#that's 2250 minutes of The Untamed

[kennyomegasweave]

I wanna start either The Untamed or Word of Honor, but they are 50 and 36 45 minute episodes, respectively, and I just don't know if I have it in me to watch that many episodes of one show. I just don't know if I have it in me anymore. That's just so many minutes.

[tazzmanien]

The Untamed review

You’ve probably read a review beginning like this a 100 times before. And still I have to say it: I have never taken the time to review a single drama, because I’m lazy like that. But I think it’s time to do it for this masterpiece! And sorry for the length, I got carried away.

Yes, I have read the novel and yes, I surely do not like adaptations, as they never seem to be able to capture the essence of the canon story. So my hopes were low. If you add up the fact that this is a BL story and it had to be censored, to be able to see the light of the day in China, you would probably be less inclined to watch it. But, hear me out, this drama is worth every of the 2250 minutes of your life! They have captured the overall “look” and feel of the canon story in such a stunning way, that even if they would have discarded the canon story completely, this would have ended being a beautiful drama anyways.

 Acting:

Starting from the cast, each one of them was beautiful and fit the characters they played. Most of the cast was young and yet they truly did a great job. I will be honest with you, most of Asian dramas don’t do it for me in the department of acting, as they tend to over-act, but this one was actually really good even for my picky nature. They clearly took the time to understand each character deeply and to portray them in such an accurate manner, that I didn’t know was possible. In certain aspects they even added depth to some characters that we haven’t experienced in the novel, which was heartwarming (such as Wen Qing, Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian for example). Even the synchronization didn’t take away any quality, in fact it might have even given the whole drama more sense of uniformity. Oh, and they kept so many of the original dialogs and monologs, that I actually had the novel open to compare all the time!

 Set, music etc.:

The landscapes, sets, lighting, compositions, costumes, makeup, sound and choreography were all so gorgeous and well thought through, that those alone are reasons the watch it. Whoever was responsible for the camera work I love you! The way they visualized the mystical aspects of the story were entertaining and appealing (I loved the black fog and the sound that the Stygian Tiger Seal made). The martial art styles fit each character well and yet appeared as though celestial beings were dancing (I’m looking at you Xiao Xingchen and Lan Wangji). And don’t let me start talking about the music. The music will haunt you in your dreams, especially Wuji (you will know what I mean when you see the ending).

 Story – incl. comparison to canon:

Lets talk about the story. The novel on its own created such an amazing new fictional world with various types of characters, that it would have been difficult to create a bad adaptation, the film makers would have had to be very lazy to ruin this. So, no surprise here, that they managed to show this divine world and vibrant interactions between colorful characters. Still, I know many do not achieve this and therefore I really want to say thank you to everyone involved who made it possible.

Besides censoring the BL part, they have managed to keep almost every single other aspect of the story. Sometimes they went into such detail, that they caught me off guard and I only managed to close my mouth after several minutes. One could see and feel the love, friendship, family, hardship, envy, revenge, madness, intrigue, strength, political issues, betrayal, hurt, rage, stupidity… And in all honesty it was made in such a way, that even if you want our main heroes to fall in love, you can even see this part in the story. It is up to you, how you interpret their interactions. I know sometimes it sounds like a cheap excuse to says such things, but really it did not feel cheap here at all!

Of course there were other changes to the story (compared to other adaptations very few in my opinion), which were very understandable in fact. Listen, not everything written and seen in our imagination does work well in a live action. It can look weird or unnecessary prolong a story and bore the viewers. So, for example, the fact that they have not chased corpse body parts, but followed a sword spirit had little to no negative effect on the story really. Changing the last fight, actually made it more enjoyable, as the novel repeated some parts too often and was kind of dragging. Changing the temporal sequences was indeed necessary to keep new viewer interested and avoid confusion. Also adding some scenes that were not in the novel, only gave more depth to some characters and made everything more understandable and heart wrenching in the end. And last but not least, yes they cut the steamy parts, but hey we got the chickens! (Yeah my priorities are sometimes weird like that.)

 Conclusion:

Looking from a general viewers perspective this was an amazing and entertaining drama.

Looking from a canon fan viewers perspective this was the best adaptation we could have hoped for (within the boundaries there are due to censorship and filmmaking abilities).

 Rewatch Value:

I’m gonna start it today, so a big YES!

 BTW if you watch the drama with subs, then you should definitely watch the ending on Tencent, as in the WeTV app they have changed a tiny aspect, which can make less of an impact on you (in my opinion).

EDIT: They changed the WeTV app ending back to the original. So it’s the same as Tencent now. Please ignore the last paragraph and enjoy the ride.

[insideedensgate]

Acid on me like the rain (the horrors of war)

character study (2/?); jacob seed

2250 words

Jacob has always been fascinated by wolves.

Fast, strong, agile.

When he was a child, so small and so weak, he used to sneak into the zoo just to watch the wolves.

Majestic, powerful, protectors.

He became one, the very second he ripped Miller's flesh from his broken bones. Alpha kills pup.

Wolves are strong, winners of evolution. They are supposed to lead.

march 1971

Jacob Seed is born on a cold day, the heater inside the small house warms him and his mother.

It is still early, around 10 in the morning.

His father prays a Lord's prayer.

The radio quietly plays Just My Imagination by The Temptations.

Soon, a few weeks later, he grows the red hair of his grandfather.

Jacob doesn't cry a lot in the following months. He is a quiet infant and an even more quiet child, that is easily satisfied.

The old lady that lives next to them buys him a small plush dog the day he is born. She'll die when Jacob is 3 years old.

He wouldn't touch it any more then.

march 1975

He just turned 4. It's his birthday.

He crashed the wooden toy his parents bought him.

No matter how often he tries to explain to his father, that it was an accident – he'll get hit.

It's the first time Jacob's body experiences his father's hard slaps, his belt.

july 1982

If he doesn't follow, he'll get hit.

It's as easy as it sounds. He's used to it.

There's nothing else at home for him, that's his only purpose.

Yesterday he took it for Joseph. Jacob screamed at him later for provoking their father, his back bleeding.

He is so sorry, but he can't communicate it.

This will happen to them frequently the next nine years.

Tomorrow, his back will meet one of the kitchen chairs.

Tearing the scabbed skin apart once again.

december 1988

He feels relief falling off his shoulders, as he pushes Old Man Seed down the stairs.

Jacob looks on his dead body and takes a deep breath.

The man that had him drop out of school.

The man that had strangled his mother minutes ago.

He feels good. Strong, for the first time.

Joseph smiles.

John screams, but Jacob doesn't hear it.

Together, they'll overcome anything, Jacob thinks.

june 1989

He loves to see their farm burn down.

Red flames against a pitch black sky.

Joseph cries, grabs his arm and tries to pull Jacob with him.

Then, Joseph is gone.

John is gone as well.

He hears him scream is name, somewhere far away.

The smoke burns in his eyes.

„Oh boy, what have you done?“, the Sheriff asks calmly, leading him away.

april 1990

He joins the army that month.

The psychologists say, that it could be a way to tame his aggression.

To use it against national enemies and secure safety. To do good.

Better.

They ask him if he could be strong. He won't see them for months.

He is ready, and he will show them.

Jacob knows he can be the strongest, most skilled soldier they have ever seen.

He thought the recruiting would be more prestigious in a way, like the old posters he has seen from World War 2.

Instead, he stands in a long line, outside in a dreary court in the cold.

Excitement rushes through his veins.

Is this, how purpose feels like?

Later, as his boots crush the bones of an unwilling cultist, Jacob thinks about the countless times he had to talk with the psychologists. He is now amused, who they thought it would be a good idea to put a brutal teenager into the army.

He laughs, the man cries.

october 1990

We want you

What do they want them for? Jacob tries to not think about it too much.

He is angry. Still so angry.

His anger, his rage is now externalized and he feels like he has never been to juvenile detention programs.

His blood rushes trough his veins, something in his head commands him to kill.

Like an untamed dog, wolf-like.

He never misses a shot in any training session. He is ready. Strong.

They want a lot from them. Jacob is willing to deliver. 

may 1991

He is outstanding at what he does. The high decorated generals call him a talented marksman.

He joins the 82-nd Airborne, target: Kuwait. A real Green Beret.

He is one of the youngest soldiers to lead a whole troop in a secret mission.

First Lieutenant Jacob Seed, one of the youngest marksman that has ever been decorated.

He will soon be there. And then he'll wish himself back to North Carolina, back to Fort Bragg, on the cold yard, in his grey bedroom.

august 1991

It's an ambush. He knew it.

He is thrown against a house as the bomb detonates.

His ears ring, his legs and back hurt. He doesn't know if he can get up, but he has to.

Has to. Has to. He must.

“Lieutenant! I'll get you out of here!”

Someone helps him up.

It's Miller.

Thank God, it's Miller

september 1991

There's dust everywhere. Heat.

No water. No food.

His skin burns, scars from the countless detonations.

Maybe even acid. It stings like hell.

The sunburn doesn't help the healing.

Miller coughs a lot and Jacob is so terribly annoyed by that weak man.

That night, he slits his throat.

It is the night, that erases his emotions in a way, there's a nagging cold spreading in his chest. It makes itself a home in the crater deep down in Jacob's soul.

Miller's flesh tastes disgusting, scraggy and dry. He chokes on it, his stomach rebels.

Jacob keeps his knife. It's an army standard one, red handle.

The number on it burns itself in his brain, in his memory.

It will become the only thing he'll be able to say when he's awake in the middle of the night.

Some things have to broken first, to arise better, stronger.

It is what keeps him going, strength.

september 1991

He arrives at the base. They ask him to identify himself, ask him where the man under his command is that has gone missing. Miller.

Jacob tells them he died due to a heart attack, caused by dehydration.

They believe him. The troop they send out to find his body, comes back with empty hands.

Jacob doesn't feel bad about it, he tells himself.

That night the shaking starts, his bed rattles at night. He can't do shit against it, even when he's awake.

He'll shake, his body moving in the obscene rhythm of grenades and bombs detonating, of gunfire.

In the following week they'll send him home.

When he sees Miller's wife for the first time, he doesn't speak to her. He doesn't approach her.

His stomach burns, Jacob feels like vomiting.

She calls his name, but he isn't a First Lieutenant any longer.

may 1992

Jacob wouldn't have believed anyone who told him, that he would feel welcomed in that Veteran's Hospital.

But he does.

It is mostly because of Joanne, that beautiful, beautiful nurse.

His shaking got better.

He still sees them, the countless men storming into his bedroom at midnight, trying to kill him.

Joanne tells them they aren't real, hallucinations of his fears.

Thank God for Joanne, thank God for getting me out of Kuwait alive

june 1993

The doctors say, that he needs something to do. An occupation.

Maybe drawing, maybe reading.

Drawing reminds him of John, how he used to draw their family as a child.

Happy and smiling.

Jacob asks himself what he is currently doing.

Reading makes him think of James Joyce, that reminds him of Joseph.

How he used to talk about Virginia Wolf and The Great Gatsby.

Jacob asks himself if Joseph is alright.

He picks gardening instead. It soothes him.

He plants tulips for Joanne. Maybe, one day, everything will be alright. He hopes so.

In a decade, he'll be planting white flowers. White flowers of bliss, all around his compound.

july 1993

He's on pain killers and Alprax now.

He sees and hears people everywhere he goes.

They scream and cry, they are bleeding.

Grenades blasting, acid tearing skin apart.

The doctors say, he'll be better soon.

The only thing left is hope.

august 1994

Joanne and he talk a lot by now.

She shows him old music. Music she likes.

They have a lot of old vinyls in the Veteran's hospital. Jacob's favourite one is one from the mid 50s.

It makes him feel less alone, like there is something he has to look forward to.

Only you can make the darkness bright

He doesn't feel alone when she is around.

Jacob doesn't know if this whole thing is supposed to be romantic.

Right now, he's just glad to be surrounded by someone.

november 1994

There's a flew market in the town, not far from the hospital.

He buys a small music box. It plays Only You.

For a mere second, he wonders how they are, what they are doing.

He misses John's genuine laughter.

When had Jacob laughed the last time?

He misses Joseph chatting about the books he read.

What is Joseph reading right now?

Jacob vomits right there, on the street.

An old lady watches him.

january 1995

Jacob asks Joanne out.

Only you

She declines.

That night, his shaking rattles the metal frame of his bed and his screams wake everyone on his floor.

february 1996

He now knows what they are trying to do to him.

They try to tame him.

Weaken him.

Jacob knows it.

He now gets medication to help him with his insomnia.

When he watches the news he seems them, all the soldiers fighting oversea.

He is the lone wolf, an old alpha pushed out of his pack.

He'll find a new one.

october 1997

They release him. Or, he releases himself. Ran out of money.

He'll be fine, he tells himself.

It is hard to find a new home, but the hardest is to find a way back into life.

When he goes grocery shopping, he looks behind is back far too often.

He tries to make out someone hiding behind the colourful packages of cornflakes, inside the shelves.

He glances into every corridor he passes.

Sometimes he sees them, cowering there, waiting for him. Guns loaded, ready to kill him.

He'll be fine, he tells himself.

march 2000

It's a Thursday night.

They are coming for him.

They are coming for him.

He can hear their footsteps on the wooden floor of his tiny apartment.

He is strong. He will kill them.

The ringing of his phone in the kitchen takes him back to reality.

His rifle falls to the floor.

september 2001

Jacob stares at his television.

The Twin Towers. Down. Ashes. Fire.

He feels like he's done it all for nothing.

Like he suffered for nothing.

He was a weapon – for nothing.

Realisation hits him hard, knocks the air out of his chest.

He still is.

His fingers itch. He wants to kill.

That night he goes hiking in the woods and shoots at random targets. Bears. Birds. Trees.

It makes him feel alive again. Jacob doesn't want to know if that is a dangerous sign or not.

The next few years will harden him.

Some things must be broken first, to be born anew, stronger.

june 2008

He still doesn't sleep regularly.

He vomits often, his stomach burns and cramps and he hears Miller's voice when the puke makes his throat hoarse, the taste in his mouth bitter.

He tried to reach out to Joanne. She doesn't work at the Veteran's hospital any more. No one knows where she is right now. It doesn't hurt as much as he expected it to.

He has himself under control. He is the strongest of them all.

april 2010

Jacob is out of the Veteran's program for nearly a decade when he receives a call from the east side, Connecticut.

It's John. He wants him to attend the allocation of the master degree diploma.

He is too ashamed to go.

Mortified by the broken man, shaking and vomiting, holding onto something that pretty surely died in fucking Kuwait.

He is not able to tell John how proud he is of him. He just can't. He opens his mouth and chokes on his own tongue.

I'll call ya, finds its way out instead.

He asks himself if Joseph made it to college somehow as well. Jacob thinks, he would have made it through brilliantly.

july 2011

Jacob is with Joseph now, back in Georgia. Oh, sunny Georgia. Only you

He is tracking down John. He is doing what he excels at.

Joseph tells him, that God helped him out of Kuwait alive.

That it was his test. He is strong enough. Jacob always knew.

Strong, strong, strong.

That he is important to something no one could ever fully understand,

Purpose. Sweet, sweet promise.

Jacob craves it.

Joseph looks horrible, Jacob thinks. He doesn't have the courage to ask him why or what had happened, to take care of him.

He tells himself, that it's no lack of courage, it is a way to harden his younger brother.

november 2013

John looks even worse than Joseph did.

He has a lot of money, but his cheeks are sunken in and his eyes look empty.

Jacob wants to hug him, but he hasn't the courage to do so.

He tells himself, that he is stronger than his emotions and that his brother will soon be stronger as well.

In a few years, he'll notice at midnight, when nightmares kept him awake once again, how he should've done all of that.

march 2014

The pack has a new alpha.

To Jacob, they will obey.

Whitetail Mountains, Montana.

He is going to make them strong.

Not weak like Miller. They will have their purpose.

Nourishing the strong.

Strong like him. The Samson. Samson from the Book of Judges,

Judges, his Judges.

Hunter, his Hunters.

His purpose.

Only you

august 2014

Jacob knows that Joseph understands how The Collapse will work.

Jacob is happy to help, to fulfil his purpose.

Finally he is not screaming at his younger brother, fighting him.

He still knows this guy back from his service at the army.

He'll call him. John will make them succeed.

Thank God for his family

march 2018

When he first sees him, he notices the black hair.

It reminds him of someone, a time he doesn't like thinking about, and his stomach burns.

It rebels like he has to swallow his flesh again, black hair, Miller.

Joseph asks if he could take care of him. Deputy Pratt.

So weak, so pitiful, so stupid.

Yet, he has a purpose.

Jacob feels untameable energy dwelling up inside him.

He has himself pulled together.

It will only hurt a lot.

march 2018

Jacob is not afraid. He is the strongest of them all.

He tries not to think of natural selection.

His heart beats so fast, his lungs don't do what he wants them to do.

Jacob tries not to think of himself as a failure.

There's a burning ache in his back. Like the old kitchen chair.

Jacob tries not to think of his life being at the brink. That it will be over in a blink.

He spits blood.

It hurts a lot. That’s not how he ever imagined dying.

He hopes, he prays, that his family can be strong without him.

He is so afraid, he doesn't want to be alone again.

It is like someone turned all the lights on, it's so bright around him.

Like a bomb detonating.

Then it's all over.

It's only him.

Jacob hopes, he did it alright.

Maybe, for the first time of his life he did well.

Only you, my darling