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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

By Golu
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...
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Come Into Your Own

By Golu
Here we go again. Yet another self-indulgent film, where the director probably insisted to play the lead of the film as well. Yes, sexual identity is a complicated thing. We have seen many films showing a supposedly straight character realizing he is gay but not many come to mind about a reversal scenario. So, in that sense, it is interesting concept but the purpose or the message behind the film is never clear.

Lirim has been with his boyfriend for about 3 years. Their friends wedding suddenly makes his boyfriend also want to marry Lirim, but something is going on with Lirim. As a person he is a recluse and doesn't talk much. A middle aged man at work is his only friend. One day when he suddenly find a broken cell phone, he ends up meeting Audrey, who is owner of the phone. They have some sort of connection, which I guess further confuses Lirim. He randomly decides to break up with his boyfriend when he proposes him and starts living with his colleague/friend for a few nights. During this time he also starts dating Audrey without telling her the truth about himself. They end up getting physical and Lirim is enjoying this new phase. Despite warnings from his friend that Lirim should tell her the real story, he doesn't do that. One evening at an important party, Lirim's ex-bf is also present and the truth eventually comes out. Audrey asks Lirim to go away and figure out what he wants from life. He says, he is gay, he has always been but he is self discovering. And the film just ends presumably with the idea that Lirim is leaving town on a self discovery trip.

The biggest flaw of the film is it never really goes into the idea of sexuality itself. One day the man has a boyfriend , next day girlfriend and third day, no one. There is absolutely no explanation on why is his behavior so irrational. And why we, the audience, would care at all about him. There is no explanation given on why there seems to be a friction between the two men. They have absolutely zero chemistry and were really looking like they were forced to be together in the same room. Maybe someone went through these events in real life, but clearly they didn't learn much from it and the makers didn't care either. All characters talk and put their hearts on sleeve about what's going on in thier head but Lirim is the only one self centered guy. Lirim fails both as an actor and a director. He doesn't have the either the charm or the talent to sustain a full fledged film completely on his own. At the very least, it was important to understand the character and what's going on inside that head before you direct and act.

This is waste of time. I have seen worse films, I will admit, but really, there is absolutely nothing to look forward to in this film. (3/10)
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