Of Flying Men, Long Hair and Swords-Wuxia

I have been obsessing over the Chinese drama The Untamed for months. This despite watching it twice and I am holding myself back from a third watch by pick up a new drama.

For years, I have been yearning for a good wuxia(martial arts heroes with crazy swording fighting skills) drama but there are hardly any. Hong Kong dramas used to be the staple for many asian viewers but their glory days are long gone.

To make a good period drama, you need a reasonably big budget or it’s going to look like a school skit. In the visual aspect, C period dramas are the most stunning. In the higher budget ones, their costumes, props, sets and cinematography are breathtaking.

When I say period drama, it can mean different sub genres:
Historical–
a) those with reference to real life people or events. This is my not favourite genre. Although history can be very interesting, the screenplay aren’t necessarily so. The outcome in history is set but dramas can use creative licence to tell their story. As long as it’s not absurdly far from the truth, I prefer an interesting interpretation than an accurate but boring one. It all comes down to excellent plot writing, good characterisations and storytelling.After all, I don’t enjoy watching old men plotting with nothing else to reel me in.
In this genre, I probably missed the golden era of good Korean saeguks because I have not enjoyed any with the exception of Six Flying Dragons. Even then, I think I loved Byun Yohan’s character and cross dressing badass swordman Gil Tae Mi than Lee Bang Won.
I hate palace politics so I was surprised that I enjoyed C drama Yanxi Palace more than I’d admit. The writer was brilliant. I didn’t know one can fit so many twists and plots into an episode and entire drama. It wasn’t the best writing but absolutely entertaining and gripping.
b) those with little or no reference to real life people and events.
Many Korean fusion period dramas fall into this category. I enjoyed Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Moonlight Drawn By Clouds purely for fluff. Easy to watch and eye candy.
I will put one of my favorite C-dramas in the category – Story of Ming Lan. Not fluff, not easy to watch, no eye candies but very well written characters and plots. I can’t believe I watched 73 eps of it.

Xianxia – fantasy.
Immortal heroes and villains, lots of mythology, heavenly and dark realms and magic.
My least favorite genre. A lot of C-dramas in this category.
The only Korean one I can think of is Arthdal Chronicles. It’s supposedly big budget but I didn’t see the results. Let’s not talk about the story, the world building, costumes and visuals were terrible.

Wuxia
Mortal heroes and villains. Martial arts and cultivation.Must have decent martial arts especially swordfighting.
I can’t name any Korean period drama that I can categorize as Wuxia. Does this genre exist in kdramas? I know the Japanese have their samurai films/dramas and oh, I enjoyed Rurouni Kenshin tremendously.
My current favourite Cdrama – The Untamed.
Handsome, beautiful male leads with long hair(say no to ugly wigs), ravishing suave in long robes and badass swordfighting. I know this isn’t the best choreography or real martial arts display but kudos to Wang Yibo whose Han Guangjun was stunningly kickass in fighting scenes.

I had already post this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERKlDq2cUEg previously. This one here will focus on our Light Bearing Lord.

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    Missing these dorks

    @linda-palapala @trinpie @kimbapnoona, @shach, @jenmole, @zetteceniza, @giegie0384 @1tea1 @alasecond @bcampbell1662 @egads, @drawde2000, @marites59, @nightmoon, @blueskye @lillamy @stpauligurl , @strawberry, @gadis @gmelenco @artgirl @maybemaknae @bluekitchen @carmen @mrobles @noobita @growingbeautifully @zgs1994 @infinitize @bunny @shinayame @sweetsammy @larelle79 @mayhemf

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      I’m loving bingeing it on Netflix. Already up to ep 34.

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      I honestly love these bts tidbits just as much as the drama

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      This is a gif that you can HEAR even though there’s no sound…. Does that even make sense?? lol

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      Decent martial arts especially sword-fighting is my absolute catnip! Although The Untamed could have done better in terms of CGI, I still truly enjoyed all Hanguang Jun’s speedy sword fighting and his glorious martial arts…

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    “This despite watching it twice and I am holding myself back from a third watch by pick up a new drama.”

    Me too. That is why I am giving myself to December to watch even one episode.

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      ha ha.. me untouched..

      still sitting at 1 watch only

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      Yeah, well I tried that – it didn’t work. I must’ve tried 10 other dramas, nope. (except for Tale of Nokdu).

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      Same, I will do it after my vacation. Let’s see if I still feel the same way then.

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        I think this is the 3rd time I’ve said this, but wow, did I ever miss a lot in the first watch of the first 33 episodes. Or maybe I understand more because of all of your inputs and thoughts.

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          Thank you!

          Come to think of it, I only started posting more thoughts on my rewatch. This drama is a rare one which I readily recommend to anyone to rewatch.

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    I don’t know why it took me this long to finally watch my first Chinese period drama because I’ve been loving wuxia and xianxia novels for years. It’s probably fate that The Untamed is my first experience. Anyway, now that you’ve mentioned it k-drama seems to not have any equivalent of wuxia in its genre, isn’t it? Which is a shame because some historical dramas and movies do have a great swordplay.

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      It’s exciting times for C drama fans. If the money doesn’t dry up and they can come up with more solid stories and consistency, I am expecting to see more goodies in these genre. Some of the dramas have that cinematic feel, absolutely gorgeous!

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        The doubt is whether or not the producers realize it’s the solid story that’s just as important as the cast, and not so much just idol leads.
        It’s kind of strange, lately I noticed The Wolf starring Darren Wang Talu, has suddenly become The Wolf starring Xiao Zhan. He was always listed as second lead previously.

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          is it out?
          is it finally releasing?

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            I wish I knew. I have a feeling they’re revising it so much it’s going to be either really good or really bad. It’s been so long and so many of us have been waiting and waiting and waiting. But I’m glad they didn’t release it before I knew who Xiao Zhan was!

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    O fair-faced Hanguang-jun – how we adore thee <3333

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    Eeks, I only just now saw this. Interesting because I was just thinking about this very thing: wuxia vs xianxia. From your description and from an article I read defining the difference between wuxia and xianxia, I was sure Untamed is classified wuxia. But every site and every other review I read lists Untamed as xianxia. I agree with you.
    And like you, I do not like xianxia, for instance and especially I hated Ashes of Love, with all the pink, purple, etc.
    The only wuxia type kdrama I could think of was maybe The King Loves.

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      Since you liked Yanxi I’ll try it again…
      Did not like Minglan but I don’t like the lead actress.
      Did not like NIF but loved NIF2. Go figure…

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      “The Untamed” is considered xianxia because of the fantastical cultivation aspect and how they used musical instruments as weapons as well and not simply swords. Wuxia is more about staying true traditional martial arts

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        I’ll have to go back and re read my sources because I don’t remember that.

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        I thought xianxia had to do with immortal beings such as in Ashes of Love. Can you name some specific wuxia dramas then?

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          Yup, you’re correct, but “The Untamed” falls under the xianxia category because the cultivation the characters go under is basically for the purpose of reaching immortal status. The word “xian” in ‘xianxia’ literally translates to ‘god’

          Some wuxia dramas: “Nirvana In Fire” 1 & 2, Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre”, “The Princess Weiyoung”, “Princess Agents”, “Legend Of Fuyao”, “The King’s Woman”, “The Rise Of Phoenixes”, “The Four”

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            I’d think Legend of Fuyao is xianxia then. Other than that I’ve only watched NIF2 on your list.

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            Ooooh okay

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            @lindapalapala I’d respectfully disagree and then would reinforce the fact that it’s hard to tell if some Cdramas are wuxia vs xianxia using THE LEGEND IF FUYAO as the example. Because although FUYAO and WUJI were actually immortal, they were very much mortal through the entire show and could have died at any time. The premise of the show was the god becoming as mortal and pursuing his love through several dynasties. If the ending scene was not there, it would have been wuxia all the way. I should look up what other writers/reviews say about this show…

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          @ally-le Ah, thanks for your insights to Legend of Fuyao. That was only the 2nd C-fantasy I’d watched and was very confused with a lot of things. I’m not sure what you mean by if the ending scene weren’t there it would be wuxia. Could you explain more? I bet if I watch it again I’ll understand a lot more.

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            The two of them were in a paradise together overlooking the mortal world. WUJI says to FUYAO that he loved her so much that he would go through all the pain and suffering as a mortal to find her in the mortal world as well. Then we realize that the entirety of the drama prior was him living out that promise.

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            @ally-le Aah, thanks! Now I remember that was what happened. But I wouldn’t have remembered if you hadn’t reminded me and I would have been clueless because I’m going to watch it again now.

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            @ally-le Question about Fuyao: so did they die as mortals at the end? Did they go back to their paradise? Now I’m still a bit confused…

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            I don’t think the show tells us. But I would suspect that they go back to being immortals after he’s just proven this undying love to her.

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            @ally-le I just read that many fans did NOT like Ethan Ruan and Yang Mi together – I thought they were great!

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            I liked them too.

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        Before I wrote this post, I did not check what The Untamed has been categorised as. I just went with my own interpretation.

        https://k.sina.com.cn/article_7206543301_1ad8b1fc500100jx3v.html
        If you do read Chinese, this article explains it quite well why The Untamed is more wuxia than xianxia, not by definition but the essence of the story. I also agree with the author that it’s very difficult these days to find a pure wuxia drama.

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          Thanks – I think the lines between the two must be quite hazy. In my own mind, regardless of (ahem) another post, I want it to be wuxia, not xianxia…

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          I think the line between the two must be hazy, so I’m going with you and my personal feelings. That way I can say I don’t like xianxia such as Ashes of Love, or any other fantasy that deals with gods who are already immortal, or stories that take thousands of years instead of 16 years.
          btw I don’t read Chinese, grr…I do know the character for Wang however.

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          I see where the article is going…. It’s the essence of the story, characters, and the origins of the martial arts that determines whether a drama is wuxia or xianxia– not so much about whether or not it has fantastical elements

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