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

Come Into Your Own

By Golu
Here we go again. Yet another self-indulgent film, where the director probably insisted to play the lead of the film as well. Yes, sexual identity is a complicated thing. We have seen many films showing a supposedly straight character realizing he is gay but not many come to mind about a reversal scenario. So, in that sense, it is interesting concept but the purpose or the message behind the film is never clear.

Lirim has been with his boyfriend for about 3 years. Their friends wedding suddenly makes his boyfriend also want to marry Lirim, but something is going on with Lirim. As a person he is a recluse and doesn't talk much. A middle aged man at work is his only friend. One day when he suddenly find a broken cell phone, he ends up meeting Audrey, who is owner of the phone. They have some sort of connection, which I guess further confuses Lirim. He randomly decides to break up with his boyfriend when he proposes him and starts living with his colleague/friend for a few nights. During this time he also starts dating Audrey without telling her the truth about himself. They end up getting physical and Lirim is enjoying this new phase. Despite warnings from his friend that Lirim should tell her the real story, he doesn't do that. One evening at an important party, Lirim's ex-bf is also present and the truth eventually comes out. Audrey asks Lirim to go away and figure out what he wants from life. He says, he is gay, he has always been but he is self discovering. And the film just ends presumably with the idea that Lirim is leaving town on a self discovery trip.

The biggest flaw of the film is it never really goes into the idea of sexuality itself. One day the man has a boyfriend , next day girlfriend and third day, no one. There is absolutely no explanation on why is his behavior so irrational. And why we, the audience, would care at all about him. There is no explanation given on why there seems to be a friction between the two men. They have absolutely zero chemistry and were really looking like they were forced to be together in the same room. Maybe someone went through these events in real life, but clearly they didn't learn much from it and the makers didn't care either. All characters talk and put their hearts on sleeve about what's going on in thier head but Lirim is the only one self centered guy. Lirim fails both as an actor and a director. He doesn't have the either the charm or the talent to sustain a full fledged film completely on his own. At the very least, it was important to understand the character and what's going on inside that head before you direct and act.

This is waste of time. I have seen worse films, I will admit, but really, there is absolutely nothing to look forward to in this film. (3/10)
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