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...
Touted as a film that follows an overly complicated exploration of racism, homophobia, family dysfunction, police corruption, prejudice (racial and gender), and most important gay homophobia! What it ends up being is a contrived and confused film which is all over the place stretched beyond belief before it starts to make a point.
William Boyals is a successful lawyer from south, who is gay and he keeps himself busy with work. he is off and on seeing another guy in the city. In a small neighborhood of New Orleans, a young gay man is killed outside a gay bar. When the local cops dismiss the murder as a suicide and refuse to do anything about it, his mother reaches out to Boyals for help. When he comes to town, he meets a lot of people, untrustworthy cops, closet black gays unwilling to help, hateful white trash and finally his mother that disowned him when he came out of the closet to be a successful gay man. Boyals is attacked by different men and he struggles to find the killers. The story proceeds to follow leads about the lynching and along the way there are other murders and lynchings that muddle the picture. Eventually, randomly suddenly Boyals magically realize who it could be, but he gets caught up in the drama when he is almost murdered and the cops arrive just in time to save him. The film then just randomly ends.
The ending of the film is very random. It comes out of the blue, without any reasonable build up or explanation, confusing the message of the movie hence questioning the intelligence of the audience. How can such a gruesome murder happen and cops not do anything about it especially when media could be all over the place. And whats up with cops watching lesbian porn openly. Thats just disgusting. The acting is amateur and so is direction. There are a lot of scenes thrown in just to increase the length of the film which don't really add much to it. This could have been. a very good murder mystery but with the stereotypes, the bad acting, cheesy dialogues, and ridiculous script, this film is a major disappointment in every aspect. We get to see a fake detective work, platitudes about homosexuality, and a cliché with a the one good white man trying to save the day.
Completely avoidable. (2/10)
William Boyals is a successful lawyer from south, who is gay and he keeps himself busy with work. he is off and on seeing another guy in the city. In a small neighborhood of New Orleans, a young gay man is killed outside a gay bar. When the local cops dismiss the murder as a suicide and refuse to do anything about it, his mother reaches out to Boyals for help. When he comes to town, he meets a lot of people, untrustworthy cops, closet black gays unwilling to help, hateful white trash and finally his mother that disowned him when he came out of the closet to be a successful gay man. Boyals is attacked by different men and he struggles to find the killers. The story proceeds to follow leads about the lynching and along the way there are other murders and lynchings that muddle the picture. Eventually, randomly suddenly Boyals magically realize who it could be, but he gets caught up in the drama when he is almost murdered and the cops arrive just in time to save him. The film then just randomly ends.
The ending of the film is very random. It comes out of the blue, without any reasonable build up or explanation, confusing the message of the movie hence questioning the intelligence of the audience. How can such a gruesome murder happen and cops not do anything about it especially when media could be all over the place. And whats up with cops watching lesbian porn openly. Thats just disgusting. The acting is amateur and so is direction. There are a lot of scenes thrown in just to increase the length of the film which don't really add much to it. This could have been. a very good murder mystery but with the stereotypes, the bad acting, cheesy dialogues, and ridiculous script, this film is a major disappointment in every aspect. We get to see a fake detective work, platitudes about homosexuality, and a cliché with a the one good white man trying to save the day.
Completely avoidable. (2/10)

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