the 1994 version does not have a lot of scenes from the book but has the essence of Little Women. It feels like Little Women 100% and is the best adaptation. Whereas the 2019 version has a lot of scenes from the book but it doesn't have the essence at all. It has lost all of the understanding of what Little Women is.

I am Swedish and was born and live in northern Hälsingland, the landscape in the southern northern parts of Sweden where the film takes place. I mostly thought this movie was stupid and ridiculous. I am very well versed and well read about Nordic mythologies, legends, myths, fairy tales and similar things. Hälsingland is known in Sweden for its nature, folk music, and tales of Old Norse mythological beings, unconnected legends. And that in this movie is pure bullshit and has nothing to do with Norse paganism or ancient pagan rituals. Plus the film is not even shot in Sweden but in Hungary. I was also bothered throughout the film that the actors in the film who are Swedish have the completely wrong dialect as none of them are from Hälsingland where a certain type of northern dialect is very peculiar (the actor Peter Stormare is from Hälsingland and has that type of Hälsingland pronunciation when he speaks Swedish)

Who else went from "I'm not watching this long-ass documentary" to "why so short? Why are you gatekeeping all the secrets, lady!? Spill it out in the next 3 hours!!"?

Thank you so much, i am having an untamed withdrawl, i am watching you in a coffee shop with a cup of coffee, it feels like a nice closing discussing and gossiping the series and characters with a friend.

Hi, Emily, I hope you'll still be reading this after more than 4 years but I wanted to tell you how much your video resounded with me - I initially felt so bad about not being "properly" able to appreciate this movie! But what you say in this video solidifies my view of what is wrong with "wokeness" in general, namely that it's an affected rather than a heartfelt attitude, an attempt to "do justice" to a piece of art without actually being aware what that means! This book was already "woke" for its time - no need to improve on that! All the more so because Gerwig wasn't really consequential but selective in being woke, and in a way her treatment of the character of Amy becomes the prime example of that... Because while Gerwig recognizes both Jo's and Amy's artistic ambitions, she gives excessive credit to Jo always being the one who will be able to fulfill her artistic ambitions while Amy gives them up and, in a way, always realizes that she will have to do so, being second fiddle to Jo in how far her artistic talent is developed or rather worth pursuing. I know a lot of recipient's have applauded Gerwig for using Amy as a mouthpiece on how much of an "economic proposition" marriage is, and I've always contextualized this as an act of despair on the part of Amy rather than a progressive act: She has learned to discount her talent as compared with Jo's and has come to the conclusion that, as a result, her ambitions are much less worth pursuing than her sister's, so marriage is her only option - and as it is such that everything that belongs to her will then afterwards be belonging to her husband, she'd better find a husband she loves and who loves her to make that choice a less bitter one. She's not taking a stand against the marriage laws of her time . according to which a wife's legal existence was entirely submerged by that of her husband; she's making a desperate bid at Laurie to get to propose to her because otherwise she'd grab herself Fred Vaughn and his 40.000 $ a year. In many ways, her words are not so much a plea in favor of but against marriage. Gerwig pretends she wrote Jo's path in the way she did because she wanted to bring her closer to her "real-life original", writer Louisa May Alcott herself. But if she had really been serious about this autobiographical approach - why did she not give the same credit to the character of Amy? For Amy, too, was based on a real-life character, Louisa May Alcott's younger sister, May Alcott Nieriker, who did become a successful painter in her own right, and on one occasion was even chosen for an important exhibition above Mary Cassatt, a much more famous American woman painter than she (outwardly). Even more so, she actually did the drawings for the first edition of Little Women!!! If Gerwig had done her research properly, she should have known this, but instead she chose to set the two sisters against each other in this way! Even the 1995 version with Winona Ryder was more progressive in this respect: In the scene where Amy comes back from Europe as Laurie's wife, she confesses that while she went to Europe to paint the great cathedrals there, she could not get her home out of her mind - and gifts her mother with a painting of the family house, which she has wrapped in the lace which she brought her mother from Europe, and this painting looks strikingly like the painting the real-life model for Amy had done of the family home. I've also noted that Gerwig unnecessarily white-washes the character of Amy in terms of her motivations - for instance, as you rightly observed, she never fully explores the implications of the episode of Amy getting flogged on the hands by the teacher, which leads to her being pulled from the school. Both the book and the 1995 movie make clear that while the teacher was not right in treating Amy this way, Amy also has herself to answer for that incident to some degree, i.e. we see her ask her sister Meg for money to buy the limes, which are exchanged as a token of popularity within her school and she literally feels like an "unperson" due to not having any limes to give. Also, she flaunted her limes as a token of püopularity before another girl, which led to that girl snitching on her to the teacher, who then confiscated her limes and caning her on the hands. Marmee in the earlier version and in the book makes quite clear that she disapproves the teacher's actions, and so pulls Amy from the school to be home-schooled, but she also tells Amy that she thinks too much of her popularity and has herself to answer to for the beating. Also, the same episode is an occasion for Jo, in the earlier movie, to rant at teachers teaching girls while not really believing in girls being educated, which fuels her wish for her own school in which everybody who wishes to learn would be able to learn the way they wanted to - so she even neglects an aspect of Jo in this respect, although pretending that she is one of the focal points of the movie. Also, I do not know whether you've noticed it, but Gerwig actually reinforces the new focus on Amy by taking away spotlight from other characters: In the book and in the earlier movie, when Jo sells her hair to pay for her mother's train ticket and later cries over the loss of her hair, it's actually Beth who comforts her, not Amy, as in Gerwig's movie. And I am glad you're annoyed about the treatment of Friedrich Bhaer to the same extent that I am, though for different reasons: The point is not that I dislike Louis Garrel as an actor, far from it, I really liked him, for instance, in that Polanski movie about the Dreyfus affair (where he plays the role of Dreyfus), but he looks far too young and too handsome for the role of Friedrich; he's almost like a second Laurie whó is thrown in as a substitute for Jo, at least he's more similar to rather than dissimilar from him, and I also thought he looked for too young to be a Professor. And it irked with me that while he was playing a German professor, he was clearly playing that character with a French accent! It's an actor's job to pretend to be something and someone else that they are, and their voice is one of their most important tools in doing so. Meryl Streep managed to speak German with a Polish accent (in Sophie's Choice) and her own language with a British accent (The Iron Lady). Yet I cannot decide whether this was due to a lack of skill of the actor (I doubt it, he's worked since childhood and received thorough training at the Conservatoire) or due to an ommission of the director to direct him properly. And as you imply, the whole Friedrich episode with regard to Gerwig's movie seems to derive from a misunderstanding of Alcott's final decision to partner off Jo after all, against her initial impulse or decision to have her remain a spinster. It's not simply an act of despair on the part of Jo, but her realization that she has found someone who is spiritually compatible with her...Thus, Jo in the earlier movie explains to Bhaer that BOTH her parents are Transcendentalists, NOT that her father initially converted her mother, it's simply a conviction that they share and which enhances how similar they are. Also, Bhaer in the 1995 movie does critique Jo's writing and wishes she's write more authentically, from her heart, rather than producing potboilers, but he is also reluctant with his criticism and does not volunteer it because he knows that he might offend Jo (whose opinion matters to him), as well as that Jo might have her reasons (i.e. she has to write this way to earn money and be able to help her family); in fact, he does not provide his feedback after considerable prying on the part of Jo herself. Bhaer in Gerwig's movie, as contrasted with that, seems rather unfriendly and undiplomatic and downright blunt on the same occasion, and as this must have largely been based on the script, I cannot blame the overall presentation of the character on the actor in this case.

Wen Clan = USA?

Loved this video, although Alcott did love and continued to write her thrillers in real life and seems to have thought little of _Little Women._ Within the context of the novel, I would say you are correct on that part too, though. Really great video.

There was literally no character development in this movie.

I love this video, I don't know why I felt like crying watching it <3

You will kneel to Christ.

Very cool! Thanks would be very interesting in Kreya personality (if u know kotor 2 ofc)

I feel like Xiao Zhan is an incredible actor with a lot of range. I hope to see more varied works in the future, as I think we haven’t seen the best of what he can do yet. I’ve enjoyed the youth memories and sunshine by my side, but I do believe he can deliver a really good performance in a more serious or dark role. Looking forward to his upcoming projects. Wang Yibos acting has improved a lot since the untamed and I’ve enjoyed his performance 👌

I knew that the new version was different and couldn't come close to other versions but the way you analyzed it now makes me hate this 2019 adaptation

I appreciate your thought and agree with most of your thoughts. However, referring to the music, I would like to throw out that the name of the main melody line, binding the main characters is sneak peak. Before fainting from fever in the cave, Wei Wuxian asks for the title of the song. In the haze we see Lan Wangji silently saying WangXian.

Whenever they turn these stories into something `woke’. They destroy it. It might appeal to a small demographic but the story lines are so predictable, shallow and just plain boring. I don’t think they make movies for anyone over 25 anymore. I’m being generous when I say 25. Someone else wrote feminist manifesto and I couldn’t agree more.

I loved the book and every other adaptation…other than the 2019 movie. Having an adult play a 12 year old child was ridiculous. Mind blown it was even done. Beths death was not impactful at all which is tragic. The time jumping was jarring & took me out of the story. Very disappointed

Excellent video. The historical additions from around the world gave a lot of depth and context. I didn't think of placing Wei Wuxian in the Witch Archetype before but he fits near perfectly. Thanks.

wei wuxian does not practice demonic cultivation he practices ghost cultivation, he explained the differences when lan qiren quizzed him in class, also he’s not adopted the fact that he’s a servant and not part of the family is extremely important to his character and most definitely possess no moral ambiguity, the author made it clear that he and lwj are the morally upstanding characters that we should strive to follow

Love this so much. It aligns with most of my issues and likes with the adaptation as well. It's the things they do well, like giving us more time JYL, and seeing more of their lives in the Burial Mounds, not to mention the chemistry between the leads, that keep me rewatching, even while the stuff that annoys me (pretty much everything to do with the yin iron) gets more grating every time. One tiny nitpick though: WWX's trick shot saved the Wen prisoners. We're shown again and again that he's an expert archer and never misses a shot. He knew exactly where the targets were, and the Wens were lined up beneath the targets, not in front of them. There was no question that he'd miss the targets, but the same couldn't be said of anyone else who shot after him. His trick shot was so impossible, no one else would be able to top it and that ended the competition. Everything else you commented on about that scene was spot on though. It made every single person there look awful for not saying anything. NMJ especially would have had words to say.

Is it possible that WW went through the whole soliloquy over the rock lady in an attempt to hide his true identity? It's most likely Mo wouldn't know anything about it.

I love how 1994 Jo is not a modern tomboy. She was a tomboy by 19th Century standards so was still quite ladylike and respectful.

to be honest the only thing that i really really hate is the whole ,,you dont understand the jiang family ,, thing that the untamed caused

This is such a beautiful esssay! Woww❤

Thanks for you analysis!

Great analysis!

The choice to put all the past events separately had a quite jarring effect to the drama that leaves you with a huge punch in the gut. The books keep the past events sprinkled in here and there, so it overall mostly feels like the bad things are over now and wangxian is the real main narrative. The only good thing about condensing the past into one go was, that you could better follow what happened when to whom. If I had read the books first I would have been totally lost😮. Another point. Yes, they had very low budget. You see it everywhere. So, what's the point of commenting on it again and again? Low budget dramas have their own charme. It's always fascinating to me to see how much money they had for their shows. Comparing The Untamed (low budget) not enough Extras, funny, cheap effects, Mysterious lotus casebook (more budget) way more Extras, better effects, Luoyang (even more budget) tons of Extras, impressive effects.

As a non-naive English speaker myself, the way you speak Chinese and English in the same sentence is soooo perfect it sounds like some other worldly sorcery to me!!!

After watching both The Untamed and the donghua, I much prefer the donghua. I’m a fan of adaptations that stay close to the source material. The donghua is amazing and I wish it was more popular! It’s free to watch on YT. The Untamed was fun to watch though, mostly due to the actors and how incredible they were. The chemistry was great. Live action adaptations irk me in that the source material is there but strays heavily from it. I’m just not a fan of that. I had the same issue with Guardian to a more extreme level. It actually pissed me off, lmao. I get why it’s done but I’m still ehhh about it. I’m currently reading Faraway Wanderers, but I watched Word of Honor before reading it and know that Word of Honor is, once again, completely different. It was actually an enjoyable watch though, and I was aware that it strays waaaay off from the source material. It was still much better than Guardian imo in changing certain plot points to fit the needs of a live action adaptation that will draw a viewer in. I would 100% always prefer a donghua adaptation over live action. It’s a much more flexible medium to visualize the type of media that is being depicted. It’s hard to do fantasy leaning live actions “right” without the big budget.

If you're a fan of any mdzs adaptations, relax a bit you'll find treasures in all of them. I'm sure this video goes in great details but invest your time in the Untamed instead. Get past the first few eps and it'll suck you in

I just started watching cdramas a couple months ago and started with Till the End of the Moon. I got to about ep 12 when I found out most Chinese shows have a sad ending and learned from clips that this one also did, so I stopped watching. A little research and Untamed and Word of Honor kept popping up as "the BEST shows China ever made" and both had happy endings. OK so I found Untamed on Netflix and it took me over a month with the subtitles but I got through it and WOW!!! I REALLY LOVE IT! Wei is my first Chinese love and I have since rewatched some eps like 2, 5, 8, 13, 14, 48-50 about 20 times each. The only thing I don't get is why Wei jumped off the cliff. I get that he was devested over losing his sister and the Wens and everyone turning against him, even LAN standing against him. BUT!!!! He has always been shown as a survivor, regardless of circumstances. He felt responsible for his clan getting killed and dedicated himself to saving his brother and sister so they could retake their home. He gave up his Golden Core to help his brother but didn't complain about being powerless. He was thrown into the Burial Mounds where he should have died but lived and even learned his dark magic to take the place of his sword skills. He always found a way and suddenly he just gives up. Especially when Lan went to save him he should have realized one person still loved him and made an illusion so people thought he and Lan were dead but they could have run away together. Also, I didn't like that they turned Huaisang into a villain. I don't see him like that at all, he loved his brother, hated Yao using him to kill him so he gathered the info to take him down AND managed to convince Mo to bring his childhood friend Wei back in the process. He think he was great and his spinoff movie was so much fun. Also the spin off movie with Wen Ning and Lan Yuan was very good. I have not read the books or seen the anime so my opinions are all based on the TV drama, but I still loved it.

I both love and hate the changes made in the drama 😂, but it's still better than the animated adaptation. That thing was a mess. 🙈 Best adaptation is the audiodrama, and I'm bummed that the person I was following who was translating it into English got their channel taken down. 😢

That wasn't the tiger tally when he fell into the burial mounds in his pocket, that was the sword spirit

The Untamed, was good especially if you hadn't read the books. They were restricted with the type of scenes they were allowed to put in from the book, which was a shame, but really enjoyed the main characters Xiao Zhan and Wang. 😊🐇🦁❤️💚⚘️

I am really happy that I watched the drama without any preconceived notions. I am glad parents, uncles, and elders were cast as older. For me, visual casting of parents as ageless would have been incredibly distracting. The studio did a great job against a political system of censorship we can not even begin to understand. So to me, the drama is a Version of the novel. Movie versions of novels are never the same for a myriad of reasons. But I think the soul and passion of the story are conveyed super well and that is the most important thing. The Untamed is not the novel and for all its supposed faults, CQL is still a masterpiece that I hope interested people will always give an unbiased viewing. If The Untamed were "perfect" and yet had no soul it would have lost its luster and not continued to be the worldwide phenomenon it is still today.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this! I love your personal headcannon for the series. Now please please please make a video on the donghua 😭🙏

Theres a reason my favorite adaptations were always the Audio drama and Donghua. The budget and how jarring some scenes were are two things I couldnt sit through, even when I was a fan (not anymore, not that I hate it now, but I've moved on). The one thing that I still cannot 100% agree was the casting with LWJ. Not to hate on him, I know everyone adores WYB, but to me I never got the LWJ vibes I did from the novel and other adaptations. XZ's acting saved it all for me and kept me watching. CQL does have its good moments, they manage to deliver the emotional bits and it's one of the reasons I don't understimate it or believe it's a bad drama. Not the best (for me), but still has its values. I will edit this comment or add another the more I watch the vid, from now thank you for your commentary!

My comment on Xiao Zhan's acting choices. First of all, it's not the agency that decides for him, it's him and I feel that a bit of his current position. His WWX role was brilliant, but it brought a lot of suffering in his personal life (let's not kid ourselves, whoever was his fan in 2020 knows). Xiao Zhan simply had to survive. He also had certain obligations to certain people. Well, and with his immense popularity, he became such a positive idol that he couldn't take controversial or dark roles. In my opinion, fortunately, this changed when he established himself as an actor and as a public figure. He played the highly emotional role of Patient No. 5 in the theater for a year and made himself known as a really talented actor. Following descriptions of his roles in new projects that are currently in post-production, we can expect to see him in new dynamic and emotional roles, including anger. One role is that of a heroic wuxia hero who fights an invader, and the other is that of a career-climbing intelligent man possessed of a lust for revenge. You can tell from Xiao Zhan's statement that he prefers controversial, dark roles and knows that fans also like him in such creations. So after this terribly boring period where he fulfilled his previous commitments I think he finally has enough power over his career to give us some really intriguing characters.

Not everyone writing a whole paragraph and me actually reading it. 9:48 they did not stop😭 im crying 36:15 they do play it ALOT and its even my phone ringtone😭 36:45 i see it now how the messed up on the placings now I honestly like the drama more, i perfer it this way since they had the sequence of events in order instead when i watched the anime its not in order and just my brain go boom after watching the untamed. I like how they added more scenes for yanli cus when i watched the anime and read the manhua i was like "wjeres yanli??? I want yanli!" I do like how mdzs added more scenes for the female because Wen qing didnt come until like REALLY late and i was waiting till death for her literally. The detail of where wwx has a mole but mxy didn't was my fav literally. I did like how wenning exposed how jiangcheng's core is actually wwx's before we get the news of how jin guangyao is is doing bad which then just makes lian fangzhun seem like he knows more than just we think which in mdzs jiang cheng found out after jin guangyao's "death" which i was like "how id this going to end???". Which I really didn't like the anime's ending😅 And I was so confused too when lwj became the emporer whatever it was. And we never got to see wwx's death in the anime so very weird to me. Look i never saw the part where wwx was getting threatened. But i have heard the audio😭 and i just felt death because of how AKWARD that sounded how he said that RIGHT THERE INFRONT OF LIKE AVERYONE😭 like thats gonna haunt someone till death😭

Omg 😭 I had so much fun watching this video!!! I love your analysis!!! I haven’t finished reading MDZS yet because it put me in a reading slump 😅 after watching this video, I thought about picking it up again!! Have you read the danmei books Faraway Wanderers and Kaleidoscope of Death and watched their live action adaptations ; Word of Honor and The Spirealm? Would you please consider making videos on them too 😭🙏🥰

While I like the untamed, I consider it to be it's own thing. I wached the drama twice before reading the novel. At the end of yi city arc I really wanted to unsee the drama and read the novel 😢. They have changed the story and personalities of characters to the point that the novel lost its meaning in many areas. Not all characters needs to be good. White washing we wuxian and Jiang chen and making jin guanyao like that is crime 😂. Cql makes it look like wuxian is carrying an unwanted responsibility by taking wen remnants. They seemed like a burden. But in the novel it is very clear that he wanted to leave lotus cove because he thought his debt is paid. So Wens were a family to him. I was shocked when i got to the blood corpses part. It happened throughout the drama. Cql wuxian was served justice when drama wuxian find peace. The weight of the novel is no longer there. So I have mixed feelings. I'd say I'm rather disappointed in the drama than dislike/hate it.

Watching this video on the day of the dead (I'm mexican) was the candy I didn't knew I needed. I love your analysis and compelling points, made me want to rewatch it with a different perspective. I pretty much agree with your version of the story, I would just add that WWX outlives Lan Qiren and make his days insufferable in Gusu. I very much agree LWJ is not the best choice for chief cultivator, definitely must go to Nie Huaisang, even Jiang Cheng if you give him credit for his capacity of rebuilding an entire sect from ashes. Also, I prefer gray-more-black- moral WWX, because this also makes LWJ conflict with good and bad more real and important. I like to believe LXC had this aspect of morality more flexible, but backfired to him in the form of JGY, the most adorable villain in history. Your video was a treat! :D please please make one for the animation!

I felt like the untamed was very close despite all the large plot changes I think it was the emotional impact. People kept telling me it was very different but after listening to the audio drama and reading the novel, cql definitely has a similar emotional impact to the original

CQL/MDZS content in 2024? It's more likely than you think. I agree with the people who consider The Untamed to be its own thing. While it's fairly faithful in terms of the plot and characters, it does have a different vibe, I think it lost MXTX's "style" of writing if that makes any sense (I respect your opinion on Guanyin Temple, but nah eat your heart out Wei Wuxian). And I don't even mean the censorship, a lot of the creative choices and interpretations of characters for instance make it different. Still good on its own and is undeniably an achievement. And yes, please do a video on the animation I don't see as many people talking about it, it's the adaptation most closest to me, it being the first I encountered.

I've read the fan translation and watched the drama. I agree that for the most part, the drama is faithful to the novel. Majority of the changes can be attributed to censorship and budget. I prefer the drama over the novel, the characters are richer, more developed in the drama, and WWX comes across more mature and less annoying.

I agree with your commentary about XZ's recent roles. After I watched The Untamed, I felt that as an actor Xiao Zhan had more range than Wang Yibo. But his recent roles have been uninspiring. He has been typecast in the overly wholesome. optimistic, hero roles. In contrast, Wang Yibo has had varied and interesting roles with Hidden Blade as his best role to date.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. I recently rewatched it again after Netflix was threatening to take it away and omg I missed these two so so much. The untamed / mdzs story will always be my favourite cdrama of all time. 4 years and I'm still not over wangxian. Xz and wyb pairing was the best and every other heterocouple I've seen after this pales in comparison to this two. I wished we had a s2 😢

after I saw the drama, I learned that there was a donghua. although the donghua had its own problems due to media limitations and censorship, it was so much better in the fantasy and action aspects. I highly recommend the donghua over the drama. watch both if you are a fan of the story.

This video was such a delight! Binge watched the whole thing in one sitting. Makes me want to reread the novels again lol. Would love to see a video like this talking about the donghua as well someday!

What a great analysis. You explained things I thought but perhaps didn’t fully understanding why. Thank you for work on this.

Thank You for this intensely vibrant analysis of the MXTX's beloved tale. In 2021 I learned about the world of Untamed and danmei in general. Being a visual artist I accepted the low budget. Having worked in the theater. I know design and prop creation with few funds is difficult, to say the least. But the show's appearances never once jarred me out of the plot. Because the acting was so well performed. and heartfelt. The soundtrack inspired me to learn Chinese dizi and Japanese Shinobue flutes. It has had a huge impact on my interest in all forms of art as well. Emotionally It's still my favorite cinematic experience. MDZS and TGCF are part of my everyday world in a very good well. Thanks Again.