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...
The movies is about what it is like to be gay, and how hard it can be to come out of the closet when you have homophobic friends etc. It follows the stories of a little group of students, who all participate in a dance/drama class. Watching this might remind you of the series 'Glee' but it has nothing to do with it. This film is more episodic in the sense that it focuses on one character at a time and shows their story.
The issues regarding homosexuality is brought to the class' attention when their new, gay teacher begins. All of the characters are dealing with emotional issues, both homophobic friends, family issues and school bullying. The film then shows us details of 6 different students who are dealing with this. There is tomboyish Lee who everyone thinks is lesbian. She doesn't care. Her best friend is Karmel. Lee soon finds out that Karmel is lesbian. Initially surprised, she soon accepts it and remains friends. Though Karmel is at the same time having a tough time coming out to her family. We also have Tegs and Jordan. Tegs is bullied in college by everyone and Jordan is his saviour. Tegs is labelled gay and is bullied. It turns out that Jordan is the one who is gay and loves Tegs but Tegs is actually straight. Their friendship still remains intact when Teg starts seeing a girl from the class and Jordan starts dating her brother. Last group is Issac and Ryan. They are the bullies of the college and gay bashers. Although slowly we are shown that Ryan is gay and actually likes Tegs but is so afraid of Issac finding out about his sexuality that he ends up supporting him to bash Tegs. Ultimately the whole group comes together alongwith the dance teacher to make both Issac and Ryan realize the truth and that their friendship should have nothing to do with one of their sexuality.
Since the film was episodic in nature, it really did not have a set story to show. It also got a little too preachy and educational at times specially during the scenes of gay group sessions. It was initially hard for me to believe that the film as recently made in 2010 because some of the reactions of the teenagers were more like late 90's, I think (hope?) that people's mentalities are much more mature now than it was few years ago, specially in countries like UK. Acting wise everyone was ok. Dancing was the center point that brought all these characters together, though so many gays in one single class looked a bit extreme. The film ties to show that some kind of resolution, even if not yet found, is possible.
Accent was heavy but aimed at teenagers, the film might be good for them. (4/10)
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