ShortCircuit

The Untamed

There are:

1. the novel (Mo Dao Zu Shi - Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation): https://sevenseasentertainment.com/series/grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation-mo-dao-zu-shi-novel/

2. the live action (this drama)

3. the donghua (MDZS, 3 seasons, complete): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-XRj8q2QcU

4. the chibi donghua (MDZS Q): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dA7YBkk2AM

5. the audio drama (above in the links section)

6. the manhua: https://sevenseasentertainment.com/series/grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation-mo-dao-zu-shi-the-comic-manhua/

RE: OP's question. It's the same story. The live action will have actors (LOL), the donghua has great effects (since they're animating it anyway hahaha~) Both have great (and different) soundtracks. Some of the voice actors are the same (some voicing different characters.)

I was around before they changed the system. NiF got as up as 9.5 when TU was at 9.4

After the switch, cdramas didn't get over 9.1 at most. PoJ sits at 9.2 now. I expect it'll go down in a while. And it might not be because people rate is lower.

Or the app version of DeathNote LOL. (I want an app like that, I don't care about the death part).

So it's not always going to be green screen and CGI? Thank you!

For TXW it's mostly makeup and lighting, IMHO. She had the same big eyes in GotD, but they weren't so impressive. Here, the director had the cinematographer take very close shots, in settings that show off her eyes and the colour contrast (she's like Snow White, LOL).

I can't say about Kong XuEr, but she might also look the same through makeup and choices of lighting.

I didn't read the novel. This is what I understood from watching the drama. If it's different than in the novel, I wouldn't know, LOL.

AFAIK, the drama did conflate a lot of characters (into one) or events, in order to make the plot more streamlined.

TBH, I don't know if there's an alternative or more logical explanation. This is what I got only from watching the drama. The last few eps were kind of haphazardly edited.

But if I were to make a guess, I'd say it was the other way around - the Emperor plotted to have Wei Yan return, and when he did return, that's when the Crown Princess decided to put her own plan to hide her son into action. I mean, WY didn't just teleport back. There would have been some info on when he returned. Maybe he didn't even get to enter the palace immediately, as he wasn't even supposed to be back (and even if he were, he shouldn't have been allowed near any Imperial women). The CP would have had some time to do it. Or she had already prepared and was just waiting for a moment of inattentiveness from the guards, which WY returning provided.

They repeated over and over it was the Crown Princess who did it PRECISELY to hide the fact she was sending Qi Min away for his protection.

The fire was stoked by the soldiers the Emperor did send, though (they dramatically say no water would make the flames grow, there was oil in it while they were pretending to try and stop the fire).

The Emperor didn't lure WY back because of the suspected adultery, it was to stop him from interfering with the plan to disrupt the provisions and reinforcements to the city that would have (probably) saved the CP and his faction (XZ's father was also at that party) and have recouped some of the CP's popularity, making it harder to remove and replace him.

The fake letter and the fake pregnancy covered the actual reasons for having WY removed from the battlefield.

ETA I haven't read the novel, there might be two separate fire incidents in the novel. Here, it looked like it's one big fire, only in the Eastern Palace. As to why the Consort was there - why was Sui YuanHai there, too? I guess there was some gathering the Crown Princess had on before the fire "accidentally" happened, where multiple ladies and their kids (or at least SYH) attended.

Is it me or there's something wrong with the backgrounds, like almost ALWAYS, in EVERY scene? (Particularly when it involves a long-distance view).

Is this filmed in a small set or what?! Like, in the graveyard grave-digging scene, it's like there's no depth to that set AT ALL.

Is it all CGI or something?!

I know it could be a choice, but it just rubs me very wrong here.

Does this continue in the next eps? It ended in an interesting point, and I really want to like a CFY drama again, but I don't see myself going through that kind of CGI-like background for most scenes for the rest of the drama.

I only watched the first episode, technical question (sorry if it was asked before.)

No, wait. So we're here not liking Qi Min (because he's obsessed and otherwise evil) or Sui YuanQing (because he's a sado-masochist and also otherwise pure evil) BUT THEY'RE CUTE.

And if they showed novel Xie Zheng, he'd ALSO be kind of obsessive and jealous and also not care much for casualties (that were being heavily hinted at in the beginning and excusesplained all over the place) BUT we'd have to forgive him and root for him and the FL to get together... because he's so freaking HANDSOME.

I am all for the director's choice on this - I don't want to root for some psycho, even if they're cute. I can sometimes pity them or cheer for their redemption arc if any - but these two didn't merit any kind of redemption. And if XZ would have been that gray-leaning-black from the beginning, I'd have skipped LOL.

Though I DO miss those broken sticks he always had ready (I wanted to see him use those, LOL.) It showed a lot of preparedness and that constant vigilence of the man ready to do violence. I'm okay with him being gray-ish but not too much.

It's still a web drama, LOL. I mean, what are they supposed to do, invest all that money and wait to see if it gets word of mouth? They're obviously going to promote it hard. Then again, the first 17 or so eps do a LOT of self-promo. Just LOOK at those scenes and how they make both leads appear. I was totally in love and I NEVER anticipated wanting to watch this drama, LOL.

As for illogical things, I guess people mentioning those have never seen a cdrama before either :D

Wait, wait, wait, I am not a fan of either actress, let me get my popcorn and...

You know what though?

I don't even

The drama I mentioned is You Are My Hero, the ML is Bai JingTing. He's also in a lot of other dramas - if you never watched anything of his, I recommend Reset.

No. She was supposedly pregnant (without an official note taken in the harem register of Imperial Visits - those are needed to make sure the children born to his wives should be his and not someone else's). So there was a suspicion she was going to have a bastard child and very probably she was going to be put to death.

That was the pretense they used to make Wei Yan leave his post and go back to the capital unsummoned by the Emperor (also forbidden by the rules). There's a later comment that the pregnancy was not real.

Qi Min was already older - a few years of age - when the fire happened. He WAS the official heir to the Crown Prince (which also means he IS in the harem notes etc). They took succession and bloodlines pretty seriously in actual Ancient China.

(Then they 'forget' the rules when introducing Bao'er as a legitimate heir of the main Imperial line, which he is NOT - 1. he is a son born to an unofficial concubine, and there are a lot other legitimate pretenders with some rights to the throne, and 2. he was NEVER in the harem register since Qi Min was supposedly already long dead when the kid was born).

Wei Yan's lover is Concubine Virtue, no issue (by anyone). He's a one woman's man and just had a good hand in raising Xie Zheng. Wei Xuan is another man's child, he married his wife just to get his own parents off his back about marrying and having kids.

I made an averaged rating - the first part is just - perfect. The second part dragged the rating lower.

TBH, if "The Global Campaign for Women's Empowerment" exists and it causes a total lack of over-powered abusive rednecks antiheroes as leads... then I'm all for it.

I don't know what kind of age range we're looking at here with the watchers of this drama - or others you might also find lacking - but I was pretty much over action heroes some 30 years back already. And nowadays in Western media I was already over the superheroes stories since pretty much the beginning (with the usual exceptions - not many). There might be other people like me who actually want to see some women in important parts that do not immediately involve being man-like while at the same time doing things everyday women do not get or want to do. Like going to war. Or being good at fights.

I would love to see more plot and character-driven stories (I don't care about the gender of the lead), but I'll also not be rejecting any interesting drama just because the girl is too OP or the ML is too pretty.

Let us all enjoy the pretty while it lasts, LOL.

1. There are a TON more generals and they're all Neanderthals LOL. Just look at Wei QiLin as an example. They should be happy about how manly those other generals are.

2. So pretty boys cannot be good fighters? Let them hear all about Okita Souji, for example, LOL.

3. Was there a similar kind of talk about BJT as a SWAT Captain in You Are My Hero, LOL?? Because he was so thin and a stronger wind could carry him away - but a SWAT Captain anyway hahaha~

(And there are so many more examples to give here). People are bored and/or restless, let them talk.

They're here because of the schadenfreude.

TBH I also go back on dramas I've dropped. I don't comment anymore though, just sometimes like some of the comments if I find them interesting. But I do go back and see what's up. In my case - with the very bad dramas (like freaking Twelve, LOL) it is schadenfreude. With the so-so/boring/AMAZINGLY boring ones, it's just because of FOMO.