Details

  • Last Online: Sep 18, 2021
  • Location:
  • Contribution Points: 0 LV0
  • Roles:
  • Join Date: February 4, 2016

Daenerys Aleathea

Daenerys Aleathea

The Untamed chinese drama review
Completed
The Untamed
2 people found this review helpful
by Daenerys Aleathea
Apr 23, 2020
50 of 50 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 10
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 10.0
Rewatch Value 10.0
***everything below is just my opinion – keep in mind that everyone’s taste is different***

I watched the drama on its own, only after completing it read the novel, manhua, see the anime. I didn’t find the first episodes boring, it’s just that after episodes 12/13, it really glued me to the screen. The slow pace it’s appropriate in the begining, since there were many names I had to get used with, of characters, clans, sects, artefacts, places, even a wine ?. These are just a complement to a fantasy world just building (reading a lot of fantasy surely helped).

Main characters played their role good. Lack of experience was visible and the length of the drama helped me a lot in liking them, since they did become the characters they were playing, in my eyes. Them being eye candy also helped, of course. I found the brilliant one to be Zhu Zan Jin (Jin Guang Yao / Meng Yao / LianFang-zun). He had admirable control or his eyes and face expressions, showing exactly what you needed to understand, making you wonder about his personality. Awesome, just awesome…. He really made me go through all the feelings scale and he was playing just a support role.

What shone in the drama were the story and WWX-LWJ connection in it. The story kept me for 50 episodes, ignoring the (reaaaally) bad FXs and the C-drama specific, gravity defying, martial arts. It’s not that I didn’t see bad FX and Chinese fantasy martial arts in other dramas, it’s just that they didn’t match the story. If those would’ve been the same level as the story, then no TV series could’ve surpassed “The Untamed”.

I saw my share of dramas, Asian and American, but this is indeed a gem. It’s about human nature, human desires, human regrets, human fickleness, the drug that power is. Most characters covet some degree of power in this story. Villains evolve, we have heroes and anti-heroes, but one thing is obvious. It’s a very well done combination of human faults and qualities with action. None is in excess, to make it boring. The dialogue is smart, logical and fast (big congrats to Sean Xiao for learning all those lines…WWX is a talker!) , the continuity is not ruined by useless and pointless misunderstandings. Big points for character growth as well – always enjoyable for me to see persons who learn and evolve (even though this is indeed a fantasy ?). Most relevant example for character growth (and not the only one) is, of course, our beloved WWX – no spoilers, just go watch the drama already!

This being said, I already rewatched the drama, the special edition, the anime, read the novel and the manhua. I will always revisit all of them with great pleasure. And nerdy me dreams of a HBO or Netflix adaptation for it, with the right budget and keeping all the other elements (ahem Kingdom ahem).
Was this review helpful to you?