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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

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...

In Their Room: London/Berlin/SF

An experimental film (can this be called a film?), this is the kind of cinema that is totally not my type. I still fail to understand what’s the objective. The film shares nothing new with us, it shows every facet of living as a gay person and what you emotionally go through every day. All it does possibly is give us a moment to reflect on parts of our lives that many of us may not be very comfortable saying out loud.

The film is divided in three segments and 3 locations: San Francisco, Berlin and London. It documents the lives of gay men within the intimacy of their bedrooms, taking the form of observations of personal habits, sexual encounters and direct to camera interviews on subjects such as sexual preferences, attitudes to relationships and cultural comment. San Fransisco segment is about 20 minute focusing on 8 individuals in their home alone and naked most time exposing intimate details of their thoughts on love and sex. Second segment of Berlin is a bit longer and among other things also focuses on 2 couple: one who does silly normal things in their privacy while the other is between a German and an American who are just discovering the pleasures of dating and hookup. Third part in London continues with the same pattern but by now we start to feel a lot more lonely as single gay men.

As you would expect, there is quiet a bit of nudity in this. All characters were always naked and we also get to see some graphic sexual scenes. It is hard to judge or believe on how much of this is scripted vs how much is someone’s natural thoughts. Especially for me, its hard to imagine how and why would someone be ok going about their daily life with a camera in the presence. Blatantly put, I think this as more pornographic than a compelling human drama, given hat I already mentioned above that we all go through all these thoughts and emotions ourselves. Please do not waste your time on this. (2/10)

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