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...
3 couples (gay, lesbian and straight) come to a beach town near New York for the weekend. Each one wants to have a good time but internally each of them is going through their own problems. James and Spencer have been together for a while and are very much in love but Spencer has just been accepted into a grad school in Chicago and that seems to have put a discord in their relationship. Alex and Jackie, the lesbian couple , hasn’t had sex in ages and Alex is trying her best but feels constantly rejected by Jackie who has her own issues. And finally we have Liz and Dougie, who have recently started dating an dare in their honeymoon phase of constant sex but when Dougie admits he doesn’t know how to ride a bike, it drives a wedge between them. Each of them tries to talk about their problem with someone except their respective partner. Issues are raised, some fights happen and as expected everything is resolved by the time weekend comes to an end.
Storywise, it is as simple as what I mentioned and to be honest, the dialogues are also pretty lame; but thankfully its the acting that saves the film. I think the idea was to keep it as real as possible, but I really doubt that the couple who have been together for a few years talk this formally with each other using the sentences being used in the film “Let’s be in the moment” and “Just tell me how you f---ing feel!” There is way too much talking and after a while I started losing interest in thier story line because to be honest, even though the issues were trivial, they were made out to be of the utmost criticality and hence when I read somewhere talking of these as “first world problems”, I couldn’t have agreed more. The gay couple’s chemistry is the best one and for obvious reasons, I connected most with. They are also given some good funny dialogues which keeps the mood of the film light. Talking always helps and even in this case the conflict, miscommunication, and resentment in the group is eventually resolved.
A decent feature if you have nothing better to do. Its worth a watch only for the natural acting. (5/10)
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