The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

Based loosely on the Boy-love novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (魔道祖师) written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, The Untamed in the drama adaptation features Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo in a budding bromance instead. Go here to read more about the characters from the novel. Reading the synopsis of the story, reminds me a little bit of The Legends. Our main protagonist goes his own way to achieve immortality and creates his own demonic sect, which makes him hated by millions in the world for the chaos he created. The other sects/clans come together to kill him. The synopsis of the drama looks quite different from that of the novel. A lot of details are changed so tread carefully!

It starts airing today 6/27!

Click To View Full Post

Stills:

 photo untam 1.jpg

 photo untam 2.jpg

 photo untam 3.jpg

 photo untam 13.jpg

 photo untam 12.jpg

 photo untam 11.jpg

 photo untam 10.jpg

Carmen Lee. 🙂

 photo untam 9.jpg

 photo untam 8.jpg

 photo untam 4.jpg

 photo untam 5.jpg

 photo untam 6.jpg

 photo untam 7.jpg

Trailers/MVs:

Episode 1.

  1. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    Don’t know if i’ll watch, but good luck to it. People were already mad before it broadcasted because of Meng Ziyi’s character. Saw that she’s also credited as 领衔主演 in the opening credits, pretty sure people are going to be more upset.

    • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

      Saw some posts on weibo and got to say the casting for Jiang Yanli is perfect. She really is the gentle sister.
      Xuan Lu and Xiao Zhan’s chemistry is also great.

  2. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    I’ll definitely check it out since I really enjoy the anime. I have a high tolerance with drama adaption unless they did a horrible job in execution and changed the essence of the novel. Yes, I believe if they add a love line for either one of the 2 male leads, fans will be super upset. As long as they keep the essence of the storyline, do reasonable changes, and NOT make either male lead romance another female lead, I will deem it watchable.

  3. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    Huge changes to all storylines, as well as many character setups and relationships. Novel fans consider it a fan-fic, to put it kindly.

    Don’t know whether major fan outrage last year made the producers cut back/re-edit Wen Qin’s scenes. 1. They gave her some of Lan Wang Ji’s most important interactions with Wei Wu Xian – the bunnies, in the giant turtle cave… 2. Wen Qin was turned into a Mary Sue whom pretty much all male characters, including those who never met her in the original story, liked. Xue Yang and Song Lan literally fought over her. Jin Zi Xuan initially liked her, but she convinced him to give Jiang Yan Li a shot. 3. At the end, WWX would go off into the sunset with her.

    Author’s representative threatened to revoke licensing rights if the producers add more Wen Qin scenes.

    I was completely turned off by the blatant dishonesty from the producers and the actress who played Wen Qin. They kept posting stuff about the 2 male leads to string the novel fans along while telling the fans that Wen Qin only had minor changes and a few added scenes. This and Chinese web dramas often having terrible scripts made me decide not to watch it.

  4. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    Ahhh my mo dao zu shiiii

    I think i will not watch it if it isnt BL
    Sorryy but i really love this novel
    Even crying so much for some part of the scene because of the love of Lanzhan to our weiyingg

    Sorry i cant accept if this drama is not BL!! Aaaaaaaaa our lanzhan aaaaaaaaaaaaa

    Why they make the drama with so many changes from the original novel
    Dont they know that what makes mo dao zhu shi very famous is the love of lanzhan and weiying aaaaaa

    • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

      Most recent Chinese media (film, TV, web drama, print) regulations pretty much banned the original book title and cultivation because these might invoke thoughts of superstition in young people. Chinese government doesn’t care or even have scientific research showing whether that is true. It simply decrees such ideas are bad for kids and must be kept from viewers for all ages.

      China banned depiction of homosexuality in films and TV/web dramas soon after “Go Princess Go” became a huge cult hit. This drama is permanently banned from airing in China.

      And apparently the production company was a relatively new entity. Seemed like it more or less took some xianxia/wuxia drama production/script templates and made the drama according to those.

  5. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    Watched the 1st ep and found it to be quite boring. Was also confused at first because I wasn’t expecting it to be a rebirth drama. (haven’t seen the anime or read the novels).

    Xiao Zhan is cute and a decent actor but there’s no strong supporting cast to back him up and I’m not fond of MZY.

    It’s a pass for me!

    BTW, does anyone know why it’s called Chen Qing Ling in Chinese? What does it mean?

    • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

      chen qing is the name of the ghost flute wei wuxian uses and ling means order

  6. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    What they added WQ scenes and kind of made her the female lead? what’s with that…

    Anyway I’m not going to watch it… This looks like a fan cosplay to me… a pretty average one and from the tiny clip I saw the acting is also not that great.

  7. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    The drama is gayer than I thought it would be. Lots of subtle teasing and flirting between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, and the looks Meng Yao gave to Lan Xichen. Its a pleasant surprise.

    They re-enacted almost of the scenes in the novel and kept the soul switching part. But seemed to have added extra things not in the novel and changed certain events. Wwx is no longer the creator of the Demonic Path. Xue Yang appeared too early and he has a random ancestor.

    Wen Qing does have more scenes but she’s not the only one. Lots of characters appeared earlier than expected. Her love-line seems to be with Jiang Cheng; I hope they keep it this way.

    Xiao Zhan is a good fit for Wwx, but Wang Yibo seems totally miscast as Lwj. He has dead fish eyes most of the time. I like the actors for Jiang Cheng, and Meng Yao as well. Alot of the supporting actors actually suit their roles in terms of image.

    Overall the drama is quite enjoyable if you just treat it as a normal xianxia drama. Cinematography and music is beautiful.

  8. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    So far I dont really notice alot of WQ moments? Maybe because I already watched the 动画, so i actually skipped alot to just WWX and LWJ moments haha.
    Reading the comments above I hope nothing about WQ being the love interest of our 2 boys will happen because I actually am enjoying the drama right now because of Xiao Zhan. He is the perfect cast for our WWX.
    The actor for LWJ is tolerable, but definitely not the perfect casting. Like Luna said, he has dead-fish eyes. I mean someone more experienced could have done better tbh. But oh well.

    • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

      I agree with you…I watched up to episodes 4 and it is not bad…It brought back some of the storyline in the anime and I do enjoy WWX’s actor. LWJ’s actor is barely tolerable because of his acting and the costume doesn’t fit him well but I can overlook that for now. Some of the other actor does fit the characters they are playing and some of the scenery looks very pretty… I think I’ll continue watching to see how the storyline plays out…I never saw Xiao Zhan before and I think he is very charismatic on screen 🙂

  9. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    I know many ppl nowadays like BL-themed dramas, but it’s really not my cup of tea. If this drama has romance between the male lead and the female lead, I would watch it. This is the reason why I’d always preferred good ol’ wuxia (over xianxia) because wuxias tend to have better storyline, promote good values such as integrity etc and has romance between the male lead and female lead. Xianxia is a touch-and-go with me. Sometimes, you get good ones but most times, you end up with a a fest of borderline-OK CGI with too many fantasy elements to the point that the story becomes quite senseless and the endings questionable.

    • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

      I haven’t seen this drama yet, but I’ll make the point that it doesn’t matter whether you prefer hetero over gay dramas. This isn’t about you. When the source has a male-male couple the adaptation should stay that way to respect the author’s original work. There are already plenty of hetero dramas out there that this doesn’t need to be another one of them. The world doesn’t need another hetero drama u know what I mean. Even with China’s censorship, other types of relationships need representation in mainstream media purely because there exist other types of relationships and we shouldn’t pretend otherwise.

      • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

        Hi Anon,
        I disagree about the world doesn’t need another hetero drama. From a business perspective, the majority consumers are still heteros; hence the larger market is to cater for the heteros. If I’m in the business of entertainment, I would still put my investment into hetero dramas because homo dramas are more for niche markets.

        However, I do agree with you about staying true to the source. The novel was obviously very successful and there’s a reason why it is successful. However, I am sure that the masses who read the novel are of a certain demographic group. I can assure you that aunties like me don’t usually read those sort of novels but I know many younger people who do. The producer and director may think that relying solely on this demographic group to sell a drama may not be the best idea – in terms of returns for investment. We shouldn’t forget that a good number of chinese drama viewers are “prime-time-drama-viewing-aunties” and their families – you need to cater to their palate. So, we ended up with a product that is a compromise on the originality of the story (there’s a slight hint of BL) versus catering to the masses and requirements of the censorship board (a more prominent female lead and more interactions between female and male leads). To me that is a turn-off. I’d prefer they either stick to the original (in which case I would not watch coz not my cup of tea, but I’m sure fans of the novel would watch) or change it entirely and introduce a hetero pairing (in which case aunties like me would watch). This not-here-not-there ambiguous storyline for the relationships is the worst and kills the story entirely! In the end, don’t know who would watch! >_<

        • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

          Chinese web dramas tend to cater to the young anyway.

          Before 2016, Chinese government hadn’t clamped down on web content. BL web content proliferated. Investors noticed that it was an underserved market with a huge potential. A lot of investment poured into BL-themed web dramas and online video. Plans turning classic and very popular BL novels into web (web-only) dramas were submitted to regulators. Right before summer 2016, regulators decided to regulate all web content like other regulated media. TV shows, web dramas, films and printed books have become the most regulated media with the tightest restrictions.

          This novel, its derivatives (anime and audio drama), as well as both licensed and unlicensed merchandise have done extremely well. A few months ago, it was reported that first 2 seasons of the audio drama have made more than 10 million Chinese Yuan (The 2 seasons cost 59.8 Yuan to subscribe. Audience can also tip. Many more big tippers than I realized.). The uncensored novel in print published in Taiwan is having a new printing due to pirated versions flooding the markets in both Taiwan and China. Although all the fans know print novel published in China would be censored, they still spent the money anyway. Similar trend for other popular BL novels.

          I still refuse to watch this drama. Many novel fans who were very upset about production team’s lies are watching it anyway. Based on their reaction – crappy script as expected, but the very important minor female character whom the script promoted to almost a lead has been marginalized(?). Could be the producers finally decided to look at anime and audio drama successes and not mess too much with what works. Or could be that they put the “bad” stuff for later on in hopes that once viewers have invested enough time, they won’t drop the drama no matter what.

          I would say if things had been the same as in 2015, before Chinese government turned more conservative and restrictive, BL would’ve been a worthy investment. Right now, investing in Chinese entertainment overall is probably not a good idea as the Bureau of Propaganda is in charge of regulating all media.

        • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

          Hi, you missed my point completely. When I said the world doesn’t need another hetero drama, it is not about business or catering to the mainstream market. The world, of course, will continue to produce hetero dramas and there will always be a market for it. But what does that have to do with The Untamed, which is not meant to be a hetero story to begin with? It’s like minority representation in Hollywood. Hollywood will continue to produce movies featuring Caucasians and it sells. Does that mean we don’t advocate for minority representation? Do we tell Disney’s to cast a white actress for Mulan, then maybe we’ll watch it? No, because Mulan is originally Chinese. Being Chinese is one of the characteristics that define her. Being gay and in love with each other is one of the characteristics that define the lead characters from The Untamed. Same concept. Censorships aside, asking them to change that fact just for your hetero preferences doesn’t make sense at all.

  10. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    @Anon FYI, I started watching Untamed despite saying I would not; mainly because I was bored and curious if they had indeed turned it into a hetero romance. What to do? Retired already. Lots of time to be watching dramas, but I pretty much skimmed through Untamed. So far, I would rate it as average. Then Spring Flower, Autumn Moon suddenly started and thank the drama gods! This aunty found her historical-fantasy romance drama fix for the next couple of months or so. So, I put Untamed on hold, but those who are watching it, please share with us the ending – if it’s worth picking it up again.

    • 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

      I would suggest picking it up again. The chemistry gets better and LWJ’s actor begins to actually emote as well. I’m loving the story line. Only down fall is they can’t depict BL so things have been changed around as ppl say. I would say this is the better of BL themed dramas I’ve seen in a while. We’re forced to believe that they are just “very good friends” but the actors are doing a good job letting fans know that they are more than that. Lots of skinship and longing eyes.

  11. 20 thoughts on “The Untamed (Mo Dao Zu Shi) with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yi Bo airing in June

    Well, I can’t actually go with the view of those who thinks Wang Yibo is not perfect for LWJ’s character. I mean have you seen the chemistry he has with Xiao Zhan. The producer has actually done justice to the book even though there exist so many restrictions about bl contents in China. Major scenes were shown though a little different from original one, but Yibo’s acting improves so much throughout the series. And it’s actually hard to portray LWJ’s character in the first place because of him keeping all his emotions to himself yet Yibo executed it flawlessly.
    And those who commented that they are not going to watch then bish it’s your misfortune you are missing out such a great series. Both Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo did a wonderful job.

Leave a Reply to akieCancel reply