Wei Wuxian at the Chalet School
Nov. 9th, 2020 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nineveh_ukLast week I finished The Untamed, Nirvana in Fire, and Hilary Mantel's The Mirror and the Light. That's 50 episodes, 54 episodes (for the third time), and 872 pages. I find myself not quite knowing what to do with myself - it's almost a good thing the US election results took so long.
If you've not come across it, The Untamed is a lengthy Chinese fantasy drama in the xianxia tradition, a genre I'd really like to read an introductory article on by an actual academic specialising in popular Chinese fiction/media, because it is clearly drawing on a hell of a lot of established themes and cultural concepts that its original audience is familiar with. The protagonists are 'cultivators', essentially sort of Taoist wizards attempting to study and practice arcane arts in order to attain immortality and slay monsters in the meantime. They aren't very good at this, given that their average life expectancy appears to be significantly below that of the average peasant on account of their constant inter-clan warfare, not helped by an apparent psychological weakness for fantasy Chinese fascism. This particular series is based on the novel Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation( 魔道祖师 ) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (墨香铜臭)*, which has had multiple adaptations in various media.
Short version of novel's plot: after a rather rowdy stint as a visiting student at a strict magical finishing school, the protagonist Wei Wuxian (m) invents a new kind of magic that is kind of based on necromancy, is very good at it, other people don't like this, he does some bad stuff and gets blamed for worse bad stuff he didn't do, he gets killed, brought back from the dead thirteen years later, oh yes and has an epic romance with a seemingly starchy and massively repressed figure from a rival clan, Lan Wangji (m), including lots of explicit sex with various rape fantasies. Every single character is in need of therapy, with the possible exception of the symbolic rabbits. There are vast quantities of flashbacks.
You can see that this presented some adaptation challenges.
The explicit sex had to go, replaced with a fairly similar storyline without the sex scenes and making sure that they don't actually say anything more explicit than "soulmate", but leaving in enough familiar tropes that the audience would have to have never seen a single star-crossed lover narrative ever to miss what is going on by the time they're half-way through and that's even without being Chinese and able to appreciate the Symbolism of the Chickens. I mean, "our mystic hairbands can only be touched by our immediate family or significant other", followed same episode by "I will tie my mystic hairband round your wrist so the magic cave full of creepy rabbits** recognises you as a member of my family and won't kill you" is not exactly difficult. I haven't read more than a few bits of the book, so no doubt the themes also change a bit, but it's pretty good job considering the constraints they're working with, with the exception of the climax when it is really obvious that we are missing half of the emotional climax of the narrative as they can't have "WWX and LWJ declare their passionate love for one another, the villain is so gobsmacked for a moment that WWX is able to escape him, and they immediately start snoggin" (a pity, because that could have been very funny on TV). That said, the climax also suffers from the Netflix subtitles largely ignoring all the honorifics so what should be emotionally manipulative lines of pleading "Da-ge/Elder brother" get a completely different feel when translated as "Clan Leader Lan". In a few minutes this scene justifies every explanatory footnote of NiF's subtitles, because it shows how much you lose without that context.
I can't straightforwardly recommend it, and yet I watched 50 episodes. It is addictive in a sort of popcorn way, at least once you hit ep 15ish, and that addictive quality only ramps up through the rest, but I spent a goodly part of the first quarter simply boggling at terrible wigs, more polyester robes than you can imagine, some decidedly mixed quality acting***, and the phrase "tortoise of slaughter"****. What saved me from giving up was the sudden realisation about six episodes in that I was watching a school story - or possibly, if I were American and more familiar with the genre than through the works of Paula Danziger and Addams Family Values - a summer camp story. At which point, suddenly everything made sense as a story of rival posh boarding schools filled with characters you've met before, and a goodly dose of "they fuck you up, your mum and dad".
I shall cut for length.
Wei Wuxian: the annoying new boy that the author expects you to like, but who as a reader makes you sympathise with the other kids and think he deserves pushing out of a window. In fairness, the author is aware of this, as the fact that he has made a career of pissing people off as an epically annoying adolescent means that everyone else has zero interest in thinking the best of him. I really can't blame Jiang Cheng for anything.
Lan Wangji: the goody-two-shoes who suddenly breaks out. AKA Len Maynard, if she had fallen madly for necromancer!Emerence Hope. (In fairness, necromancer!Emerence would be a better choice than Reg Entwhistle.)
Also Lan Wangji: pupil most likely to have a conversation with Miss Annesley involving being told how very deeply she has let down herself, the Chalet School, and her family, while failing to break down as expected but standing there stony-eyed and sullen.
Lan Xichen: wise older pupil who is more fucked-up than first apparent. AKA Rowan Marlow
Wen Chao: Flashman
Wen Chao's mistress: the Slut
Jiang Cheng: the bitter child who is the worst enemy of their own happiness
Jiang Yanli: the Susan taken to extremes
Xue Yang: the Chalet School's one failure AKA Thekla von Stift
Meng Yao: that innocent bullied kid it turns out that everyone was right to bully. AKA Marie Dobson
Jiang Fengmian: the ineffectual headteacher
Madam Yu: the bitter teacher who would literally rather have any other job with any other responsibilities than the one she's got AKA Grizel Cochrane
Baoshan Sanren: the really cool art/music teacher who inspires the wonderful creativity of lucky pupils. Somehow, this seems to end in things not going well for them/they form a cult.
I could go on.
*Also responsible for The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, which is definitely the most post-modern concept of a storyline I've come across for some time. Say it three times backwards and Mephistopheles probably appears to complain about people slashing him with Faust.
**I must apologise to the production team, who I initially blamed for the fact that the rabbits look like a job lot of laboratory escapees. Having looked at various traditional Chinese paintings and prints, white rabbits appear to be a thing.
***Though the cute child is pretty good as young child actors go.
****Some concepts are better just transliterated.
If you've not come across it, The Untamed is a lengthy Chinese fantasy drama in the xianxia tradition, a genre I'd really like to read an introductory article on by an actual academic specialising in popular Chinese fiction/media, because it is clearly drawing on a hell of a lot of established themes and cultural concepts that its original audience is familiar with. The protagonists are 'cultivators', essentially sort of Taoist wizards attempting to study and practice arcane arts in order to attain immortality and slay monsters in the meantime. They aren't very good at this, given that their average life expectancy appears to be significantly below that of the average peasant on account of their constant inter-clan warfare, not helped by an apparent psychological weakness for fantasy Chinese fascism. This particular series is based on the novel Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation( 魔道祖师 ) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (墨香铜臭)*, which has had multiple adaptations in various media.
Short version of novel's plot: after a rather rowdy stint as a visiting student at a strict magical finishing school, the protagonist Wei Wuxian (m) invents a new kind of magic that is kind of based on necromancy, is very good at it, other people don't like this, he does some bad stuff and gets blamed for worse bad stuff he didn't do, he gets killed, brought back from the dead thirteen years later, oh yes and has an epic romance with a seemingly starchy and massively repressed figure from a rival clan, Lan Wangji (m), including lots of explicit sex with various rape fantasies. Every single character is in need of therapy, with the possible exception of the symbolic rabbits. There are vast quantities of flashbacks.
You can see that this presented some adaptation challenges.
The explicit sex had to go, replaced with a fairly similar storyline without the sex scenes and making sure that they don't actually say anything more explicit than "soulmate", but leaving in enough familiar tropes that the audience would have to have never seen a single star-crossed lover narrative ever to miss what is going on by the time they're half-way through and that's even without being Chinese and able to appreciate the Symbolism of the Chickens. I mean, "our mystic hairbands can only be touched by our immediate family or significant other", followed same episode by "I will tie my mystic hairband round your wrist so the magic cave full of creepy rabbits** recognises you as a member of my family and won't kill you" is not exactly difficult. I haven't read more than a few bits of the book, so no doubt the themes also change a bit, but it's pretty good job considering the constraints they're working with, with the exception of the climax when it is really obvious that we are missing half of the emotional climax of the narrative as they can't have "WWX and LWJ declare their passionate love for one another, the villain is so gobsmacked for a moment that WWX is able to escape him, and they immediately start snoggin" (a pity, because that could have been very funny on TV). That said, the climax also suffers from the Netflix subtitles largely ignoring all the honorifics so what should be emotionally manipulative lines of pleading "Da-ge/Elder brother" get a completely different feel when translated as "Clan Leader Lan". In a few minutes this scene justifies every explanatory footnote of NiF's subtitles, because it shows how much you lose without that context.
I can't straightforwardly recommend it, and yet I watched 50 episodes. It is addictive in a sort of popcorn way, at least once you hit ep 15ish, and that addictive quality only ramps up through the rest, but I spent a goodly part of the first quarter simply boggling at terrible wigs, more polyester robes than you can imagine, some decidedly mixed quality acting***, and the phrase "tortoise of slaughter"****. What saved me from giving up was the sudden realisation about six episodes in that I was watching a school story - or possibly, if I were American and more familiar with the genre than through the works of Paula Danziger and Addams Family Values - a summer camp story. At which point, suddenly everything made sense as a story of rival posh boarding schools filled with characters you've met before, and a goodly dose of "they fuck you up, your mum and dad".
I shall cut for length.
Wei Wuxian: the annoying new boy that the author expects you to like, but who as a reader makes you sympathise with the other kids and think he deserves pushing out of a window. In fairness, the author is aware of this, as the fact that he has made a career of pissing people off as an epically annoying adolescent means that everyone else has zero interest in thinking the best of him. I really can't blame Jiang Cheng for anything.
Lan Wangji: the goody-two-shoes who suddenly breaks out. AKA Len Maynard, if she had fallen madly for necromancer!Emerence Hope. (In fairness, necromancer!Emerence would be a better choice than Reg Entwhistle.)
Also Lan Wangji: pupil most likely to have a conversation with Miss Annesley involving being told how very deeply she has let down herself, the Chalet School, and her family, while failing to break down as expected but standing there stony-eyed and sullen.
Lan Xichen: wise older pupil who is more fucked-up than first apparent. AKA Rowan Marlow
Wen Chao: Flashman
Wen Chao's mistress: the Slut
Jiang Cheng: the bitter child who is the worst enemy of their own happiness
Jiang Yanli: the Susan taken to extremes
Xue Yang: the Chalet School's one failure AKA Thekla von Stift
Meng Yao: that innocent bullied kid it turns out that everyone was right to bully. AKA Marie Dobson
Jiang Fengmian: the ineffectual headteacher
Madam Yu: the bitter teacher who would literally rather have any other job with any other responsibilities than the one she's got AKA Grizel Cochrane
Baoshan Sanren: the really cool art/music teacher who inspires the wonderful creativity of lucky pupils. Somehow, this seems to end in things not going well for them/they form a cult.
I could go on.
*Also responsible for The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, which is definitely the most post-modern concept of a storyline I've come across for some time. Say it three times backwards and Mephistopheles probably appears to complain about people slashing him with Faust.
**I must apologise to the production team, who I initially blamed for the fact that the rabbits look like a job lot of laboratory escapees. Having looked at various traditional Chinese paintings and prints, white rabbits appear to be a thing.
***Though the cute child is pretty good as young child actors go.
****Some concepts are better just transliterated.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 10:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 11:16 am (UTC)Is "Darling Second" a translation of er-gege or something???
(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 12:21 pm (UTC)It's either because he's the second son or because Minglan, for convoluted familial relationship reasons, originally referred to him as "Second Uncle" (rather than er-gege, although they aren't that far apart in age, at least by Ancient China standards). Minglan is having none of it and continues, as far as I can tell, to call him Marquis.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 02:47 pm (UTC)(both the previous anons were me; sorry about that)
(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 04:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 05:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 05:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 08:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-10 08:46 pm (UTC)I cannot, so will rely on
(no subject)
Date: 2020-11-15 10:44 am (UTC)