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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 Singing Forest

By Golu
A gay love story with the theme of reincarnation. Now this is something I was really looking forward to. A love story well done is alway s pleasure to watch, and I personally am all about believing in reincarnation and past life and second life, so ideally this should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, even though the story was quite decent, the execution was actually pretty bad to the extent that it just didn't make much sense.

Christopher has recently lost his wife Savannah of 22 years and slowly getting alcoholic. But at the same time, he is also getting obsessed with the idea of past life ever since he interviewed a psychic for an article 'The Singing Forest'. He is convinced that he is reincarnation of Jo, a German resistance fighterhafged by Nazis for helping Jews. One day he gets an invite for his daughter Destiny's wedding. As soon as he meets her fiancé Ben, he is convinced Ben is reincarnation of Alexander, Jo's lover from the previous life. As Ben and Christopher get to spend more time together, Christopher tries to explain him on multiple occasions the theory of past life but Ben always snubs. Eventually one drunken night Ben gives in and they get physical. Ben tracks down Christopher's psychic to confirm he really was Jo's lover Alexander in a past life. Destiny discovers their affair and eventually gives them her blessing. In the end a guy goes to interview the psychic for an interesting story of a client of her's and there she reveals how Destiny brought two lovers together. Destiny wasn't a real person but instead, she had been the spirit of a miscarriage Savannah had after she was raped by Christopher. The spirit had always been destined to bring Christopher (Jo) and Ben (Alexander) back together in their present lives.

On paper the story does sound interesting, but when you see the execution, it just feels very hollow. The acting is below average and the story is very poorly told. The whole thing was off. Christopher falling for his future son-in-law already is questionable, and then Ben getting drunk and ending up in Christopher's bed was weird and random. The whole Destiny angle in the end and big reveal was also weird. So if she was not real, how did the two men of this prominent age gap meet each other and the courtship happen? And how did the two men end up getting married. Was this all a figment of imagination of Christopher's mind? Was he ever actually married to Savannah or he just raped her? So many questions still unanswered. Lets not even get started with the technical drawbacks which the film was filled with. The film was probably shot using a phone camera in someone house with bad actors. The whole movie gets off to an offensive and queasy start by showing pictures of concentration camp victims and Nazi atrocities edited together with the two lovers. And this is just the beginning. 

Stay away from this one. (3/10)
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