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...
Carlos is a middle age bearish language schoolteacher who frequently visits the local cruising ground after work where gay men, lesbians and teenagers find fleeting sexual partners. One afternoon he recognises one of his students, Toni, wondering through the woods with his friends. After class the next day, Toni asks Carlos for a ride, and the two end up having hot and steamy sex in the back of the car. While Carlos is adamant this is a one-time thing, Toni’s youthful innocence makes him develop a crush on the teacher. Despite his wishes to keep it a one-night stand, Carlos and Toni meet again. On the side we also see a group of teenage friends, all of them pretty much been dejected by their lovers, hanging out together inside and outside the forest dong something which is never very clear. Anyway, towards the end of the film Carlos and Toni are started outside the school and are given a lift by these “teenagers” who sexually tease Carlos and end up going to his home. It eventually results in a tragedy, that was probably mastermind of the group with Toni as one of the members.
Like I mentioned before, the film was quite confusing. There is an effort to make the film mysterious, but the confusion of what is even happening gets in the way. It is never made clear who these random bunch of teenagers are and whats Toni’s connection with them. The erotic love making scenes between Carlos and Toni are ok but most of the film is set is such dark, its really hard to comprehend whats going on. The music of the film is jarring. It feels so out of context and forced. There is nothing much good about the film. As viewer, I didn’t empathise with any character or even did identify with them. Was this supposed to be horror because it was not? Were the teenagers some sort of vampires? I don’t know! They were more like sex-driven zombies.
I think, this film was director’s self-indulgence to give the zombie-vampire-horror genre a new style but in my opinion it fails miserably. (3/10)
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