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...
A classic case of getting deceived by the dvd cover. The cover shows a beefy black torso and no one in the film is remotely close to that. Its sad that this is how the marketing of gay films has to be done.
Seth is a youth with artistic leanings, a fascination with Black pop culture, and a dead-end life in an Adirondack village. He's alternatively sensitive and brutal with Kristen, who wants a sexual relationship that he explosively rejects. Late one night, as he's closing the cafe where he works, a young Black man attempts to rob him at gun point but faints from illness. Seth takes the man, Knowledge, an escapee from a nearby prison, to a family cabin where he nurses him and they begin a tentative friendship. Knowledge sees his only hope for survival as an outlaw being an escape across the Canadian border and the two plan for this adventure, Seth suffering setbacks from a town turned against him, and it is in the escape attempt that the tragedies occur that leave the story with many subtexts.
Maybe my timing o watch this film was not right or something. I read excellent reviews of this film and somehow this film did not do anything for me. I thought it was bad, slow, pointless and everything. Maybe I am missing something that everyone else saw in it. But hey I still am entitled to an opinion.
I did not like it. (2/10)
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