[I’velearned that ifwe neverlet goof each other’shands, lovecanalwaysbegin again.Sometimes, lovecomes into our life unexpectedly. Thepersonyou’dneverthoughtyou would fallinlovewithmight turnoutto bethe right one. We are all special inour own way.But love alsoneedseffort.We havetoadjust toeach other. Wehave to learn from each other. Through actionsand words.Lovetheotherforwho theyare and loveyourself forwho youare.Love is something wealldeserve. Itmight notexistin oursocietyjustyet.ButI hope thatonedaywe will haveequal rights.]
Pride and PrejudiceThe Untamed follows the turbulent relationship between Wei Wuxian, the son of a rogue cultivator, and Lan Wangji, the Second Jade of Lan.
I had to make this post after seeing this amazing post because this needs to be said for all new viewers of TDJ.
I can actually confirm that the writer did intend for Yohan and Gaon’s relationship to be gay.
Ji Sung said their relationship was one of “seduction”. At the Devil Judge press-con, he confirmed that his role was that of Mephistopheles (around the 23 min mark but I’m at work and can’t pinpoint rn loL) who “seduces” Gaon who is Faust. I’ve analyzed this in more detail in this post.
Writer Moon Yoo Seok has been very open about his influences in crafting Yohan and Gaon’s relationship being: Beauty and the Beast, Goethe’s Faust, and the movie Let The Right One In .
All these influences are either romantic or homoerotic. All of them.
The writer has also confirmed that Gaon occupies a traditionally female character and feminine gender role. He’s used tropes that we normally only see in heterosexual romances for Yohan and Gaon’s romance. A non-exhaustive list:
living together
snooping through the mysterious house of the man who’s whisked you away
undressing your partner and wound-tending
making him food, refusing let anyone eat unless said man returns
understanding him like no other, being the only one who sees through his facade to the loneliness within
choosing him over everyone else (ep 8 and then end of 15)
trying to die for him (twice)
defending him to the het love/past love, everyone around really
PINING, yearning (Gaon literally looked at the bed in ep 16 and thought back to shirtless Yohan okay)
taking care of each other
being vulnerable before and for each other
oogling him shirtless (both of them did this)
hand holding
DEEP. STARES.
sexy bomb defusal
love triangles (K and Soohyun)
Homosexuality is so taboo in Korea that the closest we’ve gotten to proper rep is the wlw couple from Nevertheless and Kim Seo Hyung’s character from Mine, and even then that’s because men find it easier to see women in love with each other than men being in love. And men finance drama production.
Writer Moon Yooseok (who has 25 years of writing experience) has literally done everything he can to get a queer story out there. Heck he’s even including stuff in the TDJ comic (spanking, anyone?) that wouldn’t fly on TV because he has more freedom there.
Ji Sung and Jinyoung have known this from the start as well (that poster photoshoot), and it’s hard not to know that your character is gay when they’re staring at another for 95% of the show and undressing and oogling each other, or when the ending is 2 minutes of sappy staring. They knew.
The director in episode 8′s bts at 6:04 as Jinyoung and Jisung rehearse Gaon ditching Min Jung Ho: “Gaon’s become cute now that Yohan’s here”.
Jinyoung: nods.
Me: Okay we’re all in agreement clearly.
Rather than new fans being disappointed for it not being gay enough, I hope they can uplift this for what it is: a serious attempt to bring a gorgeous romance onscreen. Writer Moon Yoo Seok really said lawful husbands. He’s been saying it from the beginning.
Our team is the best of friends and I loved shining a light on each of their personalities. They each bring something different to the Special Investigation Department.
Nay, they’re more than friends. They’re family.
Drama: Guardian
Song: I’ll Be There For You
Artist: the Rembrandts
Edit: imsorryandthankyou
Do you think there's any show that could successfully be adapted for western audiences and all that would entail? I saw the post about why the west doesn't do rom-com shows generally, but if someone decided to take a chance, what would have the highest chance of breaking into the west?
BL With the Highest Chance of Breaking Into The West
Okay so taking Parasite as the Asian drama to beat? Or at least match up to. (Since it won best picture Oscar as a horror flick, which is a commercial genre category like romance, and everyone knows horror separates from romcom with a very slim line - mostly musical.) And let's consider Love, Simon as the latest mainstream success in the world of gay.
They aren't perfect baselines but Imma talk super broad brush strokes here.
Until We Meet Again could do it
It has the best story structure and most consistent acting over all. Also it's not a rom com so it would play better over here.
Also UWMA's narrative is just exactly Asian enough to be approachable. (Please don't get mad, I just think the reincarnation red thread mythos is easier to grok for confused westerners than the social structure, rural location, and heart transplant of 1000 Stars or the ghost and religious beliefs of He's Coming to Me which would be my other contenders.) It's our intelligence as a general audience I doubt, not Thailand's content.
The cooking aspect of UWMA is extremely relatable (even though it's Thai deserts) and as the small town baker trope is HUGE in contemporary romance and cozy mysteries right now I think this would be a big selling point.
Here's the broad changes it'd need:
It would have to be tightened up A LOT, it's a 17 hour run time and it could probably be cut back to half that, let's call it a 6-10 ep miniseries, like The Crown or Bridgeton. Western audiences are hugely impatient.
The series and each episode should open on DeanPharm, not KornIn. In fact, I would suggest making the KornIn story line stingers for each episode, not starters. Use their arc for cliff hanger tension instead of what it is now, which is mostly foreshadow.
More attention paid to background music, it'd have to be swapped out and altered.
Strip out all slapstick and sound effects, there aren't many but still, it all has to go. Yes, including Minaow falling all the time. Similarly, all product placement. Western audiences break suspension of disbelief with these elements, we tend to find them very jarring, and are likely to shut down and turn off as a result.
All English language logos have to be masked.
Specific Edits: KornIn
They'd have to put the trigger off screen and no blood spatter (it can be alluded too but not shown, otherwise there is fixed NC17 rating). Right now no USA based streaming service is going to pick UWMA up because of this specific content. You can't have blood spatter in a romance and hit the right audience demographic, restrictions are too high. The romance audience, mostly straight women, many of whom have children, is more likely to consider rating than any other audience. (AKA they want to watch something and not have to worry their kid might see some of it.)
I'd probably put a slight a sepia filter over their scenes as well. UWMA didn't do great on historical setting so far as wardrobe, makeup, set dressing, and hair were concerned. There has to be something more to alert audiences to the time slip.
The funeral scene would have to be a lot shorter. (See dwelling on the maudlin below.)
And like I said above, I'd rearrange placement of their timeline as well.
Specific Edits: DeanPharm
Should probably cut all the uni girls shipping and FB public shaming storyline at the beginning as well. This could all be axed without impacting plot and a general western audience wouldn't Understand any of it anyway.
They'd need to recut or fade out the kissing/sex scenes earlier because of the dubcon effect that Pharm's constant flinching and hunching gives. That's not considered necessary or sexy in western sex scenes, so it would have to be edited out to turn most audiences off. Since the kiss and intimacy scenes are pretty long running in this show, it wouldn't be difficult. (Also see above with the kids looking over shoulders.)
There's a lot of long cuts on Pharm crying that could be cut down/out too. Western audience don't like to dwell on the maudlin, it's considered overdramatic and in poor taste. There's an element of impatience with overt shows of emotion in a "YES we GET it" kind of way.
Honestly while this seems like a lot to do, it actually wouldn't be too difficult for a good editor to execute. There's a LOT of content to work with in UWMA.
Notice I don't have much to say about WinTeam?
They come off as very modern and easy with each other as a couple and I think this is one of the reasons they are so popular. Also their cuts and scenes are shorter and better paced (product placement is the only issue.)
Finally, I'd consider a dubbed version.
Don't get me wrong, I hate dubbed stuff, but in this instance it might work really well. There is a large romance consuming (TV watching) demographic that hate's captions, unfortunately likely to be the same demographic who would find the Thai language off-putting. (We talking LifeTime and Hallmark here.)
Thanks for the fun ask! I'm not sure I took this in the direction you wanted, but I enjoyed the thought experiment.
Imma add once again that I took this specifically on how to make a BL palatable for as big an audience as possible, so it will sell well and have as large a reach as possible.
Which means all my recommended edits are from a marketing perspective.
I'm not sure any of us would *like* the final version as much as the original. But that's kinda the point, it wouldn't be for us anymore.
I agree with every word @absolutebl wrote, except for 3 things:
1) the KORNIN scene at the beginning of the episodes. It was the part I really loved and enjoyed to watch. It was an introduction of the episode content and a “memento” for the red thread theme. So I wouldn’t change the order.
2) please don’t cut the kiss/ sex scenes! I’m a straight woman with a kid but they are just the point!
3) no need of a dubbed version. We are now accustomed to subs, and we enjoy to listen the real actors playing.
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