I've always had kind of a love hate relationship with Chinese historical BLs. Some are genuinely excellent, but then there are others that cram in so much plot that keeping track of all the layers of betrayal and scheming gets exhausting, and I end up checking out mentally. Part of the issue is also just how much content is out there in this space, so something really has to stand out to keep me hooked. In this case, the production value is genuinely impressive, top tier stuff, but story wise, I just couldn't bring myself to actually care about these characters. There's a ton of political scheming and backstage manipulation running throughout. Somewhere in the middle of all that chaos, a hostage ends up falling for his own Prince Charming. The show runs eight episodes, each around 50 to 60 minutes long. After spending three years guarding the border, Fifth Prince Yin Qi gets called back to the capital because of a secret letter, only to end up walking straight into a deadly...
Its hard to classify this movie as strictly under gay genre. Or maybe its not. Because our primary character is gay and it does show the real hardships faced by him in his life. Based on the diving champion Greg Louganis on his book, the movie takes us deep inside how Greg's childhood was, how was his relationships with other people, how he became the great Olympic champion that he was and much more.Greg Louganis is adopted child in his family. His father is not particularly fond of him as a kid but his mother does notice that he is passionate about diving. WIth proper coaching and mentoring, they make sure he gets to do what he likes. Greg's mother is always shown close to him and his father always being that angry man who is not too fond of him because he is not good at reading. Down the line Greg starts living in with a guy Keith and after living together for a while, Keith moves out because he is not comfortable with the fact that Greg would not accept that he is gay in public. Greg always lives in this fear that people wont accept him the way he is. Its shown that Greg has always lived in a fear where all he wants is people o love him , like him and he having a family around him. During his swimming classes , he becomes best friends with Megan who stands by him always. Greg starts getting gold medal nationally and even in Olympics. He meets Tom one day and soon they move together. Over a period of time Tom starts taking advantage of Greg by using up all his money, becomes his manager, and also cheats on him all because Greg cannot read. And ultimately after they find that Tom is positive, he probably is the man who made Greg HIV positive as well. Anyways ultimately Greg becomes the world champion with breaking all sorts of records.
The movie is very true to the book and depicts different phases of Greg's life. His relationship with is Dad improves towards the end when his father is dying and how he takes his being HIV positive status in his stride and doesn't want to hide things anymore. This probably is one of the reason he wrote his biography. The most touching scene for me was when a son and father come to get Greg's signature on his book and the son says that I thought I will come out t o my father by giving this book to read. Mario Lopez looks HOT! HOT ! (as always) and has acted the main character very well. Others are ok.
A very good biographical movie which teaches you how to strengthen your inner confidence and how life is about being together or each other. (6.5/10)
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