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Fatal Journey chinese drama review
Completed
Fatal Journey
0 people found this review helpful
by labcat
Dec 28, 2021
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Nice addition to The Untamed but doesn't work as a standalone

This is for fans of The Untamed--not in the sense that it is so bad that only die-hard fans will like it, but in the sense that those who have not watched The Untamed or know the story in some other way will not be able to appreciate it. It will seem like a random story with a perplexing ending to those who have no idea what The Untamed is about, so it's not a good standalone movie, At 80+ minutes, the movie isn't exactly long, and there is room for more scenes, especially at the end.

I suppose one difficulty of having more scenes if that it will inevitably involve more actors from The Untamed who may not be able or willing to commit to filming the movie, (Or maybe there simply isn't enough budget.) Also, even if there are more scenes added, there may be overlaps with the series (so is the solution then to re-film some scenes?).

The focus on Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue in this movie offers an interesting addendum of sorts to The Untamed. It gives insight into the character of Nie Huaisang and why he may be motivated to orchestrate the downfall of the villain in The Untamed. The ending of The Untamed does give the sense that it is to take revenge, but it remains ambivalent as to whether Nie Huaisang is another ambitious person trying to gain power or he simply wants to see the villain's downfall.

Some questions that one has after watching The Untamed remain though. For instance, how does Nie Huaisang know about the range of the villain's misdeeds? In this movie, he discovers that his brother's death is caused by the villain, buthow about all the other evil deeds? Of course, to reveal more will require the inclusion of characters like Wei Wuxian (is there enough budget to get Xiao Zhan into the movie for a role that isn't the focus?).

One may be happy enough with The Untamed's fifty episodes. We do have a strong hint that Nie Huaisang isn't really an evil person even though he has enough intelligence to be a frightening villain if he wants. (Contrast it with the anime version of the story in which Nie Huaisang may be the next villain rising to a position of power.)

Ultimately, perhaps a better story can be told about the Nie brothers. As it is, we have flashbacks to the past with the brothers as kids, showing how close they are. We also have Nie Huaisang being shown to be clearly uninterested in power--he is rather cowardly but he also has a strong sense of righteousness, so much so that he would admonish his brother for doing questionable things. Why not include how he discovers the way to bring Wei Wuxian back to life and why. Why not show whether he has ruthlessly made use of Mo Xuanyu (who sacrifices his life to resurrect Wei Wuxian) or whether Mo Xuanyu is a willing party? (He starts off being a really good person, but does the quest for vengeance change him?) Instead of protracted fight sequences that don't do that much for me, I wish there had been effort to make the story a good standalone movie that can even serve as a good introduction to The Untamed for those who still have not watched the series.
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