Skip to main content

Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

By Golu
This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat.  The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
Post a Comment

A Round Trip to Love (Chinese)

By Golu
This is a 2 part Chinese mini series that spans over a period of 10 years. It primarily focuses on different aspects of love; pure love, obsession, heart break and even rape (odd.. right?). Story wise, this is an interesting subject but I feel somewhere the execution left a little more to be desired.

Lu Feng and Xiao Chen are dormmates in college. The year is 2005 and we see that Lu Feng really likes the dorky twink Xiao Chen and eventually succeeds in wooing him and soon they fall in love with each other. But as expected, when the families find out, they dont react very well to this. Lu Feng's father ships him off to Hong Kong while Xiao Chen's mother makes him promise her that he will never see him again. Lu Feng never stops writing letters to Xiao Chen but never gets a response. Five years pass, the year is 2010 and Lu Feng comes back to China as CEO of the company where Xiao Chen works. The two men reconnect again and this time fall in love even more since they have to catch up. Incidentally Xiao Chen's brother is also gay and has a steady boyfriend unknown to the mother. On one of the holidays when Xiao Chen's mother sees him with Lu Feng she gets a heart attack and is hospitalized. Thinking of it as his fault, Xiao Chen pulls away from Lu Feng. In frustration Lu ends up beating Xiao Chen's brother who gets paralysed. The mother is unable to bear what's going around her, she makes Xiao Chen promise that he will marry a girl and eventually dies. When Lu Feng's father finds out reasons why Lu Feng refused to marry a rich girl, he cuts him off his wealth. Xiao Chen decides to get married to an old friend who knows everything about his part. Five more years pass, the year is 2015. Xiao Chen's brother has recovered completely and Xiao Chen is married with a kid. He is called to Korea for work, which turns out to be for a company owned by Lu Feng who has now changed his name. His idea was to kidnap Xiao Chen and take revenge. Xiao is disgusted by the whole idea and refuses to acknowledge his love for Lu Feng. Lu Feng keeps him as his prisoner and rapes and tortures him. Luckily Xiao Chen's brother figures out what's going on and calls cop on them. In a fight Xiao Chen gets shot in the chest and is hospitalized. Lu Feng leaves in a helicopter in a very bad weather and looks like he may not survive. The end is not absolutely clear but it feels like both the boys will die to reunite in heaven.

I have very mixed feelings about the film. The story was novel and they showed good character graph and growth but somehow something was missing. I was seeing their love, the pain, the separation and the longing but somehow I was unable to empathize or connect with them. I don't think the acting was bad. In fact it was above average, but it may have something to do with the direction and sometimes over the top reactions. Contrary to the lead actors, I found the love story of Xiao Chen's brother more believable and real. We know in most Asian countries, it is not uncommon to bow down to your parents wishes, so in that sense I didn't find anything odd when Xiao Chen sacrifices his love to "do the right thing". But the third act where Lu Feng goes all out crazy was weird. I mean it came out of nowhere. I can understand he is hurt that Xiao Chen decided to get married but it is weird that not even for a second he regrets or is ready to accept the blame for being the reason for Xiao Chen's brothers paralysis. So, as much as Lu loved Xiao, it seemed very selfish. It felt the relationship was all about him and his hapiness and he was ok to dominate Xiao Chen to get he wanted. And maybe this is what Xiao Chen realizes in third act and refuses to give into his demands. The whole part was odd. The first two acts were nice where we see the love blossoms and some nice interactions between the 2 couples. I don't think there would have been a right ending to the show so whatever was shown makes sense.

Having seen some recent really good Thai BL dramas, I thin my expectations were a little higher although historically I keep very low expectations with asian queer films and series. Its not bad at all but nothing great. (6/10)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Phor Lae Lukchai (Thai) [Father & Son]

By Golu
I think the budget of this film was probably too small, but for that, the film definitely offers a different and unique storyline without over dramatizing anything. Yes, some scenes were a bit amateurish but in the bigger scheme of things, that can be overlooked. The film is both beautiful and sad in its own unique way. Aek is a gay dad, whose partner died right around the time their son Nueng was born through surrogacy in a road accident. The relationship between father and son is unpleasant and unstable. We are not really told why, but it seems the father has been unsuccessful in caring and loving his son because of his partner's death. Aek continues to hook up wit hookers. Also, Nueng is constantly bullied by everyone around him for having a gay dad. He has no friends, except Nat, a neighborhood boy, who also happens to be Nueng's boyfriend. In a sudden turn of events Nat is found murdered along with another boy naked. Saddened by the events, Nueng jumps from roof and k...
1 comment
Read more

Sei no Gekiyaku (Japanese) [Dangerous Drugs of Sex]

By Golu
Every person has their own unique way of dealing with loss. This film is as much a psychological thriller as it is a soft porn BDSM portrayal of two young men that makes the film overall horrifying as well as humane. It is really hard to describe the genre of this film in one word. Its important not that the film has some really disturbing scenes so if you go into seeing this film, please proceed with caution. Although any sexual non-consensual activity is not ok, this film has its won strange way of showing that suicide is not the only solution to all life's problems. Makoto is a regular office goer, who just finds out that his girlfriend is probably cheating on him. ON top of it, his parents sudden death coming back from a trip that he forced them to take, he gets completely dejected and decides to commit suicide. Unknown to him, he is saved by mysterious man Yoda Ryoji, and he wakes up finding himself tied up in leather and belts in a very BDSM setting. This mysterious saver soo...
3 comments
Read more

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

By Golu
Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin...
5 comments
Read more