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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

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...

Go West (Bosnia Herzegovina - Serbo Croatian)

This is a powerful story about both love and hate reaching across ethnic and religious boundaries. This portrayal of the oppression and discrimination that existed in Bosnia-Herz. And thats what this movie tells us about, the love that Milan and Kenan have for each other.

Kenan, a Muslim and Milan an Serb are same sex couple. Because of all the war and everything, both their public and intimate life is in danger. Kenan is an artist who plays violin. They decide to move to Milan's village but Kenan's life would be in danger because he is a Muslim. In order to pass through the Christian Serb area, Kenan poses as a girl and Milan's wife. The trick works but they have to continue with the trick till they reach the village because its the same story in the village for a Muslim guy plus the fact that they are a same sex couple. Once in the village, Milan's father Ljubo tries to gather papers etc for them to flee to Netherlands. Soon Ranka, a woman who works for Ljubo discovers the truth about Kenan. Since Milan by this time has gone to war and Ranka desperately needs a man, she keeps this secret but only because she wants to have sex with Kenan which she does. When Milan comes back from the war for a vacation, Ranka asks Kenan to forget him and marry her but Kenan refuses. Ranka is considered to be a bad lady who practices black magic and using that she gets Milan killed in the war. Ljubo then finds out the truth and somehow him with help of Milan's best friend who had always known the truth help Kenan out of the village towards the west.

The story was interesting for me because I had no idea of the political history of war etc in Yugoslavia. The story was also good and novel with good acting by primary characters. Both the story and characters were very believable. Maybe we as outsiders wont appreciate the movie as much as the people who belong to Bosnia-Herz are would do. But still a good cinema is a good cinema. Apparently the director of the movie had been threatened for life because of showing same sex love story

A good watch for people who appreciate quality cinema. (7/10)

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