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...
17 year old Jakob is a very shy teenager who lives with his father and his ailing grandfather. He starts working in the pig meat factory with his father and at nights he goes to these gay chat rooms to chat and watch porn and feel little bit alive. Jacob is struggling with an anxiety disorder that makes life increasingly difficult for him. One night, he meets 26-year old Kristian on gay chat and after a few times, they both decide to meet in person. The rest of the film is about the interactions between these 2 men, which I felt was an interesting take on reality v/s your imagination. Is Kristian real, is he part of Jakob's imagination, is there some link to Jakob's anxiety is what's tried to be shown but as an audience I didn't get any of those answers, sadly.
There is a very strong gay undercurrent. In his dreams Jakob runs through this beautiful woods, almost naked. Yes, he is also looking for sex or maybe feel of it in the virtual world, but I am still not sure what was the whole issue that he had since childhood. Whats this fear that keeps looming over him. Like I said above, the film was going interesting in the first half but post Kristian's entry and their interactions, it just goes into this weird zone. You know Jakob is detached but why? and why does Kristian excite him? Whats the connection between them? What was the whole childhood piece in the end. I am still not sure. Kristian was just an enigma, albeit a good looking one. But in absence of proper character development; its hard to say if the actors were good in their craft or not!
This film had no substance but had too much style. If you like punky, different, art house-ish cinema that keeps you thinking for rest of the week, go for it, otherwise avoid. (3/10)
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