Reviews

Soaring Swordsmen Sweeping Saga Stalwart Support Singular Sorrow & Longing Surpassed 8.7

The Untamed is wonderful and exciting. At times it's warm and at times it is so beautifully sad. We follow Wei Wu Xian over many years, particularly his exploits with Lan Wan Ji. They are the most promising youth - two of the best fighters and strongest opponents around.

Stick with it. It's confusing. We get a condensed intro in ep1 and then jump 16 years back to the beginning of the tale. The story meanders forward from there. TU has a couple of time jumps backward and forward. I went back later (approaching mid-show) and rewatched the first 20 minutes or so, which helped tremendously.

At the very beginning, Wu Xian(“WeiX”) is mischievous and ebullient, and always getting into trouble. Wan Ji (“LanZ” - Wei Wu Xian calls him “Lan Zahn”) and WeiX meet at Cloud Recesses. LanZ, as one of the Lan Clan, resides there and on site they have a finishing school, of sorts, for young men.

These two are complete opposites. WeiX keeps making friendly overtures to LanZ, which irritates the solitary LanZ greatly. WeiX is a fun, friendly joker and an overall class clown. LanZ rarely talks. Always drinking, WeiX has an easy affability about him. LanZ is serious, studious, never breaks the rules, and NEVER drinks, as prohibition is one of the Lan Clan's 3000 decrees. Yes, three-thousand. WeiX knows all about them. He's had to copy them 💯×💯s of times and he's often being punished. Never-a-hair-out-of-place LanZ was never punished, until he met WeiX.

A threat from the Wen Clan arises. All the other clans are concerned, resulting in WeiX and LanZ going on a quest together. One thing leads to another and they end up in many scrapes along the way. They eventually form a bond that's closer than brothers, though we have to wait until nearly the end to see the depths of the impassive LanZ's devotion to his friend. Still waters run deep, so frozen waters might have a torrent underneath their icy surface.

Tragedy occurs while the clans are fighting and WeiX is blamed. Thus starts his unraveling of the mystery surrounding events that lead up to the "current day."

{The show is based on author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's novel, Mo Dao Zu Sho. The two protagonists become lovers in his book, but that was stripped from the TV series. (🇨🇳 isn't the only country with censorship 'issues,' btw. Most of the world is censored.) This, understandably, upset the gay community. Said "Oligarchy" is what it intends to be. They don't care a whiff about feelings or individual rights. We are hypocritical to be "ho-hum" about that ruling Party's steamrolling, censorship monolith when Google, or the NBA want to get in bed with them, or when Nike or Apple want to slice mfg costs by employing near-free manpower to compile their uber pricey items at the establishment's no-impromptu-inspection-allowed factories. That hierarchy controls everything - most of all information. This allows them free reign to eradicate human rights: It's well documented. They don't tolerate religions either, and the rumors of what happens to prisoners makes many horror pics look TAME. (If you're still with me, the reason I don't use the name of this country is because I will be censored.) Just sayin, if we are missing something the censorship machine took away, we should empathize with our fellow humans, stand up for the rights of all, and not tolerate any bully censors. It's all permanently interlocked, and not a pick-and-choose situation. Censorship will always be more damaging than freedom of expression. Let the (respectful) dialogue flow. Commercial over.}

There's a heavy fantasy element to the show. The swordsmen fly through the air. They cast magic spells, make talismans, and musical instruments are used for magic as well. Some of the fantasy elements are key to the story. It is much like Flying Tiger Crouching Dragon. The fantasy is cool, but the feel is of a sweeping saga, not simply a fantasy piece.

The characters are well developed. Their humanity, and otherwise, is the centerpiece of the story. Despite the changes enforced on the storyline, the union between the two protagonists and their respect for each other is what endures once the final episode's credits scroll by. It's easy to infer that their bond goes beyond mere friendship. Even the hetero relationships in UT are virtually platonic by Western standards. There is no closer relationship depicted in the show, and it is breathtaking.

Every element shines (except for a couple of the special effects. One monster was very poorly done). There's 50 episodes. It's alot; too much for me to binge watch. Eventually I went to watching a couple of episodes a week, which was perfect.

However you choose to watch, just choose to watch this stunning piece of art. It is truly magnificent.

IMHO...
🎬9 🤔7 🎭9 ⚡8 🌞 7

Age 13+
Written 9/2/21

ps. 5/28/24 ~>>
Asia remains extremely conservative when it comes to sexuality across the board. But, I've recently seen 5 or 6 🇨🇳shows that depict either a gay man, a gay romance, lighthearted “gay” joking between men, or other gay-related content that is evidence of a major attitude shift.

“Today, the 🇨🇳government's approach to LGBT rights has been described as "ambivalent", "fickle", and as being "no approval; no disapproval; no promotion". There is much resistance from conservative elements of the government, as various LGBT events have been banned in recent years. Since the late 2010s, authorities have avoided showing homosexual relationships on public television, as well as showing effeminate men in general.” Wiki. Their record on human rights, in general, is even worse.

In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Once upon a time in Linglian Mountain 7.5;
Overlord 8.4,
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Saber 9-Kung-fu!;
Eternal Love 8.3,
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
Love and Redemption 10,
The Rise of Phoenixes 9

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Baby's First 'Red-Flag' Republican Spy Mini

If any other actor had played the Male Lead I would absolutely not recommend this show in the slightest except as a "dip your toe in with a "safe" mini" recommendation for someone who has never watched the genre before. Everything about the writing of the show is extremely safe and almost bland.

All the twists are broadcast well before they happen so nothing TRULY shocks. The main villian is basically a non-threat clown so there's no real stakes to think he's a danger to the main leads. The 2ML and 2FL are nice and cute people so there's no real threats from them. Even the "big" problem that "kinda" separates them was resolved because of someone else doing it in truth...

YZX carries this show uphill and is THE reason to watch, nothing else. He kisses well, he cries well, he looks obsessed and heartbroken well... He is just VERY easy to look at.

As for the music, it exists. It's okay to listen to but it doesn't really evoke any deep emotions like a lot of these mini drama songs do.

Basically recommend this ONLY if you are a YZX fan and have nothing better to do.

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go find your light!

oh my oh myyyyy😭😭😭

man i struggled so much finding a place to watch this show, i had to switch between three websites for each different episode (because some didn’t have subtitles) but alas, it was worth it because this show was amazing. from start to finish, its a beautiful show with a beautiful message.

i cried so much and it takes a lot to make me shed tears. the actors sold their characters and their grief and sadness so well.

at first i thought it was horror the way it introduced itself in the beginning, but it was truly a beautiful show.

the only thing i was confused about was the little boy in the bus and how come he was never mentioned in the episodes. i only remember him showing up briefly to hand over a basketball to the nurse but that was it, and was never mentioned again. this isn’t a spoiler so don’t worry, just a little observation that didn’t make sense to me.

overall. amazing show, amazing characters! very sad though, be prepared to watch this!

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Waste of KYJ and SK's chemistry and acting skills

It had potential and some moments/dialogues/ideas that stood out but the execution was downright blasphemous because I simply cannot believe someone would actually pay for a story/plot that is so paper thin it may not even exist.
Side characters except probably for Ju cheon seok were downright caricatures which is sad because those characters had potential. The chemistry and the tension between the leads carried it until a certain point but after that...yeah.
I cannot even call it tropey because that would mean they have done a good job about the tropes because they had the right leads who could have done justice to a solid, tight storyline with tropes done right. They tried to do many different themes and ended up a mess. A shame honestly.

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Pleasantly surprised at how authentic it is

Being an American production, I was worried about a repeat of Memoir of a geisha, where geishas speak English and are played by Chinese actresses. Not here. Everything from costumes to language was Sengoku era Japan. If anything, I really didn't think the Pacific Northwest (filming location) resembled Japan at all lol but given the circumstances, I understand why it's done.

Out of all the characters, I didn't care for Blackthorne. I do appreciate an outsider's perspective, but without him the story wouldn't have been drastically different. Really enjoyed the portrayal of Mariko (Hosokawa Gracia in history) and Toranaga (Tokugawa Ieyasu in history). Toranaga is EXACTLY what I imagine Ieyasu to look like and I'm not sure if we'll ever get another Ieyasu that close to my imagination (I regularly watch taiga - Japanese 50-episode long historical dramas).

People lament the lack of a "final" battle, but IMO it would have been very ordinary for that to happen (though pleasant to watch I'm sure). I remember watching GoT final battle and that was just a borefest, I was wondering when the killing would end. That battle did nothing for me emotionally. The plot deciding for no final battle was the correct decision IMO, a lot of the times battles are not won on the field but behind the scene, within political intrigues and people manipulation, and Shogun got all of that right.

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The sweetest show everrrrr

Everyone needs some sweet innocence, genki energy in their life and this show is it. Regardless of whether you have children, you'll enjoy watching the kids (some of them as young as 3) enthusiastically complete their task, because when you're 3, you're not a pessimistic misanthrope who frowns at everything in life. Watch it over dinner. Watch it before you go to sleep. End the day on a positive note. You will not regret watching it.

It's also really cool to see how safe Japan is and how the culture really encourages independence from an early age. It's a good concept but not sure if it can be implemented elsewhere because of safety concerns.

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Story went down the drain at halfway point

Heard there was a lot of production issues with the drama, and it really shows nearing the end. First is how ridiculous the plot points are being tied up and many are forgotten because they have to start touching on the main plot which has barely moved till nearing episode 30. Then every episode from 30 onwards is so rushed with many scenes just randomly cut into without much explanation, and the finale was just disappointing felt like a waste of time sitting through all 39 episodes just to see how 40 ends. Poor adaptation overall the actors and actress honestly are the one that carried the show and why most people finished this series anyway.

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Frankly, it's quite alright

I've never been a "big budget" drama/movie type of person, and Vivant hasn't changed my opinion on that. You can have the biggest budget, but emotional punches and memorable scenes don't need to take place in the vast Mongolian landscape or Hokkaido snow. It can happen in a small room anywhere.

That being said, Mongolia was beautiful and the landscape was a joy to watch. Unfortunately this is not a documentary or travel docuseries so it really didn't matter to me. The happenings in Mongolia *cough, Balka* were not that exciting for me personally. I really enjoyed the financial scams within the corporate Japan world, that part of the drama made me on the edge of my seat.

Waste of acting potential for Nikaido Fumi, one of Japan's most brilliant actress. The doctor role was frankly annoying and she had zero chemistry with Sakai Masato.

The worst part of the drama is the revelation at the end (will not reveal to not spoil any plot) and the preachy part about how moral Japanese people are. This is coming from a Japanophile. People anywhere can be good, bad, moral, immoral, amoral.

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Riveting story-telling and brilliant dialogues

Brilliant storytelling and the twists and turns take you by surprise - by the time half the drama rolled around I wasn't quite sure where it's heading. I do like that none of the twists was really "shocking", they're rather mundane daily life things. As a drama, it was very entertaining to watch and you're always either on the edge of your seat or LOL'ing at Kumon Ryuen's inner hikikomori speaking out.

I do wish the romance here went in a different direction, or maybe if the romance unfolds more slowly and in a different manner I would have preferred it more. Overall, it lacks those emotional punches that make it a must watch in my book, but still very worthwhile entertainment. Nojima Shinji's dialogues are brilliant and the acting is solid all around.

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Emotions and their parallel to art: shaping love and searching for a ‘forever’ through sculpture

"How does one become such a great artist?" — "How do you define great?" — "To stand the test of time." — "I wonder if forever exists."

Artistic, pensive, beautifully crafted, and unique in its cinematographic ways—‘Wakatte Ite mo: The Shapes of Love’ explores the vulnerability of struggling, waiting, hoping, and loving. It perfectly portrays the essence of human nature and captures love in its many different shapes under a refreshingly realistic light. It represents these themes through art in a mature and abstract manner, much like the concept of humanity and love itself.

In a world where "there is nothing more uncertain than a person's heart," the story follows the lives of artists who create art driven by their inspiration and their desire to create their own sense of forever. They are ready to put aside their usual composure and values in order to seek the heart of their loved one. For example, Kosaka Ren, the male lead, wants forever but acts in the opposite manner; however, his constant changes in girlfriends are his way of experiencing it and surrounding himself with the beauty of new beginnings. Another lead, Osakabe, thinks it's bad to act on lust, yet his world melts the second he sees his crush’s smile. Lastly, there is Ikushima Ruki, who wants to be with his crush but lets her be with another if it means gaining her trust and friendship first.

Ultimately, the series perfectly encapsulated the original webteeon’s overall message, reinforcing it with scenes and lines that portray its message more explicitly instead of requiring heavy analyses like it was for the webtoon’s Korean adaptation; ‘Nevertheless,’. The shortened run time allowed the leads’ journey to be explored more thoroughly without weighing down the whole series with its heaviness. Additionally, the poetic and inspirational narration made it easier to grasp its concept and allowed for a more direct interpretation of the webtoon’s work—keeping its core themes but casting aside tropes that don’t add to its main focal point.

Through Hamasaki Miu’s eyes, the female lead, Ren is the butterfly—beautiful, attractive, light, and seemingly free—giving her the illusion that he has it easy. The series adds a new meaning to the significance of butterflies: they are thought to be a symbol of freedom, but actually, they just fly the same paths over and over. Maybe the best thing they can do is just enjoy the ride. This goes for both of them because they are both like butterflies, or at least, they both try to carry the essence of butterflies by capturing their fleeting beauty through art. When Ren finds Miu, he wishes to metaphorically capture her, who is like a butterfly to him, but one who hasn't opened its wings yet.

Ren wants to approach her, mostly out of self-interest, intrigued by how she expresses her inner-feelings through art without fear, but also because of a certain fate-like pull that builds up following their many coincidental meetings. However, he is a playboy by nature—flirty and manipulative. He seems more curious about how far he himself is willing to go or devote to her rather than the other way around, not caring about her reactions and staying consistent in the attention that he devotes to her.

His push and pull plays with her emotions; his stance in his affection towards her grounded in unsteady terrain, teetering her back and forth into the territory of hopefulness and then desperation. This constant shift in Miu’s emotions highlights the overall theme of the series, which is that she can't help but hope even if she knows things will come to an end or leave a scar. Nevertheless, Ren constantly ignites these feelings of hope within her, making her want to reach out and seal the faith of their relationship—an impulsive act that mirrors his own tendency to act on impulse.

Kosaka Ren is a rather peculiar character. Since he is not good at sharing his feelings, he uses art to communicate them. Even we, as viewers, don't know him quite well and have been misguided by him many times with deceptions based on what we do see from him. For example, we don't know if whenever he picks up a call, it's his girlfriend. He never clarifies misunderstandings. In the last episode, “I couldn't succeed in becoming the most important person in her life” is a line said in his narration while the screen presents a note his mother left saying she'd be absent for lunch. This shows how he doesn't have commitment issues as is suggested throughout the whole series, but rather that he blames himself for the constant departures of the people around him in his life.

He's not the butterfly who comes and goes, but the others around him are, flocking to his beauty like butterflies do to flowers. “Gradually, I got used to giving people what they expected of me.” Ren only mirrors what those around him feel and how they act. He does this because he wants to avoid experiencing pain or loss, and whenever he declines their proposals, or finds himself wanting more, he always ends up getting hurt. And so, he chooses to follow the same paths over and over again like a butterfly with everyone around him, trying to please each one of them while looking for a piece of his own self through their eyes—which he eventually finds in Miu and soon enough, catches himself searching for her instead of his own self.

Through this endless cycle, he says he ended up losing his identity. He essentially became a canvas of however one sees him, having different versions of himself through different pairs of eyes, like a piece of art. Like someone interpreting a sculpture, Miu, as well as everyone else, can interpret him, what he says, his actions, and what is and isn’t known about him in their own way. Through Ren, who is like a sculpture, Miu hopes to find her forever. And through her, he sees yet again another chance to find his true meaning and define who he really is despite his traumas and past experiences in life. This is essentially why he leads on and makes so many people try to fall in love with him—because he wants to find the one, his true self, and his forever.

It is said by Miu’s toxic ex boyfriend that the female lead's wings are tied down, leaving only her thoughts to wander. However, there’s another interpretation suggested in the series: that her wings are rather too heavy to go forward—not tied down by external forces and submitted to others, as her ex had suggested through his sculptures of her falling to the ground and begging him to stay—but perhaps heavy because of the weight of their worth and hope, waiting for their reason to take flight in a world that keeps letting her down. The female lead, whose name means "beautiful wings," beautifully encapsulates this struggle of waiting for hope; hope that ultimately introduces itself in her life through the male lead.

From the very beginning of the series, during their first encounter, Ren recognizes this wait for hope of hers through her pleas for her boyfriend to stay. Instead of perceiving her pleas as a desperate and hopeless attempt of begging for something long gone, he sees that all she wants is to hold a promise of a future with someone, and that she has hope for something more than what she already has.

There are a lot of similarities that the female and male lead share—their fear of abandonment, their wish to freeze a loved one’s heart in time and gain a forever happy side by side with them, and their struggles in finding what they want in life. Though Ren doesn’t express his struggles and desires aloud like Miu does, he addresses them through his fiery art, which tells another story from the nonchalant version of himself that is presented through his character and the aloof image that he lets on—reserved, quiet, and who lets other people make things up and narrate his life.

Despite their seemingly stark contrast, both faces of himself that he puts out into the world stem from the thoughts and emotions. His art paints a strong image of resilience, longing desire, and determination in pursuing one’s desires—emotions that give him the impression of being lost and left with nothing but wavering emotions. In real life, these feelings of his manifest through his calm composure that radiates a sense of aloofness and indifference.

This overwhelming desire to find the key to freedom and his true self drives him to act like the playboy type, not knowing who to love or dedicate himself to. His art, on the other hand, portrays his sense of lostness as something fiery and bright and that drives him to maddening lengths, putting him in a fight against society’s typical representation of love and relationships, and forcing him to confront his true feelings.

Ren, in a way, relates to Miu and sees himself in the scene before his eyes, where he sees her for the first time. Through his eyes, witnessing her meltdown opens a window of opportunity. Ren likes to capture that happiness in the brief flutter of color in his world, like a butterfly, so he’s drawn to her strong personality and wants to capture the beauty that lies in the most beautiful and intense human emotion, which is love. From that moment on, he tries to draw that emotion out of her by making her fall for him. He does the same for other girls when he flirts, all to satisfy his somewhat selfish desires to only have a portrait of pairs of loving gazes around him so that he’s surrounded by beauty. At the same time, through this tactic of his, he gets attention from the opposite gender, mirroring his mom’s absence in his life.

Even if Ren’s actions can be perceived as stemming out of selfishness, his supposed attraction to her is also beneficial to Miu because he wants to awaken this strong, powerful, and beautiful feeling of love within her. He wants to make her wings flutter and for her beauty to be set free by expressing her emotions instead of restraining them and staying tied to the past that she’s stuck in. This is vividly illustrated when he guides her to smash the sculpture where she’s begging for her ex to stay. But her perspective of it contradicts his own: he sees her beauty through that sculpture; nothing bad and submissive about it, but instead, brave for not being scared to reach out and try to grasp what she truly wanted—something he doesn’t know how to dedicate himself to doing.

Similarly, just like how Miu struggled to be freed from her painful last moments with her toxic ex that had been frozen in time both metaphorically and literally, Ren also wishes to be freed from his own struggles. For him, the butterfly doesn't represent something light and nonchalant and non-troubled as Miu had suggested, but is rather representative of a small precious thing that tries to navigate through the harsh and turbulent-winded world with its colorful yet light-weighed wings. His desire for freedom and his little efforts to cast a ray of colour in the world manifests itself through his obsession with butterflies. These insects are a recurring motif throughout the series, not only symbolizing change and growth but of which are also a statement of the short-lived but beautiful flutters that can be seen when one pushes through hardships and keeps on flying.

Furthermore, butterflies aren’t the only metaphorical symbol that has been included to better convey the story’s message to viewers. One of Ren’s characterics is the way rainstorms always follow him. These scenes in the rain with Miu hold a greater meaning than just being a rainy day. Despite his messiness, he serves as something stable in Miu’s life, like an anchor among the countless possibilities she has to navigate and the decisions she has to make as she enters adulthood. Since she feels like she doesn't really know herself and has trouble finding the answer to anything when it comes to being subjective, this inevitable journey she’ll have to face stresses her out. Ren’s strong attraction for her never ceases in its intensity, and in this, she finds a harbor in her life.

By diving into the complexities of human emotions, relationships, and the unpredictability of attraction, the series conveys the message that some things just can't be helped. The leads’ imperfect relationship is threaded with flaws and raw with hidden insecurities. The magic in their chemistry lies in the delicate yet profound interactions they share, and the space between them constantly grows wider and smaller, full of hidden meaning and unspoken words. ‘Wakatte Ite mo: The Shapes of Love’ portrays romance as something realistically hurtful and messy, and exemplifies how love is not something that is bound to be constrained to limits. It is everything but simple or straight out of a fairytale. Instead, it is a love story using its own words—not sticking to convenience for the sake of its principal aspect of romance despite the numerous physically intimate scenes.

The show’s beauty lies in its unique perspective and outlook on life that it sheds through this window of two young adults trying their best to navigate their lives. Even though we may lie to ourselves or convince ourselves otherwise, nevertheless is a word that defines us all. Our overbearing desire to act freely against others’ rules and against our own will is the human nature of our essence here on earth. "If you just label yourself as something, it'll just restrict you." is a line pulled from the series that encapsulates its essence, defining how there is beauty to be found in the unknown. As the title suggests, the shape of love looks different for everyone, just like one emotion can be represented through many different sculptures and hold different interpretations through each individual's eyes.

The series is tied up beautifully, its last scene especially goosebump-inducing—Ren knows that forever doesn't exist, and Miu knows that she shouldn't hold out for hope, but nevertheless, they come together and discover that the shape of forever is simply holding on to hope.

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