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...
Even though, in summary, this film is a collection of three short films, unlike previous mentioned, this film is an anthology of sorts which has been directed by a director duo. The movie features three stories of closeted men and how their sexual obsessions lead to violence.
In Our Darkest Moments mixes wry humor and tense drama as it chronicles the sleazy exploits of a hunky, closeted married man who cruises seedy bookstores and sex dens. He begins an affair with a dangerous teenager, unaware of the disastrous effects it will have on his life. In the Darkness Softly, is a love story (of sorts), chronicling a young man’s obsession with a local serial killer. And in the final film, In Deep, the police are trying to catch a murderer who preys on lonely men and then offs them with his extraordinarily large appendage. Maybe this killer is more than he seems.
After first 20 minutes, I really couldn't care much about what's happening in the film. The stories, the acting, the direction is all so poor and this is no excuse given that the film came out in 2009. Clearly the idea was to make a soft porn film with plenty of full frontal penis shots, but even with that the result is bad. Movies like this make you sit through the horror of bad cinema that unfolds in front of you and there is no prize for your effort. I mean, how and why do such movies ever get made, it's beyond my understanding. There is no redeeming for either actors or makers. Outrightly outrageous and ugly film filled with bad actors portraying stereotypical psychopaths. The first film was the only one with some saving grace at least from a story point of view. Stay away from this one please. (1/10)

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