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...
Another collection of 8 short english films from various film festival circuits.
"Steam" : A super buff party boy gets all steamed up. "Silver Road" : At the end of an idyllic summer on the farm, Danny finally acts on his desire for his best friend, Mark? What happens next.
"Traces" : Julian dies in a car accident and thats when his father realizes that he was gay and was living in the same city with his boyfriend. Sometimes parental love can trump homophobia; and sometimes the truth comes out too late.
"Just" : Two buff Asian guys (one 23, one 32) have relatively anonymous hot sex after meeting online. The younger man is offended when he finds out that the older one is cheating on his boyfriend. A very well written and beautifully shot short about the ideals of monogamy.
"Laundromat" : 2 guys have just moved in and are having a hard time living together after being boyfriends for 2 years. A chance encounter with an elderly man who lost his partner teach them the value of trying and living each day at a time.
"Seeing You in Circles" : On the night of his 30th birthday Jerome asks his ex-boyfriend Wade to meet him. The insensitive Wade brings along his latest squeeze Cal. This drama is of grown up gay men learning to, well, grow up.
"Waiting for Yvette" : Humorous yet poignant meeting of the Gay Men’s Tuesday Night A.A. Scheduled for her final gender reassignment surgery, will this be Yvette’s last meeting? Or not.
"Babysitting Andy" : The best story of the entire collection. What do you do if you’re 9 years old and nobody will tell you what “fellatio” means? If you’re as devious as Andy, you corner your gay uncle and his boyfriend with a Supersoaker and demand answers. Funny
As is the case with short movies, some are good and others are bad. The god part is that you have have to sit through for more han an hour for the bad films to finish. A decent watch. (5/10)
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