A mature work about gay relationships

This movie has the big advantage that it's source material is splendid, and while I did read it many years ago and have forgotten most of it, I can say that they not only managed to preserve its quality but surpassed it.

“No Touching At All” is not your typical BL story nor movie, they went for a literary approach that matches the essence and tone of the source, so if you aren't a fan of the quiet, artistic style that doesn't rely on ups and downs but lives between its shallow waves, then you won't be happy with this movie.

The actors are perfect for their roles and shine the brightest during the silent encounters of the two leads, the only erotic scene is so sensual, emotional, that you can feel the heavy burden and hope this special moment represents.

While it is a film many people will surely enjoy, I think it's important to say that it's much more impactful, and meaningful, for those who know how painful it is to fall in love with a straight man; all the fears, the self-hate and guilt, that is clawing at your insides, the blame you put on yourself for stealing his future, and the blame some of them unjustly put on you.

It's one of the very few BL films that realistically show how it is to be a gay man and the many downfalls that come with it, there's no sugar coating, no false positivity or cute moments to appeal to certain watchers, it wants to portray the story of mature men trying to find happiness with, and in, each other.

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What a shame

As someone who read the novel back when it started, I honestly don't understand why so many people like this adaptation.
I've more or less only zapped through the last 20 or so episodes, I simply couldn't stand it anymore.

Even looking at it from a pure watcher's point of view, it is a pretty bad series.

1. It's horribly cheap.
Be it the costumes, wigs, props, or CGI, I've seen web mini-series from unknown studios with a higher value, even projects from students tend to be of a higher quality.
Every high jump is basically in slow-motion, accompanied by wind sounds while their robes and hair are more or less still, fights are the same but with added wooshing and awkward choreography that looks like children imitating the martial arts movie they just watched.

2. Bad acting.
Most of the actors wobble between passable and downright horrendous, exaggerated facial expressions, no emotions convoyed via eyes, they pretty much look like what they are – actors instead of the characters they should be.

3. Characterisation is way off.
I'm genuinely sad that the adaptation was made in China, the novel has some of the most interesting characters I've come across but thanks to censorship laws, they turned all of them into uninspired stereotypes.
The bad acting does the rest, at some points it reminded me of the hilariously bad Kung-Fu movies from the 60s and 70s, with their caricature characterisation that makes you wonder if everyone is somewhat mentally handicapped.

4. No balance, no nuances.
The bad guys are overpowered beyond what's believable, and they are evil for evilness sake, just like the good guys can do no wrong and are good from the bottom of their heart.
It's a favourite trope in China, winning against the ultimate evil, far more powerful than everyone else, but the good guys still manage to defeat it after many hardships, doesn't matter if it's reasonable or not.

5. Filler.
So many unnecessary filler. “The Untamed Special Edition” already proved that 30 whole episodes could have been cut out without any losses – and it shows.

I've seen both variants, the special edition at least held my interest somewhat while the series was so boring that I played games while watching some of it, otherwise I would have fallen asleep.

They failed to adequately show high-tension moments, partially because of the low-quality props, partially because of bad direction and acting, I laughed several times due to how silly it looked but not even once have I felt on edge.

All of this is from a viewer's perspective, if I factor in the source material, I would have to give it negative points.
It's an insult to call this “adaptation” when nothing from the novel was preserved, be it the story or characterisation, if you give them different names and show it to me I would have never believed that it's supposed to be MDZS.

At least for me, it's one of the least enjoyable series I watched in my 30 years of consuming Asian movies/series, and as an “adaptation”, it makes me feel sorry for Mo Xiang Tong Xiu - she deserved much better.

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Great film with weaknesses

This movie has everything I love – Zombies and tragedy.

Sadly, it didn't meet my expectations for a good Zombie film, it relies heavily on the watcher's wishes and emotional needs instead of trying to be as true to the genre as possible.

Effects, make-up, direction and acting are splendid, there are some very emotional moments that might bring tears to one's eyes, but it gets dragged down by bad characterisation and conveniences.

Most of the cast behaves extremely irrational, the mistakes they make are unrealistic and too many of them play the hero to save complete strangers, the characters that do survive, are those that would have been one of the first to die if the movie had put some effort into being realistic, not idealistic.

On top of that, it's inconsistent with its own rules, they change whenever it fits the narrative, characters forget them to drive the story forward and create drama, then remember them just to do something heroic or give someone a happy end.

If you don't mind all of this, then the film is definitely up there with some of the best Zombie movies.

It has what is needed to make a compelling watch; decent action scenes, fast Zombies, tragedy, and first-class direction, with actors that are both convincing as the characters they play and more than enough talent to lift the movie out of the mediocre mess we got over the past 10 years.

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Emotional, touching, but imperfect

I'm torn between giving it a 7 or 8 but decided to add some extra weight to the direction and concept.

It's a great, very emotional drama, with a rather unique idea, decent actors, interesting stories, high-quality props and very professional cinematography.

I want to give some bonus points to how they handled the perpetrators, most of them weren't put into the “mentally ill” category but shown to be normal people, just with no scruple, overly self-centred, and with a disregard for human life born out of their vile character instead of taking the easy way out and blaming it on some illness, so watchers don't have to face the fact that some humans are like this just because they want to.

The music is standard, they have two or three songs that are used in nearly every episode, which makes them lose impact and annoyed me by the fifth, later on I had to mute it because instead of adding to the mood, it ruined it for me.

While the overall idea is intriguing, the rules are inconsistent and some parts very vague, the drama focuses heavily on the characters, world building is minimal, few questions are raised by the MC, and everything he doesn't directly ask about gets no (attempted) explanation, everyone seems so uninterested in understanding how their own world works that it's irritating and hardly believable.

Characterisation has a good basis, sadly they put all of the focus on a certain character that happened to be the only one I wholeheartedly disliked, and who's, in my opinion, the least interesting of them all.

If I put it bluntly, the drama is about two tragic lovers instead of the MC, an unfortunate choice that failed to engage me, made me impatient, it took away time that would have been needed to flash out some of the major characters and do proper world building.

My biggest complain, they rushed the ending in a very tragic way by solving a big portion of the central cast with 1 minute long “resolutions” meant to create a happy ending for everyone; it felt unsatisfactory, like an insult to the viewers attachment to these characters and the investment you put into their individual story.

Most of the inconsistencies are in the last episode as well, without it, this drama would have likely been a 10/10 for me.

Still, it's a touching journey with lovable characters and a good premise, definitely worth your time if you are into this kind of tearjerker.

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Sweet but flawed

The characters, namely the Prince and his guard, are both wonderful, their own emotions really got to me, I cried and laughed with them, feared for them, and wished for their safety.

Costumes look high quality, the scenery is beautiful, and the story is something I personally love, but it suffers from annoying shortcomings.

Transmigration isn't easy to pull off in such a short time, the behaviour of the transmigrated characters isn't convincing, sadly neither is the romance.

I didn't feel any sparks between them, which is partially caused by Park Jun Hee's abysmal performance, he's expressionless, wooden, seems extremely uncaring when he should have been emotional, the sparks coming from Yoo Hyun Woo were extinguished by him, it looked like a one-sides crush for a guy who went along with it out of boredom.

It could have been a perfect drama if the episodes would have been much longer, the story and romance developed properly, but most of all, with a different actor for the MC.

The music was fine and sufficiently fitting, although I would have liked less k-popy tunes, it just doesn't really match with the historical setting.

Still, it's a very cute, very touching little series that certainly has its charm and can brighten a bleak evening.

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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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For fans of the genre

A good 7 is a fair rating for this absolutely hilarious parody, I watched it in one night and am amazed that my neighbours didn't scream at me through to wall because of my booming laughter.

If you are a seasoned BL fan, then you will be delighted, otherwise the series will be nothing but irritating and weird.

It makes use of every absurd trope and stereotype BL Manga have to offer and how to avoid the pits they dig for their male cast – no one is safe from the power of gay love.

I couldn't rate it higher due to three reasons.

Miscasting is one, most of the actors simply don't fit the characters they play, high schoolers look like adults, university students like they are past 30, it's very strange and breaks the immersion.

The story is nearly none-existent, mostly because the cast is way too big, there are so many couples that we don't get to know any of them, they really are just there to personify the tropes and create laughs.
It works for a few episode but gets stale quickly, I just wasn't invested in them, even those that get a decent amount of screen time.

Acting is mediocre or horrible.
I understand that the budget was pretty low, they needed a massive cast, from side-characters to background fillers, but neither of them were convincing; some fillers even laughed at the main characters when they should have been unaffected by them, you can see them stifling their laughter in the background.

The music was either so generic that I didn't notice it at all, or there wasn't any.
Re-watch value is very personal, I can't see myself being amused by it a second time, the gags work by surprising you with a trope, it wouldn't work for me again but that might be different for others.

Overall, it seems more like a private film-project instead of a professionally produced series, although a very good, very ambitious one that manages to deliver what it decided to present.

I would definitely recommend it to experienced BL fans that can laugh about how silly their hobby is at its core - I will surely watch the second season should it ever come.

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