Television series
The Untamed
Sprawling, extravagantly costumed and quietly devoted to its two leads, this fifty-episode wuxia mystery follows two young cultivators reunited sixteen years after tragedy tore them apart. Adapted from a genre-defining boys' love novel and stripped of anything explicit by censors, the romance survives entirely in glances, sworn oaths and grief. It's slow, ornate and demands patience — and rewards it completely.
If you liked this
Word of Honor2021
The clearest heir to The Untamed's throne — another censorship-coded wuxia romance built around a wounded, devoted partnership and a sprawling martial-world conspiracy, with real chemistry between the leads.
But It leans even harder into camp and lower-budget effects, and the pacing sags badly through the middle stretch.
Nirvana in Fire2015
Trade fantasy sects for palace intrigue: disciplined Chinese costume drama built on a revenge plot and a friendship as devoted as Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's, minus any romantic reading.
But It's political rather than romantic, and the scheming is dense enough that you'll want subtitles you can pause.
Guardian2018
Same lane, spikier tone: a demon-hunting buddy pair with unmistakable chemistry, censored mid-broadcast, campy modern-fantasy visuals and a genuinely moving relationship underneath the low budget.
But The special effects are cheap even by the genre's standards, and the tonal whiplash between comedy and horror won't suit everyone.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Farewell My Concubine1993
Same engine — two men whose loyalty to each other outlasts every institution around them — but stripped of fantasy trappings and censorship, and set against real historical atrocity rather than invented mythology.
Chen Kaige's masterpiece follows two Peking opera performers whose bond survives decades of war, revolution and each other's marriages — the devotion The Untamed codes in glances, made explicit and devastating.
But It's a tragedy without a redemptive fantasy ending, spanning fifty brutal years of Chinese history — bring tissues, not popcorn.
More like this (7)
Eternal Love2017no page yet
If you came for the star-crossed, multi-lifetime devotion, this xianxia romance delivers it straight — gods, immortals, reincarnation, and a love that survives literal centuries.
But It's unabashedly melodramatic and the CGI wire-work has aged like most 2017 Chinese fantasy — that is, not gracefully.
Joy of Life2019no page yet
For the mystery-solving, wits-over-swords side of The Untamed: a court-intrigue drama with a hero smarter than everyone around him and a central friendship that carries real weight.
But It's talkier and more procedural than wuxia, with less swordplay and far more scheming courtiers.
The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity2020no page yet
Two mismatched demon-hunting partners, a mystery-of-the-week structure and gorgeous production design make this a natural next stop for the investigative half of The Untamed's DNA.
But The central pair's bond is played more for banter than ache, and the plotting can feel episodic rather than epic.
Legend of Fei2020no page yet
A scrappier, more action-forward wuxia adventure with clan politics, hidden identities and a heroine who fights her way through the same kind of sprawling martial world.
But It trades the aching two-hander at The Untamed's centre for a wider ensemble, so that specific intensity is diluted.
Love Between Fairy and Devil2022no page yet
Lighter and funnier than The Untamed but built on the same bones — a fated pair from opposing worlds, gorgeous set design, and a slow devotion that sneaks up on you.
But It's fluffier and far less morally complicated; if you loved the moral weight of The Untamed's plot, this will feel thin.
Banana Fish2018no page yet
Both hinge on one young man's near-mythic devotion to protecting another against an entire corrupt world — The Untamed's romantic-coded found-family plot, replayed as noir-inflected anime tragedy.
This anime reworks a devoted, protective bond between two young men into a modern crime thriller soaked in trauma and violence — the same ferocious loyalty, entirely different genre clothes.
But It's much darker and more sexually and physically violent than anything in The Untamed, with a bleaker emotional register throughout.
Brokeback Mountain2005
The Untamed spends fifty episodes encoding its romance in sworn oaths and lingering stares because it has to; Brokeback Mountain says outright what censorship forced The Untamed to imply.
Ang Lee's film takes the exact shape of The Untamed's central ache — two men bound by a love the world won't permit — and tells it plainly, without a single fantasy metaphor to hide behind.
But There's no mystery plot, no ensemble, no genre spectacle to soften it — just two hours of quiet, accumulating heartbreak.
People
Cast
Recommended by
The Dragon Prince, Koukyuu no Karasu, Nirvana in Fire, Word of Honor