is how confusing the show was at times. Expect to be incredibly confused for the first few episodes, but STICK WITH IT! I'm telling you, once you hit episode 16, the show seems to change its tone and get on a solid footing. Suddenly, it becomes Game of Thrones level serious. Some scenes ran longer than they should have (especially in the last few episodes, my god, I kept wanting them to move on but for the last couple episodes something just gets dragged so much I had to deduct a star). Some episodes were just flashbacks with scenes we'd already seen, so I felt the need to skip those out of repetition. These two reasons are why it was not a perfect show, in my opinion.
The music/instrumentals/background tunes at least in the early episodes were lighthearted and goofy, reminding me of a children's show; I think if they added an entire different soundtrack it'd change the mood of the show to more serious, but that was not their vision, as I understand. Like I keep saying, it was a fun show, and more often than not, this show felt like a comedy. Then it would be a serious, engaging tragedy. Back and forth, laughs then tears then giggles then screams. The more serious tracks were amazing, as well as the main song between Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan.
Very clever show. By episode 9, I was attached to the characters. You seriously fall in love with the characters. Kind of loved them. And will not forget them. Wei Wuxian was an amazing character, and Lan Zhan, who reminded me of Legolas from Lord of the Rings, also won my heart.
In sum, don't compare The Untamed to kdramas or high production shows with big budgets. Take it for what it is: an entertaining show that can tug on the heart. Don't expect perfect acting or seamless editing. I had some laughs and fun. That's all that should matter. The main characters and supporting characters were super likeable, and that's probably why people love this show so much. It grew on me, too. I will definitely be watching clips and going back to it at some point to rewatch my favorite scenes.
I hope this review helped for those who need an unbiased opinion. :) :) :)
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Out of all C-dramas I have watched especially fantasy ones, I'd say it has done the best with planning and the use of budget.
Production/cinematography/directing: amazing job
I think it's probably one of the best aspects of the drama to me. The drama was not one of those with the HIGHEST budgets as a webdrama, but used it's money pretty well imo. Like most time I have problems with the shabby CGI in Chinese dramas. But The Untamed knows how to limit it and when it's using it then it's pretty decent. For the cinematography, all places and background sceneries are all wisely chosen.
Story: decent script writing + changes and differences with the original work
The reason why the story is outstanding is probably thanks to the original novel and the scriptwriter doing a decent job. I have to say the changes made for the part of changing/leaving out the romantic love between the male protagonists actually made the drama more different and more outstanding to me. You could focus more on the criticism of clear fake separation of good and evil and also societal pressure (IMO). I personally preferred the original story telling with the time jumps in the novel, which keeps more curiosity and expectations alive. But in general I can understand this decision might be coming from being afraid that the viewer would getting too confused with all those jumps.
What I didn't like that much was probably the end ark, I felt compared to the rest of the drama, it was a little bit draggy and I felt they could invested the time in the previous episodes more instead. Besides of that there are some few changes I didn't like or preferred to have not done. But those are still pretty OK to me.
All in all I think out of all Chinese dramas I have watched, The Untamed actually has the best story and script writing despite some changes.
Acting/Cast: competent idol cast with amazing lead
I think all the cast were chosen well and they doing a pretty decent job especially if you consider actually nearly all actors are having an idol background. But I never felt some BAD acting. The best choice I have to say is actually Xiaozhan as Weiwuxian. He was literally bringing the character alive and being able to do a great job either playing as the playful troublemaker or vengeful dark avenger completely. Despite never having received acting lessons and coming as an idol. So I'm not surprised that he roses to fame still with that big amount of potential.
Music: Best C-drama BGM to me.
All melodies are suiting the scenes and backgrounds. And the Qin and flutes are all well placed. Nothing much to say just perfect OST.
Rewatch Value: very high
Due that there are so many different medias for this work like novel, audio drama, manga, animation and audio book, I think it's actually pretty worth to rewatch this drama and compare the differences. The view might have changes or the viewer might being able to look deeper into the story than before and discovering other differences/changes.
Overall: One of the best C-dramas I have watched with a good cast, amazing male lead, great cinematography, perfect BGM and deep story. Definitely worth having a try at least.
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Yes yes YES
The best. Honestly I love the acting so much - both actors played their characters incredibly well. I love this drama so much that I can't form the words to explain why I love it, but basically the main actors' subtleties made this whole thing. I originally didn't want to watch it, mostly because everyone hyped it up so much that I felt like it couldn't be that good, but I'm super glad I did. I've already re-watched it four times (and I don't normally re-watch) so if that doesn't recommend it, I don't know what will.Was this review helpful to you?
Action speaks louder than words_A true GEM
If you're a fan of BL like me, "The Untamed" will definitely be on top of your favorite list.This was my first ever Chinese drama during the pandemic and I didn't know what to expect when I watched it. Little did I know that this was actually a live action of the anime version of Mo Dao Zu Shi, which is one of my favorite anime.
For someone who have not read the novel, the plot was entertaining and exhilarating, easy to get immerse into. The combination of action, suspense, comedy and even the subtle romance will be a good recipe for an enjoyable watch until the end.
WYB and XZ were the perfect cast for the main roles. Their visuals, chemistry and acting skills added flair to the drama.
The ending may not be the same as in the novel or anime but after learning about CN's censorship, I don't mind it. I've loss count of the times I have rewatch this but it never gets old hahaha
A true masterpiece at its finest!
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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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This review may contain spoilers
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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This review may contain spoilers
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.Was this review helpful to you?
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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