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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 ...
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Hui jia lu shang (Mandarin) [The Road Home]

By Golu
Is this really a queer film? Probably not! This film is more about self acceptance for being who you are, proud of being who you are and trying to do do the right thing. This is a story of a father who is torn between an unexpected love and the love and respect of his daughter.

Ah Ming lives with his daughter Xiao Feng but they have a troubled relationship where the daughter doesn't talk to her father at all. Turns out her mother left her when she was a baby and Ah Ming has been taking care of her even though he is not his biological father. One day she suddenly disappears and through police he finds out that she was seen in Taipei. Turns out that Xiao Feng went there to meet her online friend, another guy but the guy who shows up is an older man. When Ah Mind finds them both, the old guy is rushed to hospital and now Ah Ming and Xiao Feng are both interested in finding the truth behind that man. With Unearthing the truth about the old man, Ah Ming also needs to confront and tell the truth about himself and his gay lover to his daughter, who apparently has known all along. In their quest, the father and daughter grow closer and try to understand each other, facing their problems and Ming's secret together.

Even though the film was poignant and all about self acceptance and also love and family, a lot more exploration and attention needed to be given to the love story between Ah Ming and his guy. The subject was hardly touched upon only towards the end. Given that Ah Ming's sexuality is one of the major reason for the weird behavior by the daughter, it needed more focus. Also, the lover was so damn handsome, so I am quite unhappy by seeing him only barely for 2 minutes in this long movie. I wanted more of this couple. Secondly, what was the daughter's real issue? That was never addressed. Was she being bullied or something else? Why would she take her anger out at her father who was just trying to take care of him. I did like Ah Ming's friend character, The girl who secretly loves Ah Ming and wants to bewitch him but how things change when she realizes that Ah Ming is actually gay. Her character going through disbelief, anger, sadness and acceptance was allot more etched out than any of the other ones, the focus son whom should have been much more important. The acting was top notch from everyone thankfully. The secret angle of the older man who had a trans son and how he did not accept him was alright, but then why would he go around chatting online with young teenagers didn't make any sense!! So, essentially even though the film had soul and emotion , there were way too many loose ends and unexplained character behaviors which make it hard to comprehend for me. (4/10)
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