“Boundaries are made to be broken,” muses Wei Wuxian in episode 3 of The Untamed [1]. Notorious for harassing and detaining individuals who speak out on socio-political issues, it may seem impossible to thwart China’s extensive censorship boundaries. But The Untamed is that rare boundary-breaker. Released in 2019, the TV show stars Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo respectively as Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, who are gay characters, despite China’s strict bans on any LGBTQ+ content [2].
Of course, China’s bans interfered heavily with the show. The Untamed is based on The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, a blockbuster novel by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, which often depicted Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji intimately [3]. However, the same can not be said for the TV show, as its inclusion of real actors instead of just purely fictional characters made it much more strictly monitored than the novel. Xiao and Wang never even got to hand-holding and the actors would have lost their careers had their characters ever professed “I love you” to each other [2].
But fans were still moved by their story. The show amassed immense viewership in China and across the globe, and received numerous awards, such as the Weibo TV Series of the Year and the Golden Bud Influential Network Drama Winner [4].
The show also brought its main actors to international stardom. Xiao is now a Gucci global brand ambassador, and Wang, who originally debuted in the Korean boy group UNIQ, has since acted as the male lead for numerous acclaimed movies and TV shows [5, 6, 7].
Despite the censorship around its content, The Untamed’s success is frankly unsurprising. The Untamed is bravely authentic, whether through its scathing social commentary or its characters’ courage to stand up for what they truly believe, no matter what others say. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the chokehold of superficial nationalism that has strangled nearly every piece of Chinese film for years. Wolf Warrior aggressively flaunts the Chinese military’s supposed prowess [8]. Till the End of the Moon spends about ten times more energy embellishing its display of traditional hanfu outfits than actually giving its story a plot [9].
Following The Untamed’s overwhelming success, China has also tightened its grip on subsequent shows containing LGBTQ+ content. In fact, just a few months after acting as one of the male leads in Word of Honor, a TV show starring a gay couple, all of actor Zhang Zhehan’s social media accounts were removed and deleted, his career derailed. Allegedly banned for just taking a picture at a controversial shrine, he was forced to continue a singing career outside of China [10]. More recently, The Spirealm, another TV show starring a gay couple, was deleted and removed from broadcasting just two hours after its release [11].
Of course, The Untamed is not flawless. For instance, the TV show throws viewers into the deep end of Chinese xianxia concepts, including a confusing honorific system where each character often has two names. And with 50 episodes that each run for at least 45 minutes, watching it can certainly be a lengthy commitment [2].
But The Untamed is simply so rare and unique, a one-in-a-million chance at creative expression in an authoritarian society like China. It’s been five years since The Untamed was released, yet China has shown no incentive to broaden its creative boundaries. Available to watch on either YouTube or Netflix, it is likely that we will never see something like The Untamed from China for a very long time [2, 12].
Sources:
[1] https://www.netflix.com/title/81200228
[2] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/china
[3] https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation-mo-xiang-tong-xiu/1139970841
[4] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10554898/awards/
[5] https://www.gucci.com/us/en/st/stories/article/xiao-zhan-link-to-love
[6] https://kprofiles.com/uniq-members-profile/
[7] https://mydramalist.com/people/13735-wang-yi-bo
[8] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3540136/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEC4DBbzB-I
[11] https://www.viki.com/tv/40497c-the-spirealm
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrnofaEhJLM
Elizabeth Fletcher • Oct 18, 2024 at 3:10 am
Watching for second time before it leaves Netflix in Oct 2024. Such a great watch. Translated into English very well too. Loved it. I just found out the two leads were supposed to be gay. Well, did not figure that out, but I was quite taken by the tight friendship.