Well, get ready for a lot of gushing. I love that show. And yes. The Untamed is a show. Normally, I would link to IMDB but when I'm writing about something more Asian, I prefer to link to sites specifically dedicated to those. Most of the time, I'm watching JDramas and Movies, but recently, I discovered that the Chinese might be a bunch of prudes, but hey, they know how to make an awesome historical drama. Well, this would probably be more wuxia/fantasy, but still, I'm gonna go with the historical fantasy genre here.
So, I should also probably mention that it's BL (Boys Love). Well, at least the book this is based on is, the drama itself, more of an intense bromance. But like I said, that's because the Chinese are a bunch of prudes. Seriously, if nothing else, they could have included at least a single kiss at the very end of the last episode where they reunite.
As you can probably guess at this point, the two main protagonists are both males. Wei Wuxian (Ying) and Lan Wangji (Zhan). The whole thing starts with the death of one of the protagonists. And then he's resurrected into a different body. Reunited with Lan Zhan, they start solving the mystery of what the heck actually happened and are trying to discover the true culprit. Which, frankly, with one single exception (or maybe two, yes, probably two. It would only be one if we disregard the 30-episode long flashback), all the villains of this story are the misunderstood kind. If the circumstances were only slightly better, they could have been the good guys.
Yes, there's also a 30 episodes long flashback. This starts from episode 3 and lasts until episode 33. If you decide to watch this show, even if you decide to skip the flashback, I suggest not skipping ep. 3 or 33. As they are only partly flashbacks. I myself haven't watched the flashback part in full yet, but I'm working on it. I'm also planning to read the book. English translation is available on the internet. Just do a simple google search and you should be able to find it.
You can probably guess what I did after I finished the last episode and found the book. And if you can't, well, you're probably new here and don't know me very well yet. I, of course, went to find some suitable fanfiction featuring these guys. I fell in love with them and I didn't wanna let go of them yet.
I also suggest you go and watch The Living Dead. It's a spin-off of the show. It features two of the more regular support cast - Wen Ning and Lan Shizui (Yuan).
So, all in all, the cast is great, the story is awesome, the only missing thing is the romance. Honestly, would it kill them to let them kiss? Whatever, I'm probably not gonna be over that one any time soon, but I'm gonna stop ranting bout it now.
Honestly, I really did not expect the show to be this good. But it is. It's funny, it's serious, it's full of mysteries. Oh, and Huaisang (one of the support cast) is a bloody mastermind. I won't tell you why, And you probably won't understand until you get to the show's finale. But then it should become clear.
And when you're done with the show, go to youtube and watch some bloopers. It's hilarious. Even if you won't be able to understand everything as finding something with half-decent subs is sometimes very close to impossible.
What else? The actor that plays Wei Ying - Xiao Zhan - he was made to smile. Honestly, go find a pic or a gif of him smiling in his Wei Ying costume. You'll melt into a puddle of goo.
Told ya I was gonna be gushing. Honestly, I can't get enough of this! I went as far as to obtain an offline copy of the drama for myself. Just in case. You never know. And I'm making an offline copy of the book. And no, I'm not gonna send it to you. The translators don't want it spread to other sources. Go make your own offline copy. I might make an exception and send it to you if I know you really well or if you're family. But don't get your hopes up. Because it's really not hard to make it. Just tedious. You have to copy/paste every single chapter individually and well. There's over a hundred of them. So... Yeah.
Okay, I think this is enough for now. I might do a separate (gushing) review on the spin-off movie, but we'll see. I just wanted to write something. And post something different than a pic I drew. But seriously, once you get used to the language, Chinese dramas are not too bad. Though I'm still not touching some of the other languages. Not even with a ten-foot pole.
~AnnElfwind
Written on the 7th of September, 2020
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