TV Review: The Untamed
At the beginning, Wei Wuxian (Zhan Xiao) dies. The cultivation clans have banded together at Nightless City to battle the Yiling Patriarch, master of the dark arts. Wei Wuxian is confronted by his adoptive brother Jiang Cheng (Zhuocheng Wang) and best friend Lan Wangji (Yibo Wang). Wei winds up plummeting off a cliff to his doom. And then he wakes up sixteen years later, apparently alive and well. He’s just as confused about this as everyone else.
It turns out that abused young man Mo Xuanyu committed suicide in a ritual to summon Wei Wuxian back to life to gain vengance on Xuanyu’s enemies (mostly his own family), transforming Mo Xuanyu’s body to a replica of Wei Wuxian’s (complete with the latter’s medical problems.) By lucky coincidence (or is it a coincidence?) Mo Xuanyu had a similar size and build to Wei Wuxian, and habitually wore a mask or heavy makeup, so people who’ve never met Wei Wuxian won’t notice the change.
Wei Wuxian is almost immediately reunited with Lan Wangji, as a resentful spirit targets the Mo Clan, and it becomes clear that a larger mystery is at hand that our protagonists must solve. But first, a flashback to how all this began!
This 50-episode Chinese TV series is an adaptation of the popular novel Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It’s currently available on U.S. Netflix. Due to Chinese government restrictions on what can be shown on television, the plotline where Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are lovers is changed to them just being extremely good friends who spend most of their time together staring at each other intently. There’s also some rearranging of events to make Wei Wuxian slightly less culpable for bad things that happen.
So it turns out that “cultivators” are mystic warriors who train intensely with swords to gain superhuman physical and spiritual abilities. Their main job is fighting monsters, ghosts and evil spirits to protect the public. But between training and “night hunts”, there’s plenty of time to engage in politics. There are five major clans of cultivators, a number of minor clans, and a scattering of “rogue cultivators” that have gone freelance. It’s not clear how all of this interacts with the actual government as the government never shows up and even the Emperor is only mentioned.
To promote cooperation between the clans, their teenage cultivation students are invited to a months-long seminar at the Lan Clan’s headquarters, Cloud Recesses. Wei Wuxian and his adoptive siblings attend from the Jiang Clan of Lotus Pier. Wuxian’s a trouble-making smartass, who’s something of a teen prodigy and he knows it. He’s constantly falling afoul of the rules, to the exasperation of Lan Wangji, a stoic, by the book fellow who seems to be the one Wei Wuxian loves teasing the most.
Also present are several members of the powerful Wen Clan. Wen Chao (Peng He) is the son of their leader, and firmly behind his father’s belief that the Wen Clan should rule all the cultivators. He isn’t here to make friends, and succeeds at not doing so. Wen Qing (Ziyi Meng) and Wen Ning (Bin Yu) are siblings from a cadet branch of the family. Qing is skilled at healing, so the Wen Clan leader demands her services. The shy Ning is essentially a hostage for her good behavior. Wei Wuxian makes friends with both of them the best he can.
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji begin to bond when they are tasked with protecting a shard of Yin Iron, a mystical metal filled with resentful energy that the Wen Clan is trying to get a monopoly on as part of their conquest plans.
Thus begins a series of choices by Wei Wuxian that each seem right at the time, but in combination with the evil schemes of others, miscommunication, and tragic events, lead him inevitably to that fatal confrontation in Nightless City.
The flashback takes about thirty episodes, ending with a very different viewpoint on the opening minutes of the show. Then it’s back to the present day mystery, and leading up to the final confrontation with the true villain.
As an epic novel adaptation, there are a lot of characters, and the first few episodes introduce many of them one way or another, so I found them a bit confusing. This eventually sorts itself out, but you may want a scorecard. (As the phrase “tragic events” might have warned you, a lot of these people are going to die.)
Our two main characters are good; Wei Wuxian has a “charming rogue” personality combined with a generous heart that only sometimes grates. Lan Wangji is his straight man; he has deep emotions but strong self-control so he seems cold and logical on the surface. (The actor would make a good Spock, I think.) They play off each other well.
From a cinematography point of view, I found it interesting that while the Wen Clan symbol is the sun, and their place names reflect that (like Nightless City), most scenes dealing with them involve darkness and shadow.
One of the running themes of the show is that cultivator society as a whole has a dangerous mob mentality. Once an enemy has been chosen, or an opinion decided, all must fall in line with this or become the enemy themselves. This usually works against Wei Wuxian, but he’s just as uncomfortable when it’s directed towards other people.
“Period” sexism is somewhat in place. While competent and powerful female cultivators exist, and are important in the backstory, we almost never get to see them in action.
Due to Chinese television standards, everyone is fully clothed 99% of the time, even in situations where it would be logical to disrobe, and even male skin below the neck is only exposed when it is absolutely necessary for the plot–revealing wounds or scars.
Content note: suicide, abuse, self-harm, fairly frequent gore, body horror, rape, incest, harm to children. Some parents might feel that the relatively positive depiction of necromancy is inappropriate for their family.
Overall: An interesting fantasy series. The considerable length makes it a time investment, but I did enjoy it once the ball got fully rolling. Those new to Chinese fantasy series may want to go with something shorter.
