‘The Untamed’: Chinese boy love drama we can’t stop watching

Well said, Lily. It is tragic. Everything that could go wrong does in ways I didn’t see coming, and it’s the righteous hypocrisy and mob mentality that are the truest villains. There’s no need for me to repeat what you wrote so eloquently, but I agree. The only thing I hadn’t thought of was how you saw Wei feeling unworthy of Wanji. That is interesting. He’d certainly been pursuing their “friendship” relentlessly from the start and was obviously proud of being his equal. Certainly a valid slant on why he wouldn’t still want to live and not leave Wanji behind. (Telling him to let him go.) Well, not to mention the fact that they are facing off themselves moments before during the chaos! Even though Wanji doesn’t go through with it, Wei is so devasted by ALL of it. At that point, it seems he sees he’s lost control and IS evil. I mean, that’s heavy! I don’t think it’s cleared up in Wei’s mind that Wanji truly trusts him and doesn’t think he’s evil until the scene at Cloud Recesses, if my memory serves. He wasn’t even sure himself that he’d heard a second flute. Well, dang! Maybe now I HAVE to go watch it again. Such a torturous task. Thanks for sharing. It takes tremendous actors to pull me into a world so foreign and out there that I’d be reading about it and now answering you. What a beautiful ride. BTW, the scene that made me cry, for real, was the one in the rain with the Wen clan remnants, where Wanji is holding the umbrella. When Wei said what he said…wow. What is deeper than that? The acting from both is outstanding. But it was Wei’s delivery that sucker punched me. He MEANT it.

I have watch this three times already with a box of tissue but can anybody help me I am looking for the book in English

At the cliff part：After WWX jump off, Lan Wangji grabbed him and Jiang Cheng came to them… WWX closed his eyes & waited. He expected to be stabbed by Jiangcheng. He opened his eyes when Jiangcheng stabbed the rock coz he was surprised. Then he saw the blade turns towards LWJ’s wrist. That was then his expression turns confused/fearful/worried (all within the span of seconds) and he flung off LWJ’s arm and fell. WWX was protecting LWJ 😭😭coz he didn’t want people who cares about him to get hurt again. So it made him even more determined to kill himself.😭😭😭😭😭 (Seems many viewers missed this plot detail in the drama… different from novel) Please all go watch and feel your heartache all over again😭

Some thoughts should remain unsaid.

Why thinking about the original story line which is BL gives you goose bump? Because it is a love story between 2 men? Love is beautiful, whatever it is and need to be celebrated. I’m glad that the series adaptation is faithful to the storyline- I still can feel and see romantic love pictured between 2 characters.

Really!! imagine eating omelette and enjoying it then Said eggs gives goosebumps! Can’t believe you just Took time to read all that and still write that trash. I am really sad we didn’t get more romantic scenes to further your goosebumps and nightmares in addition. You should just enjoy the review! Love is love.. and if you don’t like it, Respect it no need for some mindless opinion.

The original novel was actually BL, but the director changed it to brotherly love. This showed recived lots of backlashed in china becaused of that.

so yall really just gonna compare being gay to rape and child sex slavery lmao,,, the homophobia jumped out

“sexual perversion”? is this the 1800s??

Everyone likes and dreams about chivalry, honor, and respect, but not morally backward bigots.

Hm, an interesting point, but in my opinion why love has that sexual classification because it seems to be the common thought, apparently (eye roll). As for the classify everything, you are not the only one that is tired of that, even my friend’s nephew as me are tired of it.

If there is ever a drama or book that just showed me an agape love without the romantics, but just that deep care for someone I would want to watch that drama to see how the writer has brought it onto the screen.

I completely understand what you are saying. There are beautiful stories about non-romantic love and friendship. I am not sure if you are familiar with a lot east asian cinema, but it is quite a common narrative and I find the stories beautiful that as human beings we can have such powerful bonds that transcend lifetimes. But also a gay man, watching this drama and reading the novel was a beautiful experience. Not very often are gay relationships depicted with an emphasis on romance, it is either about the sexual nature of the relationship, or facing aversion for their orientation. Labeling this relationship as queer romance is super important for a portion of the audience who can really connect with these characters and see their own fantasy of romance on the screen. Lol watching this show as a 23 year old half the time I felt like a little kid watching a Disney movie between a prince and a princess. Feeling giddy at the scenes of flirting between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan. But I digressed, having a drama show an explicitly gay romance especially in China is a huge step forward for the gay community in China where their isn’t the same freedoms for gay couples that I have in Canada and you may have in the United Kingdom. I’m just curious as to why if it were the same exact drama consisting of a male and female lead with the same romantic undertones it would instantly be accepted as a romance. However since it is a homosexual couple it is instantly seen as pushing a narrative further then it is.

Maybe people are super hung up about classifying this as romantic love, because it is romantic love? Censored as it is, this story does not portray a love between two friends.
I understand your point, even agree with it to a ceartain degree. I understand why some people want to read WangXian’s relationship as a friendship. I really do. And hey, it even can be read as one if you decide to turn a blind eye at some details and go ahead, do it. It is a beautiful story, no matter how you decide to interpret their relationship. But seeing it as a romantic relationship has multiple reasons and I just can’t get it, why it is interesting that we want to classify this relationship. Not every love is romantic love, true (my native language even has different words for the two types of love) and not every love should be seen as a romantic one, not every love should have a sexual classification, because love, a real deep bond between friends is a beautiful thing that should be seen as nothing but that. But the Untamed is definitely not a good example for that.

The show is based on a novel about gay romance (and a pretty explicit one) and the creators literally did everything they could to stay true to the novel, to show Wei Wuxian’s and Lan Wangji’s relationship as it is. There are multiple symbols in there that are screaming at the viewer’s face that “hey, these two don’t just love each other, they are IN LOVE”.
In episode 2 of the drama Jiang Wanyin calls Lan Wangji out on spending the last sixteen years going around in the world searching for someone (and we all know who Lan Wangji tries to find). In episode 6 Wangji clarifies that Wei Wuxian shouldn’t touch his forehead ribbon, because “the ribbon is sacred. Only parents, children and significant other are allowed to touch it” in that very same episode Lan Wangji ties them together with that very same sacred forehead ribbon and after that, he never once protests against Wei Wuxian touching and using his ribbon.
Also, lets not forget about the rabbits. Rabbits are representing WangXian in every version of the cannon. Rabbits are a symbol for homosexuality in Chinese mythology (the god of homosexuality is literally called Rabbit God) we see the bunnies in multiple occasions through the show, we even see two of them “kissing” (=bumping their noses together). If that’s not an implication than I don’t know what is.
And then, there are chickens (roosters). Chickens were traditionally given to women by men upon proposal. (Yes, that scene can be interpreted differently according to the book canon, but this discussion is simply not about the novel and in the series there is no prolouge to that scene, no other explanation, just the tradition.)
And they are bowing in the Jiang Ancestral Hall, they are completeing 3 bows in front of Wei Wuxian’s ancestors (because even if not blood related, the Jiangs were Wei Wuxians family) and that is something married couples do.
There is also the top-notch acting of the main actors. The way the boys look at each other, the longing clear in their eyes, is simply not the way you’d look at a friend. It’s how you look at the love of your life (and that is exactly what they do). The way Lan Wangji’s face softens and the way he smiles at Wei Wuxian and Wei Wuxian only is a telltale of his feelings. The way Wei Wuxian calls out “Lan Zhan” is also not the way you’d address someone you have platonic feelings for. That softness and pure devotion in his voice (even when he is at his lowest, hanging off of a cliff, maddened by grief) is something entirely different from the way he calls his Shijie or a-Yuan (and we all know how deeply he loves them and cares for them).
What I’m trying to say is we want to classify their relationship as a romance, because that’s exactly what it is. The creators and actors did a spectacular work at showing us their love story without any physical display of affection and any words declaring their feelings for each other. They did amazing at showing us that Lan Wangji did not wrote “WangXian” (their song and also the theme song of the series, officially releases as “Wuji”) for a friend. He did not bear a punishment, so cruel it would be better to be addressed as torture, for a friend. He did not roam the world searching and blast inquiry daily, waiting for an answer that never came, for a friend. He did not turn against the whole cultivation world, against his own clan for a friend. He did not brand his own chest in his drunken state for the memory of a friend (ok, I admit, this one is a weird examole, since the series never explained how the Wen mark got burned into his skin) and he did not took in, and raised as his own, a friend’s child. He took in the child who his soulmate (even though I don’t really like using this word in this context, because it can indicate a platonic relationship), the man he was in love with since he was 15 claimed as his own.
We want to classify their relationship as a romance, because the show asks as to do so.

Then write or produce such a work. These artists produce what they’re inspired to. Writing an epic novel with 100s of chapters and loads of well developed characters is no small feat.

It’s neither a dark mystery nor a bad thing that people are interested in romantic love and other kinds of love, or that they notice the difference.

The issue with your comment is that the characters in the story are gay. They are in love. There’s a novel for this show, that came before it and had explicitly gay scenes. You trying to diminish the clear, intended romance is almost… upsetting. In China, they cannot air gay content on television. Their love seems so pure and so genuine.. well, because they are in love. It is the agape love, and they love each other as friends, and as something even more. I don’t know much about this show, but I hear they’re above the idea of a typical relationship. Wang ji and Wei ying are soulmates… something pure, something above the boyfriend-girlfriend idea we all have.

Please don’t diminish their romance into something like a strong friendship. They’re a gay couple. It’s hard enough to even have implications of gay relationships in media, especially Asian, so trying to push the idea that they’re just friends, that their love is just platonic is just… almost a bit insulting.

yeah you are right