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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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Ro Narukisosu (Japanese) [Old Narcissus]

By Golu
Honestly I am not sure how I feel about this film. Six years ago, a short film with same name, same lead actor and same story came and was probably a nice medium to tell this story. The film as it stands , stretches to almost 2 hours and doesn't really have much significant additional to say. Sure, its an interesting exploration of getting old, while being single and gay; but the makers also seem confused on whether to focus on queer aging issues, or kink, or old memories, or escort working; or something totally different.

The film starts with a 70-something aging gay man Yamazaki hiring a young escort Leo for an S&M session. Leo freaks and waits for him to be back. This is when Yamazaki tells him, he is ok and they hang out. Turns out he is a famous kids picture book writer, who was handsome as a young man and was always in love with himself. With Leo, now for first time he is falling in love with someone else. Leo, on the other hand, has  had a boyfriend for two years who is a simple working man and ha son issues with Leo's profession but he wants a committed partnership to make it official, but Leo is not sure. Through his love for Leo, Yamazaki finally comes to terms with and begins to forge the relationships he failed to carve during his youth with his friends and family. He visits an old love of his from his younger days with whom he could not be himself, but seeing him happy with his family doesn't sit well with him. He tries to officially adopt Leo as his partner but Leo makes him see reason. Eventually Leo realizes his true is with his boyfriend and meanwhile Yamazaki realizes he just needs to continue writing books and carve more friendships.

This film tries to delve into both the history and the current situation of stigma against queer peoples and the refusal of Japanese society to see them on equal footing as straight folk through the perspective of both the young and the old. But somehow it fails to really make a point. I understand that the perspective is from the older man' point of view, but Leo, here is a very important character. I would have liked to know more about his side of story. Why is he so much into the older guy (we know he didn't have father, but that can't be reason enough)? Why doesn't he want to commit to his loving boyfriend and also then why not accept Yamasaki's proposal? We never get to see and understand any of that. Yamazaki is also an interesting character. As pointed out by his bar owner gay friend, he is always full of himself and has never cared or loved anyone else and it hasn't change much until Leo appeared. But then what? Did Leo inevitably became an inspiration for him to write more books? What happened to the whole cancer situation, which is completely ignored towards the end. I feel like the director wanted to sy a few things but eventually got caught up in miss-mash of various things to eventually make a relevant statement towards the end. (4.5/10)
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