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...
Felix is a young teenager, an over achiever and belongs to a poor family. Because he is super smart, he lives a very lonely friendless existence. When two new high school students, half-American brothers Magnus and Maxim join his school, his life takes a major turn. Since the brothers are not the most intelligent but have money, Magnus hires Felix to teach him for money since they are in same class. Maxim also uses Felix to do his homework. Felix finds himself feeling emotions like none before and finds himself drawn towards both, especially Magnus. We hear the backstory of the brothers' prostitue mother and their absent father. They both want to go to US but their father has remarried and the only way they can now go to US is if they were orphaned before they turned 18. Maxim comes up with a hineous plan with Felix to kill his own mother. Felix uses this secret to watch Maxim naked and jerk himself off but then still goes and tells Magnus. By now Felix is in love with him but Magnus refuses his advances. and in the process of saving his mother, Magnus also ends up dying, leaving Felix again alone all by himself.
The gay subcontext is here that Felix finds himself drawn to both the brothers sexually. Though he doesn't really make any physical advances towards Maxim, He totally fancies Magnus and is also afraid of his own feelings at the same time. It is an interesting underlying theme which is briefly touched upon without swaying away from the core theme. All the actors were really good and the 2 brothers were soooo cute. Felix plays the over achiever student whose family's financial situation is what's keeping him from attaining more than what he's capable of, plays the part to perfection. The Snyder brother's story was nice but could they really have been so rich was a little hard for me to digest but whatever. They were good actors and really easy on the eyes. Don't expect too much drama or gay scenes in the film.
The film is not boring and keeps you hooked at a decent length, but be prepared that it does not strictly fall in the gay genre. Nevertheless an interesting film. (5/10)
Comments
@hedgehog; Yeah i finally saw it. What dod you think of the film?
PS: I hope Luigi is ok. Haven't seen anthing from him in forever.