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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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Norwegian Dreams (Polish/English)

By Golu
A journey of self discovery about a 19 year old Polish young boy working in Norway. The film tries to look at multiple social factors, your upbringing, surroundings etc and try and highlight why it's hard for our main character to come out and be open about his sexuality. The film revolves around young and queer individuals, vulnerability, and what it means to be an outsider. It balances these themes successfully and raises important questions while hinting at answers. The film also explores the tension between traditional masculinity and queerness, as well as the conflicts arising from national and social boundaries. Norwegian Dream is an impressive film with a strong message.

19 year old Robert has just moved from Poland to Norway to wrk in a fish factory, like many other immigrants form his country to support his family back home since he and his mother have huge debt. He is hiding his sexuality, because he has noticed how his friends make fun of Ivar, an out and proud man, working in the fish factory, with slick dance moves, and interestingly also happens to be the boss' son. Ivar is also an aspiring drag artist, something that doesn't stand well with his father. Robert finally gives into his hot and cold attitude towards Ivar, telling him his story of gay bashing, fear of being gay in Poland and why is he in closet. This is when Ivar would have none of hiding things. But things start to change as a union is being formed in the factory. Many workers including Robert and Ivar become part of it, but when they go on strike, Robert needs to take a decision. The boss finds out about Ivar and Robert and almost blackmails him to continue to work with bonus of more money and better apartment. All of his Polish friends and Ivar is also very much disappointed about his actions. Eventually Robert sees things of what really the boss is trying todo, joins the strike, but his struggle of publicly accepting Ivar as his lover still says. He takes one step of publicly talking to Ivar in front of his friends, which he didn't do before, but the film ends at a cross road of where this relationship will eventually head to.

This film was nice to watch mostly for its beautiful nature and cinematography. A gay romance, though unfortunately it's not fully developed, with the background of the machines of a fish factory is an interesting mix. I believe the idea was to show the life of a queer migrant from Poland, where it is not easy to be out gay, and how to balance that with your basic needs of survival. I did like the organic growth of friendship and relationship between Ivar and Robert, but I wasn't happy to see Ivar's almost push to Robert to come out. Surely, everyone has their story and they take time, especially if one is from a country where it isn engrained in your brain that being gay is wring. So rather than trying to understand Robert's point of view, he almost brushes him off, during the time Robert is trying to accept himself. I mean, the two boys are just starting to see each other. How much pressure can a 19 year old really handle? Growing amount of financial debt, social acceptance, sexuality and pretty much no support from anyone, not even the one who you think you can love! It's not easy. The film thankfully doesn't have any over the top dramatic scenes and handles every situation with respect and maturity. The lead actors look good but I wish they had better chemistry. By the time the film ended, I was a tiny bit disappointed, because I felt that the film could have shown us more about the love story, but I also do understand that creating risky subjects like this for Poland is not easy.So I do appreciate the efforts put in. I mean, it's still a nice, warm and beautiful poignant film about struggles of a 19 year old, who has to go through the test of his loyalty to Ivar, as he negotiates their relationship and his place in the strike. It looks at the stark choices people are forced to sometimes make for love. A sombre drama about a young adult trying to break free in more ways than one. (7.5/10)
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