Watched all 50 episodes of China's 2019 xianxia (tales of magic set in the Han Dynasty) The Untamed, about the search of clan cultivators for the broken pieces of the Yin Iron, and later the Stygian Tiger Amulet. Wikipedia defines cultivators as xianxia protagonists "who seek to become immortal beings called xian. Along the way, they attain eternal life, supernatural powers, and incredible levels of strength." Although there are descriptions on the Internet that this movie is a BL drama, it is very much understated, and pales beside Word of Honor, which was produced three years later, in that regard. There are only a few scenes, and fleeting ones, that suggest that it is: one in Episode 13 and three in Episode 50, plus the ending. However, viewers may have missed the xianxia pun. Xiao Zhan was made to look like Chen Xiao as Yang Guo and Wang Yibo was made to look like Michelle Chen as the White Fairy in Romance of the Condor Heroes.

 The Untamed is, more than anything, really a movie about relationships and partnerships between clans. The first third is a story given to the viewer in 100%-xianxia convention, replete with magic and special effects, in clan battles against the evil Wen Shan clan; the second third is a story of in-clan conflicts featuring a series of different antagonists; and the final third is a detective story in the manner of Agatha Christie with Wei Wuxian as Hercule Poirot. Episode 31 is an especially memorable one. It stands out above the rest.  

The movie is entertaining but flawed. There is the stage convention of wearing a half-mask in order to impersonate someone or conceal one's identity, hilarious at this time in history because, in the pandemic, it is all too easy to recognize a person even if he were wearing two dust masks and a face shield. Characters' reactions are hesitant, halting, and delayed, as though they were directed to linger on-camera before taking action. The flute and zither soundtrack is hauntingly composed and executed, but other, incidental music is modern, Western, and, at times, even jazzy. In an early episode Jiang Cheng's sister, Jiang Yanli, places a tureen of vegetable soup on an empty table; a shot or two later there are two bowls with soup spoons on a wooden tray beside the tureen which weren't there before. Strangely, they disappear again in a later shot. In Episode 5 a woman is selling combs at a stall hung with Ojibwe dreamcatchers; in Episode 39 there are dreamcatchers, again, at a sidewalk novelty stand. In Episode 42 Qi Pei Xin's wife commits suicide; after she is established as dead her eyelids keep fluttering in a medium two-shot. Nightless City is designed like a carnival ghost-train setting. The Dire Owl looks and flies like a falcon rather than like an owl. As in Word of Honor, when someone is playing the flute, their finger movements do not match the melody being played; even their lips look as though they aren't blowing air at all. At some point Wei Wuxian's black bamboo flute is inexplicably replaced with a brown one. In Episode 47 monks are shown digging a hole in the earth, but the hole never seems to go deeper, presumably hours later. Finally, the cosmetics department is not free of guilt. Blood is not convincing; neither are teardrops. Many of the men are too heavily powdered. Wen Chao looks and acts like Gollum from Lord of the Rings in his final scenes. Yanli has the facial expressions and mannerisms of the 1950s Jane Powell. After he becomes a puppet, Wen Ning looks like an Asian Edward Scissorhands. And Wei Wuxian's jet-black hair and dark costumes have a disturbingly severe effect on him, perhaps because of his facial shape; despite his splendid and admirable performance he looks, in three particularly bad extreme close-ups, like Michael Jackson after his final plastic surgery.  

The problem I have with xianxia is the same problem I have with the Harry Potter series: whenever characters' lives are threatened and whenever they find themselves in a bind, magic conveniently materializes and saves them from their situations. As such, magic is merely a deus-ex-machina that grants salvation--until the next, risky, situation arises.

I do love all of those fade-to-black lap dissolves; I felt that they were extremely effective. I also love the convention of delivering exposition whereby information, if not gossip, is passed on to the viewer via the casual conversations of market people, restaurant patrons, and servants. I love the way male characters, instead of saying "Yes" or other affirmative words, keep their lips sealed and simply utter, "Mm." The script has a lot of zingers in its dialogue. I adore Lan Sizhui's bitchy line, "You are not qualified to talk to me." Those candied hawthorn berries are everywhere, but I can't seem to find any in Chinatown. And I do so love those custom swords! Miniature versions of them are being sold--if they haven't completely sold out already after all these years--at  https://www.lazada.com.ph/products/mo-dao-zu-shi-cosplay-sword-props-instrument-the-untamed-essories-yaoi-lan-wangji-weapon-grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation-i2773577271-s13361750509.html?exlaz=d_1:mm_150050845_51350205_2010350205::12:14985724524!126929349525!!!pla-325793839564!c!325793839564!13361750509!533417194&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmPSSBhCNARIsAH3cYgawxVDrfUCV5Z1UMTwALbR32wKRiY4C8j93gRJIwjonZwe2f_UhG2oaAivcEALw_wcB.