skygiants: Fakir from Princess Tutu leaping through a window; text 'doors are for the weak' (drama!!!)
[personal profile] skygiants
[personal profile] genarti and [personal profile] tenillypo and I (along with it seems more or less half the internet) have been watching The Untamed, the live-action version of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. Because of scheduling, we've been gulping it down at a rate of approximately 5 episodes a week; last week we finally finished!

Of the three of us, I was the only one who'd read the novel first ([personal profile] genarti has read the first few chapters, [personal profile] tenillypo was coming entirely fresh) which has made it an interesting experience. The biggest change between the two versions is in the pacing of the stories -- Grandmaster paces its backstory reveals throughout the novel, allowing the reader to experience them through the perspective of an older, chiller, already-re-incorporated Wei Wuxian; The Untamed gives you a brief intro to Wei Wuxian's return to the world and then plunges the viewer back into thirty linear episodes of backstory about his tragic fall before returning to present-day reunion road trip hijinks.

Personally, I missed the novel's pacing, because half the fun for me is having the contrast between the younger and older versions of the characters played out over the course of the book; also, the show's pacing in general has a way to stop and linger around climactic moments for several episodes in a way that loses a lot of the zippy energy of the rest of it. Also also, in order to maintain backstory pacing, the show has added a whole evil MacGuffin plot that (as [personal profile] coffeeandink has pointed out) takes a significant amount of responsibility off Wei Wuxian's shoulders for literally inventing zombie magic, which is kind of frustrating as it very much blunts the point of the message that the cultivation world turned on Wei Wuxian for innovating frightening war magic that it then cheerfully went on to continue using.

On the other hand, I did appreciate that the show slithers its way around censorship by replacing all the backstory's moments of fraught mutually oblivious sexual tension with intense explicitly mutual but technically not sexual pairbonding. For example:

BOOK: Lan Wangji, overcome with fraught pining, anonymously kisses a blindfolded Wei Wuxian
SHOW: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have a fraught discussion in which Wei Wuxian says "I used to see you as my soulmate in this life" and Lan Wangji says "I still am"

On the one hand: it's a bummer China can't show makeouts; on the other hand: I think we can all agree that the show's version here may in fact be better.

These changes, plus the amazing array of long-suffering micro-expressions displayed by Lan Wangji's actor, significantly shift the tone of the romance overall. Book!Lan Wangji spends all his time stoically pining for a man he believes is oblivious to his feelings and will never return them; tv!Lan Wangji spends all his time mildly annoyed that his useless undead husband, to whom he has been married for twenty years, forgot another anniversary. Both great tastes and I'm glad to have experienced both!

Speaking of actors, I already loved the novel version of Jin Ling (the bratty nephew of everybody in the cast) but Jin Ling's actor in the show was a true standout for visibly incorporating all the most annoying traits of the actors who played his father and his other variously terrible uncles into his performance. Truly sublime; a very gifted child.

The show also makes a significant effort to give the few female characters more screentime. I'm not sure how well this serves Jiang Yanli, the sweet but tragically doomed sister, who does appear significantly more often but still unfortunately never gets to do anything besides make the same soup recipe ad infinitum. Wen Qing, on the other hand -- an irritable but virtuous doctor from an evil clan who helps our heroes out at a few key points -- has been elevated to a main player, which is probably the best choice the show ever made, except then it makes her disappearance from the story midway through and the absolute lack of women in the future plot significantly more frustrating. Justice for Wen Qing! (as I requested, in my Yuletide letter.)

(If I had to rank my five favorite characters, it would probably go as follows:

#5 - Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, inextricably linked in favor as they are in life
#4 - Jin Ling; I love a furious gremlin child
#3 - Jiang Cheng; I love the man who taught the furious gremlin child all his worst habits
#2 - Wen Qing; the combo of 'irritable but virtuous doctor' and 'irritable but virtuous elder sister' is too powerful for me to resist
#1 - Lan Jingyi, because someone has to love the most mediocre Lan child and that someone was, inevitably, going to be me.)

My other favorite thing about the show: the special effects on Lan Clan members summoning their magical zithers from Z-space with a strum of their fingers. Amazing. Flawless.

I still have not seen the donghua past the first episode but that will probably be next!

Date: 2019-11-24 08:50 pm (UTC)
shadaras: A phoenix with wings fully outspread, holidng a rose and an arrow in its talons. (Default)
From: [personal profile] shadaras
Wen Qing deserves better and I am only on ep27 of this ridiculous delightful show.

(I wrote Wen Qing/Jiang Yanli femslash to cope with how much I wish the women could do more and fully plan to do more of that latter...)

Date: 2019-11-25 01:51 am (UTC)
thawrecka: (Default)
From: [personal profile] thawrecka
Lan Jingyi is very entertaining, always with the snark, and I'm very glad to see someone appreciating Jiang Cheng as he deserves.

The pacing in The Untamed really is a bit of a mess.

Date: 2019-11-25 02:11 am (UTC)
umadoshi: (fancrone - china_shop)
From: [personal profile] umadoshi
I'm still less than halfway through the novel and am still getting over how much more the show differs from it than I was expecting.

I suspect the cast will have me coming down on the side of preferring the show, even though the pacing is clearly MUCH better in the book. Plus I love both Wen Qing and Wen Ning so dearly in the show.

Date: 2019-11-25 02:52 am (UTC)
lacewood: (Default)
From: [personal profile] lacewood
visibly incorporating all the most annoying traits of the actors who played his father and his other variously terrible uncles into his performance.
Wow. WOW. How did this child live to the ripe age of 13? (Book!Jin Ling mostly seems to come off as an expy of Jiang Cheng, so adding in ALL THE REST on top of that...)

I haven't watched The Untamed myself but a friend did tell me that WWX DOESN'T invent necromancy in it, which I feel is a major disservice to his character. Commit to WWX's edgelord phase, guys!! On the other hand, I'm glad at least ONE girl gets better character development.

Also, re: the guqin, going to admit at first I confused them for guzheng (which are at least twice as bulky) and felt intensely concerned by the logistics of the Lan clan casually lugging them everywhere. Clearly z-space is the superior aesthetic solution to this problem.

Date: 2019-11-25 12:05 pm (UTC)
littlerhymes: (Default)
From: [personal profile] littlerhymes
What a beautiful favourite characters list! Justice for Lan Jingyi!

I'm up to episode 10 and I am missing the back-and-forth time cuts so much. But everyone is so pretty and they all have such good chemistry.

Date: 2019-11-25 05:04 pm (UTC)
issenllo: strawberry thief print from William Morris (Default)
From: [personal profile] issenllo
summoning their magical zithers from Z-space

This attracted me a LOT because those zithers are damn heavy.

Who doesn't love Lan Jingyi? Esp the TV version. He's so unabashedly a fan of Hanguang-jun and so very willing to sass anyone. My person headcanon is that he doesn't play the guqin (much; I guess most Gusu disciples have at least a passing knowledge) because it isn't annoying enough. He probably plays the suona, hehe.

Date: 2019-11-26 11:32 pm (UTC)
libitina: Wei Yingluo from Story of Yanxi Palace in full fancy costume holding a gaiwan and sipping tea (Default)
From: [personal profile] libitina
Okay, I just read the first line before commenting - YEEEEEESSSS!

Date: 2019-11-30 05:51 pm (UTC)
stultiloquentia: Campbells condensed primordial soup (Default)
From: [personal profile] stultiloquentia
I just finished the show last night. I read this post last week, so when I finally met Furious Gremlin Child, I was ready to love him, and I did!

Date: 2019-12-01 06:57 pm (UTC)
schneefink: River walking among trees, from "Safe" (Default)
From: [personal profile] schneefink
I have not read the book but I enjoyed "The Untamed" a lot :)
Jiang Yanli not having much of a role in the book explains partially why she never gets to do anything, which is a shame; I did love Wen Qing a lot though, so overall still a very positive change.

Date: 2019-12-02 01:14 am (UTC)
yawe: Oil painting of a blue bird with pink flowers on a yellow background (Default)
From: [personal profile] yawe
Hi,lurker here.

If you like Lan Jingyi, my favorite fandom content about him is this mini AU!comic about "what if LJY were a transmigrator (and how pausible it is)"

https://lee-luca.tumblr.com/post/182848149464/mo-dao-zu-shi-scum-villain-au-scum-villain-au

If you're interested in reading more cnovels, I think you'll enjoy 'Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect' by Priest.
If you've ever wondered what a xianxia novel written by Diana Wynne Jones would be like, this is the closest I've ever read. The story is about a group of terrible children who join a xianxia sect thinking it's an scam rigged by their beloved teacher to get free food and money, and how they realize how wrong they were. But too bad, now they're too loyal to the sect and care too much about each other to leave.
The translation although isn't finished is pretty advanced, chapter 76 of 109. You can find the first part here:
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/liu-yao-the-revitalization-of-fuyao-sect/

And next part here(this is a translation from the Thai version but it seems quite reliable):
https://rustycol.dreamwidth.org/

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