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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

By Golu
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...
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Best Day Ever

By Golu
Oh My God!! yes, we still make terrible shitty gay themed films, where we want all attention on ourselves and torture the audience. This film definitely falls into this category. It has a simple story but it has been stretched beyong belief and it just tests our patience.

David, an independent filmmaker, is turning 50 and is questioning his life, whether he has done something meaningful, whether he has found true love.. blah blah blah. Does he truly love his long term partner? We find out that they have a minor aragonite over dinner and they decide to split (what?). David’s friend then introduces him to his cousin Shane, who is a loner from Indiana and because David’s friend thinks that the two loners can make a life together. Sure enough, for whatever reason the two click together and finally David finds the true love.

Yes the story is that simple but the screenplay and the direction and the acting is terrible. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. David keeps going on and on about he is almost 50 and how he is going through mid-life crisis  to the extent that i want to strangle him to remind us again that he is soon going to be turning 50. We are supposed to empathise with David but on the contrary he is the one who sounds like a whining, bitchy, drama queen and why would anyone wanna be with him. Shane, for whatever unexplained reasons get attracted to David (really?). David keeps going on and on about his past, about his life, about true love. As a viewer you have stopped really caring about him just after the 10 minutes of the film. It's just all drama and moaning from the get go. Editing was bad. There were sudden jumps form scene to scene and some very obvious glitches. I feel that if I spend anymore time on writing worse things about this film, I would actually be doing a favour to the film.

A one man show of a miserable charmless man, full o drama and attention seeking. This is a big yawn. Don’t let the charming poster fool you. (2/10)
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Comments

luigi43 said…
The only reason I watched this movie was because of "Arizona Sky "'s director London. But ,U are right, no chances he will grow up. Same tears .
June 22, 2015 at 12:08 PM
Golu said…
And to think that I actually liked "Arizona Sky". Its sad. This film was really pathetic.
June 22, 2015 at 1:46 PM
ILHiker said…
I rewatched this tonight. I'm working my way through the Finnish miniseries All my Sins first season and enjoying it, but want to space it out a little, so just an episode a day. I didn't see a review of that one here, but I may have not searched well for it. I really like it so far. It reminds me of Mixed Kebab that I just watched in that it's an insular, conservative religious community, gay son with difficult father relationship, cultural nuance I think I'm missing, and a little violence thrown in. I don't think they're really similar, but those things jumped out due to the proximity in my seeing them.

Back tho Best Day Ever, I guess. I have some affection for the movie, liking the character of the new boyfriend in particular. That said, it feels more like some static scenes rather than drama that builds and has a narrative. It's like the dinner party where the couple tells you they met like this. I had to fast forward through the scenes with the first boyfriend. They lack dramatic intensity and are just grating. Overall, it's just a sense of telling, not showing, and repetitive and almost derivative of his past characters and movies. I see some good in it, but have to look hard for it. Your review is spot on.
October 12, 2022 at 9:10 PM
Golu said…
you are right that a coherent story telling was sorely missing in the film.
October 13, 2022 at 8:33 AM
ILHiker said…
I finished up All The Sins. It got exciting and I couldn't stick to my one episode a day plan. It reminds me of a Peanuts comic run from the 60s where Snoopy was going to read War and Peace, but only one word a day. I really liked All the Sins. There are two lead characters, both of whom have some clear character flaws and troubled histories. The gay character starts out in counseling with his boyfriend because he has hit his boyfriend. He's closed off and can't participate. He takes a murder investigation in a small conservative town to the north where he grew up and was rejected for being gay. There is a whole backstory and culture that becomes both to his character and to the plot. He's also incredibly attractive, which I don't know if influenced my opinion or not. The other lead investigator is a woman who also carries a troubled history, but her past is not in the town, though it still comes to her and she has to deal with it as well. In some ways it felt less like a murder mystery with that kind of suspense and guessing and more like a drama, which is perhaps a bit odd given the three-person body count. There's a second season, but I don't see it anywhere and it's a sort of prequel, and I'm generally anti-those. Looks like a third coming as well though. I won't seek it out, but if I come across it I'll give it a watch as well.
October 13, 2022 at 7:54 PM
Golu said…
Amazing. I think I have seen only one scene.
October 14, 2022 at 11:28 AM
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