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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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The Adonis Factor (Documentary)

By Golu
A wonderful documentary about gay men and their fascination and pursuit for the perfect physical body. Sure the documentary came almost 12 years ago, but guess what, thing haven't changes much. In fact, if anything, they have gotten worse. I mean, no one, and absolutely no one talked about pretty face or good nature or human emotion, it is al about body , body , body.

The makers take us through interviews of some heavily buffed men, who unapologetically admit to being very subtracted to muscular men and hot men. They make it quite clear that a hot body can get them more friends, more sex and more attention. Most of them agreed that they know its superficial but they all enjoyed it. Some of them recount their experiences of not being given a second look, till they decide to take matters in their hand, get all buffed up and viola, suddenly they are being invited to parties, and orgies and friends. Sadly, I am not sure why the documentary film makers did not use this as an opportunity to deep dive in to the psychology of this obsession. There are a couple moments when the film pretends to expose a serious topic, for example drugs or eating disorders, and the only way you can tell is because the incessant background club music pauses for a few seconds. Even the interviews with the psychiatrist or docs is more about fueling the fire by showing botox and even their own fascination with the perfect body.

If anything, this was a good promo ad for gyms around the world, because what the makers here make us feel that if you don't have that perfect body, you are no one to anyone in the gay world. I am not saying this is not untrue, but I would like to think that a lot of people are beyond that too. But I would have loved if makers went into bigger questions rather than ignoring them like why does there seem to be a racial divide? What are the complications of steroids and plastic surgeries? What psychological or social issues lead some gay men to go to dangerous extremes? What influence do the buff images in gay porn have? Etc etc. I guess their idea was to just get some really hot looking men into one frame, and they do succeed in it. But overall, the documentary is pointless. It tells us gay men stuff that we already know very well. It would have been valuable to go deeper into the psychology rather than making people like me feel even more alienated. (4/10)
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