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 starts of as 5-6 group of friends hanging out in the summer. Matt and Max are two closest friends. One of the friends' sister is making a short film and 2 of her actors back out leading to Max and Matt acting in the film. What they don't realize is that they will have to kiss in the film. An event that could just have been laughed off, becomes a big point of contention between the two. It ignites long suppressed feelings that both of them have for each other (or at least thats the idea). Clearly that kiss has affected both of them in different ways. Max has been looking after his sick and troubled mother all this while and can't wait to go to Australia for a couple of years away from all this. Meanwhile Matt has a girlfriend and is trying his best to go up the corporate ladder. The incident has clearly affected Matt more than Max. The two friends avoid each other as much possible but at one of the farewell parties they both finally give in and get into a very passionate kiss and slightly more but Matt soon chickens out. The film ends at a very interesting will-they-won’t-they ending where we see Matt standing outside Max's door just before he is about to leave for Australia.
This film is interesting in the sense that it's an interesting take on how two individuals are forced to confront their feelings. Maybe the feelings were never there or were always there, but a kiss forces them to introspect and neither is comfortable with what they feel. Their friendship with each other is on the line and in fact their friends around them get affected too. There is no homophobia as such, so what surprised me was their reluctance to acceptance who they are in Canada in 2019. Its a very accepting world today, so why hesitate? I am not too sure. The two actors do a phenomenal job of showing us a wistful, low-key love-and-friendship study. The guys are handsome, and have great chemistry and suit the part, but I wish there was more of a backstory so we could relate to why their reactions were they way they were.
The mysteries of male desire are profound, as we all probably know from our own personal experiences. Sadly this film doesn't do much to bring us closer to solving that, but nonetheless it is a good piece of cinema work that needs bit of petience from Xavier Dolan who deservingly so is making all the right moves and is getting all the right attention. (6/10)
Comments