The Untamed

by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

This guest squee is from Heather M. Heather M lives in Florida. You can find her on Twitter @NotThatHeatherM.

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(A note: there are what seems like one hundred characters in this show/book, and most of them have three names. While there are specific reasons people are called different names at different times, for the sake of clarity I’ve chosen to stick to what seems to me to be the most commonly used name for each character.)

(Another note: this review contains brief discussions of self-harm.)

Wei Wuxian is dead.

That’s not a spoiler, it’s the very first line of the drama. Wei Wuxian is dead—or, at least, he’s about to be. Amid a chaotic battle scene, a distraught young man jumps from a cliff. One man—his soulmate—tries desperately to save him. Another man—his brother—strikes him down, ensuring his fall.

Sixteen years later, Wei Wuxian finds himself reincarnated by a madman. And so, the story really begins.

The Untamed is a Chinese historical fantasy drama. And I might as well give away this entire review right away by telling you that for the past few months it’s pretty much been my favorite thing ever. One moment there I was, just living my life, scrolling through Netflix and thinking “Oh, there’s that show I keep seeing on my Twitter feed. Wow, they’re pretty.” The next moment I was falling deep into an obsession I still haven’t managed to claw my way out of. Not that I really want to.

The show is based on a Chinese boys’ love novel by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu called Mo Dao Zu Shi, or as I’ve alternately seen it translated, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation or The Founder of Diabolism. (I promise it’s not as grim as it sounds.) Apparently I’m not the only one who can’t get enough of it. Besides the novel and the live-action show, there’s also an anime (currently unfinished as far as I can tell—but legally available on YouTube with English subtitles), an audio drama, and a webcomic. I’ll be sticking mostly to the live-action show in this review, but I will say that it’s a great way to feed an obsession: when you finish the story in one format you can just immediately restart it in another.

About half of The Untamed takes place in an extended flashback, following Wei Wuxian from his youth until he reaches that moment on the cliff. The rest of the show is about Wei Wuxian and his soulmate, Lan Zhan, trying to untangle the mystery behind his reincarnation and a larger conspiracy – of which his death was ultimately only a small consequence.

An orphan, Wei Wuxian is raised by the Jiang clan. As teenagers, he and his brother and sister travel to study cultivation (magic) with the Lan clan. Wei Wuxian is a show-off and a trouble maker, always ready to play tricks, get drunk, and flirt with anything that moves. Lan Zhan, the younger son of the Lan clan, is a stoic, reserved boy who rigidly adheres to the many, many rules of his clan. Their first meeting (and second, and third…) does not go well.

Through various youthful adventures, Wei Wuxian tries to charm Lan Zhan, and Lan Zhan tries very hard not to be charmed. But eventually the real world breaks in and their problems become bigger. The Wen clan, leaders of the cultivation world, have become tyrants. They are cruel and ruthless, with a massive superiority complex and a MacGuffin that creates zombies at their disposal. Essentially, they have to be stopped.

After a number of violent confrontations and a great tragedy, Wei Wuxian turns away from the “correct” cultivation path and starts cultivating demonically. The other clans are fine with this as long as it gets them what they want, which is help in destroying the Wen clan. But when Wei Wuxian defends members of the Wen clan who did not participate in the atrocities, and are only being persecuted because of their name, he is shunned, forced into living in exile in a place called the Burial Mounds. Lan Zhan is pretty much the only person who sticks by him, even as he tries repeatedly to bring Wei Wuxian back to the “right” path.

But to Wei Wuxian, his path is the right path. A bully is a bully, no matter if they’re on the “good” side or not. While everyone else is worrying over politics and how to gain glory for their own clans, he is the one person who consistently defends what he knows to be right. This eventually costs him everything, but he still won’t be moved. (Also, there is a specific reason Wei Wuxian chooses to cultivate the “evil” path to begin with. When you find out, it will absolutely break your heart.)

By the time Wei Wuxian makes it back to that cliff, that initial scene, which had been very confusing, has become clear and poignant. Everything is broken, and you understand why he would want it all to end. But one of the beautiful things about this story is that even after death Wei Wuxian (and Lan Zhan, too) gets the chance to try again.

So now it’s time to talk about the romance. After all, I’m not really into this show for the monsters or the magic system and the sometimes-iffy special effects. I’m in it for the longing glances and the soft touches and the pining.

Because of Chinese censorship laws, within the show the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan is never explicitly acknowledged. The straight characters aren’t demonstratively romantic either—no one ever so much as kisses. But it’s pretty well impossible to read the relationship as anything but romantic, no matter what the “official” word may be.

I have two decades of experience imposing queer readings onto straight source material. This is not a case of that. Just the way actors Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo look at each other conveys such deep, romantic longing. Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan call each other soulmate. They find each other after sixteen years—and despite Wei Wuxian’s best efforts, Lan Zhan recognizes him immediately. Wei Wuxian is constantly making excuses to touch Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon—an accessory which is clearly stated as only permissible to be touched by one’s parents or lovers—and he’s allowed to almost every time.

Would I have liked to see things like the first kiss and the love confession on screen? Oh, absolutely. (It’s such a great love confession, y’all). But I’m fine with the show the way it is, especially because the novel does exist.

There are definitely not censorship restrictions on the novel. It is decidedly adult-rated. It takes a frustratingly long time for these two oblivious fools who don’t know how to use their words to realize they are in love, but once they finally figure their shit out in the novel, they’re at it like bunnies. (In particular, they develop a reputation for breaking bathtubs. *insert Milhouse eyebrow wiggle*) They even marry. The explicit scenes may not be to everyone’s taste (there’s a fair amount of rape play), but the sex and romance are part of the main focus of the novel.

So the romance is amazing.

But beyond that, my favorite relationship is actually the one between Wei Wuxian and his brother, Jiang Cheng. It’s an incredibly nuanced portrayal of how love and hatred can come from the same place, a knotted tangle of a relationship where admiration, jealousy, fear, guilt, rage, and grief all mix together. Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, a broken relationship can’t be repaired. And I appreciate a story that doesn’t try to handwave these big emotions away into a flimsy happy ending, instead letting the relationship stay messy and sharp through the very end.

And somehow, I realize I’ve made it this deep into this review without even mentioning the juniors. I love the juniors! They generally serve the function of audience surrogates and comic relief, and they’re the best.

There’s also the tragic interlude of Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan, and Xue Yang. And I haven’t gotten to the true villain of the piece, or properly ranted about how the women are shortchanged (where is my feminist prequel about Wei Wuxian’s badass mom? Gimme) or told you about how wonderful drunk Lan Zhan is (drunk Lan Zhan may be my very favorite part of this show).

I could write thousands of more words about any of these things, but really my feelings can be summed up by just this: The Untamed is great, please watch it. The first few episodes will confuse the heck out of you. The next few will still be confusing, but oddly compelling. Soon enough, you’ll be deep in your feelings and crying every five minutes and loving the pain. Ahem. That is, if you’re anything like me, you will be.

The Untamed is available in the US on Netflix.

There isn’t a trailer online that we can find, but this video summarizes a lot of the series and the themes in about four minutes:

What about you? Have you watched The Untamed? Do you recommend one box of tissues, or four?