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 film is told in flashback by means of the lead character Henry by a reporter and the events being discussed happened 6 months ago. Henry, a teenager, is the only son of Republican senator, who is up for re-elections. Being conservative, the senator condemns homosexuality, not knowing Henry himself is gay. The senator plans to kick off his re-election campaign at a luncheon at Henry's college campus and he expects Henry to deliver his introduction so that he can influence the youth of today. Henry doesn’t have a good relation with his father at all but somehow he is forced to agree to his father’s demands. We also meet Anthony, a gay activist who despises the senator. co-incidentally the two meet at a party and end up sleeping together just the night before this talk needs to happen. When Anthony finds out about who Henry is, he conspires with campus gay activist group to boycott the senator’s speech. On the day, after Henry reluctantly does introduction for his father, he just cannot bear lies after lies that his father speaks. He kisses Anthony in front of national media, outing himself before activists have a chance. By this time Anthony realizes that he has made a mistake but its too late and Henry soon finds out the truth too. Six months later now, Henry doesn’t have any relation with his father and hasn’t also spoken to Anthony since then.
Ten minutes into the film and I thought that the handling of the subject wasn’t very professional given that this is not a very old film. The lighting is crap and the camera work is distracting and shaky. The movie also had a lot of side stories which didn’t really add too much to the main story. The whole scenes when Henry’s mother sends an eager young Republican student head to Palm Springs to fetch the son after he runs away, was totally extended for no reason. I am not too sure what was the point in showing the camaraderie between Henry and the guy. Then we had Izzie who was Anthony’s room mate. Her role has HIV+ girls who recently lost her boyfriend started to get on my nerves. Again, I am not very sure what purpose was the movie trying to solve, when she comes under the Senator’s car and the couple takes care of her to the extent that they invite her to sit with them. Instead of broadening the scope to other characters, if the plot had Henry torn between his lover and his family. There wasn’t just enough drama. Thankfully, both the actors do quite a decent job of enacting their parts. Henry is charming and Anthony has his activist agenda but not enough ground is established between them to show sudden affection between the two men in a matter of just a day.
The film isn’t awful but could have been so much better with better production quality, better screenplay and better camerawork. (4.5/10)
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