I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
This film was supposed to be a low budget comedy with mob plots. It could have been interesting but there was something that was missing from the film. Maybe I will figure that out by the time i have finished writing this review. I would also like to mention that this is not primarily a gay cinema. There is an important gay couple and an important character but that itself does not make this film qualified for gay cinema but I can still review it here. A good old boy from the middle-class suburbs of Atlanta becomes indebted to the mob. Randy is about as American as baseball and apple pie. Randy's wife is a clinically depressed baton teacher who also suffers from a painful case of carpal tunnel syndrome, and his identical twin brother, Cecil, is openly homosexual. When Randy runs into financial trouble, he seeks a quick fix by borrowing money from some local mobsters. Unfortunately for Randy, all his businesses are still making very little money. Franco, a loan shark for the mob, w...