(Not Really a) Review: First Impressions of The Untamed: The Living Dead

Remember when I said I'd post this review before Sunday? Yeah, obviously that didn't happen.

The Living Dead is a sequel/spin-off of The Untamed. It was released last Thursday. Some kind soul uploaded it on YouTube with English subtitles, allowing me to watch (and understand) it without the bother of downloading it.

Apparently the film takes place several years after the series ended. The only characters from the series are Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui; all the others are new ones. (Unless you count a certain very short cameo.) This review is a list of things I thought while watching it.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

• I'm not impressed with the opening scene. What on earth is wrong with that man? Who goes out late at night when they know there are ghosts around?

• Can't say I like the credits. Where's the Untamed theme music? Honestly, I'd settle for any theme music. That wailing-child thing is more grating than scary. At least the animated parts look cool.

• I like the call-back to The Untamed's first scenes, with the empty street, leaves blowing around, and people chanting about spirits.

• Why is Wen Ning in chains again?

• Yet again people are running away from Wen Ning in terror :(

• Now Wen Ning can use his chains as weapons. And they apparently have a mind of their own, and are red-hot. (The moving around part could be telekinesis, but the heat? I spent several minutes trying to figure out how they could look like they've just been put in a fire when it's late at night and there's no fire nearby.) Sure would have been useful if he had that power in the main series. Jin Guangshan wouldn't have known what hit him.

• Lan Sizhui is as adorable as ever! I love his first conversation with Wen Ning :D (Though they're a lot more distant towards each other than I expected. What happened to their closeness at the end of the series?) Yay, a Wei Wuxian reference!

• Inquiry sounds different :( I prefer the series' rendition. Sizhui teleporting(?) into a corpse's mind is a cool idea, but it never happened in the series.

• The mysterious death of the Xiao family sounds awfully like the massacre of the Chang clan. Xue Yang? Is that you?

• Xiao Qing deserved so much better :'( (Every time she's called "A-Qing" I think of the other A-Qing. Further emphasizes the similarities between this film and Xue Yang's story.)

• Again all the trouble is caused by the Yin Iron! On the one hand I like the call-back to the series, but on the other... that thing's caused so much chaos already. Couldn't they have found a more original idea?

• Wasn't Zhou Zi Shu already undead? How the dickens did cutting his throat kill him? And yet again we have a villain trying to resurrect a loved one they killed. Zhou Zi Shu might as well be called Xue Yang 2.0. Except I like Xue Yang more. He was utterly insane, but at least his craziness wasn't a repeat of an earlier plot.

• ...I take back almost everything in that last paragraph. Just reached the plot twist, and I have one thing to say. WHAT THE HELL?????!!!!! 😮

• The music is much too modern. Electric guitars in a fantasy film? Where's the beautiful (and actually fitting for the genre) music from the series?

• WHERE IS LAN WANGJI????? I think he was only mentioned once in the entire film. We got a Wei Wuxian cameo but not a Lan Wangji one?

• The final scene has some of the least convincing CGI I've ever seen 😒

I like this film, but it's not quite what I expected. The main problem is how short it is, and how rushed the plot is as a result. When I rewatch it I might write a longer review.

Review: The Untamed

A month ago there were only two series I would rate 10/10: Cranford and Bleak House. This series has just joined them.

The Untamed (陈情令/Chén Qíng Lìng) is a 2019 Chinese series, loosely based on the novel Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. The most glaringly obvious difference is that the series doesn't adapt the romance between the two main characters. I've never read the novel or seen its other adaptations, so I don't know what other differences there are. (Plenty, according to other people's comments.)

I didn't recognise any of the actors, so on to the plot.

Unfortunately the first episode is terribly confusing. I couldn't understand anything that was happening. My thoughts were mostly variations of "Who is this?" or "What are they doing?". All I knew for certain was that a monster was terrorising a family, a group of cultivators (a word I didn't understand then) were trying to get rid of it, and someone had died and come back to life. I almost gave up on the series before it had properly started.

The second episode is just as confusing, I'm sorry to say. But in its final minutes we go back in time to what happened before the series starts. It's one of the longest flashbacks ever; it lasts until episode thirty-three. Luckily it's when the story both starts making sense and becomes interesting. (Why, why did they not start with the sixteen-years-ago storyline, and then jump forward to where the first episode began?) Come to think of it, you could probably start watching the series with episode three then go back and watch the first two after episode thirty-three.

Anyway, on to the plot. Wei Wuxian arrives in Cloud Recesses, where he meets Lan Wangji. Their relationship gets off to a bad start of the "fighting on the rooftop because Wei Wuxian broke the rules" kind. But before long they're very close friends. The series might not have been able to adapt their romance, but it has plenty of subtext.

Wei Wuxian

Lan Wangji

Naturally things go horribly wrong. First a war breaks out, then Wei Wuxian tries to protect innocent civilians and gets vilified for it, then he commits suicide after his friends and his sister are killed. Sixteen years later he's brought back from the dead and meets Lan Wangji again. Much trouble, adorableness, scheming, and implausible fight scenes ensue. And of course there's plenty of heartbreak.

This is one of those shows that's an emotional rollercoaster. It's even worse than Cranford because it includes horror and violence as well as tragedy. When you watch an episode you never know what the next scene will be. Comical? Tragic? Nightmarish? Tragic and nightmarish? Episode thirty-three in particular is hard to watch 😭 Wei Wuxian's descent into despair gives me chills. Especially the way he swings between laughing and crying as he watches the carnage the Yin Tiger Amulet caused.

If you can get through the bewildering first episodes, and don't mind frequent violence, gore, and unconvincing special effects, you'll probably enjoy this series. I certainly did 😄

Is it available online?: Yes, on YouTube with English subtitles. Pretty bad subtitles, but it'll give you the general idea.

Rating: 10/10.