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 ...
There have been very few handful of gay films on China. Considering the very strict censorship laws there, its not surprising that these films are more of a homoerotic films with hints of love and no real action. Thankfully this film film did have a kissing and pseudo sexual scene but all in the end credits.
Film starts with Prince You coming back from a war and is attacked by assassins. A guard unknown to prince, named Long Yang comes to his protection, but eventually loses his life. HE sees that a token that was given this by the price has also broken and possibly. The prince has died too. Upon awakening though Long Yang finds himself having travelled back in time a year ago and he wants to use this opportunity to save the kings life. It turns out that the price had saved Long Yang's life when they were kids and had gifted him as a token. Long Yang reveals his identity to Prince You and before you realize they have an unbroken bond between them. He comes the prince's trusted advisor and bodyguard and a candid romance starts flourishing between them. This is not taken well by the process who is in love with prince and wants to marry him. She does her best to create misunderstandings between them to the extent that she even even accuses Long Yang of being part pf the conspiracy to kill the prince. She forces the prince to marry her but the prince soon realizes what game she is unto and manages to play trick where he and Long Yang can escape from the kingdom to there by live with each other in love.
At just about 75 minutes, the film went by pretty quick and in anyway its always nice to see elaborate kingdom sets. The problem here is the editing. If you do not pay attention, you can completely miss out on the time travel part and how the tings are being done right. At many places the scenes seemed completely disjointed. Its only later they show the reasoning and things fall in place. I am very sure that there are better ways of showing such sequences to the audience. I wish the film was more seamless rather than choppy edits that disrupt the flow of the narrative. The two male leads have excellent chemistry. The female lead playing the jealous princess does a good job in acting. You really end up hating her for forcing herself on the prince and blaming the poor Long Yang for the assassination plot. Thankfully the film has a happy ending and we even get to see the two boys kissing and undressing each other in the end credits. Overall, its not the greatest of film by any means, but it was nice pleasant distraction from the useless stuff that I have been seeing of late. (6/10)
Comments
And you are right about production too. Sometimes too good while really bad at other places.