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...
Within first few minutes after he kills one of his male lovers, our protagonist tells us how he is dealing with issues of lust and killing and he can’t control it. He comes as Nick to Berlin and rents a room from Philipp. Philipp loves his charm and good looks and also introduced him to his best friend Lily. Clearly both of them are charmed by Nick and at the same time Nick systematically seduces them both. Lily with his charm and love and Philip with his friendship, although clearly Philipp has feelings for him. Nick is also sad about this whole thing because even though he genuinely likes both of these folks, he knows he will eventually have to kill them. In between all this, he cruises a gay man and kills him in second meeting and also follows a girl and kills her. As expected in the end he kills Philipp and Lily as well even though he deeply regrets it. And he is onwards to Paris as his next destination.
I am still not sure what the whole point of the film was and how and when did murdering someone and chaperoning their bodies through buildings and parks became that easy! He easily kills his gay guy target in the park. He carries Philipp’s body, undresses him and throws him in a lake and no one notices. He take Lily’s body also in the park. The cops come out as whimps in this whole situation. I can understand from Philipp and Lily’s point of view why they are charmed with Nick. There is nothing alarming about him. This is what anyone in this situation would do, but what is the film maker trying to tell us? To be cautious and careful of strangers? There is no back story on why does Nick go around killing innocent people who are just giving him love. Some insight into killer’s mind would have helped rather than just an absurd monologue in the beginning about “lust to kill” is “connected to certain star constellations”. The audience spends the film with two likable characters just to watch them get needlessly killed at the end. To be fair, the subtle homoeroticism and charm is very well played and all the actors do a very good job of what’s asked of them. Sadly the poor story takes away any credibility the actors brought into this film.
This film is cold and without any real motivation , reasoning or passion and that’s too bad. With a good charming starcast, and decent direction, it could have been so much more, only if everyone paid attention to what was the point of story. (4.5/10)
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:-))))))