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Contrast (Japanese Series)

By Golu
This is basically a high school BL where two guys who have nothing going on in common somehow end up getting really close to each other, and that's kind of the whole point of the title too. There's barely any drama or fluff packed in here, it stays pretty straightforward the whole way through. A little bit of friction pops up here and there, but it's nothing compared to what you'd normally get in this kind of show. Runtime wise you're looking at 8 episodes, each one sitting around 25-30 minutes. The two guys carrying the story are Akira and Kanata, and funny enough they knew each other's faces way before they ever knew each other's names. Kanata's the type everyone likes, always got people around him, popular guy, but there's this distance to him that people can't quite place. Turns out he had an injury that ended his football days, and that's what pushed him into being more withdrawn, and it only got worse once his younger brother got picked...
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The Deep End

By Golu
We all know that a mother will go to any extent to protect her kids from adversity. Here. To protect her son's future and blackmail video of him being gay, she will do things to protect her family, battings will go out of control.

The film starts with Margaret visiting Darby, club owner, who is having an affair with her 17 year old son Beau, to warn him to stay away from her son. She finds this out because her son was in an accident earlier with a drunk Beau on his side. But evil Darby and Beau in his spell. He meets Beau near his place at night but ends up attacking him. When Beau is running away, Darby slips and dies unknown to Beau. The next morning Margaret finds the body and thinks her son did something, so she dumps the body in the cove in river. Unfortunately police finds the body. Around same time, a young man Alec visits Margaret and shows him a video of Darby and Beau having sex and demands 50k USD and gives her a day. He tries her level best, while keeping her family together (Her husband isa pilot in navy and is out most time) but her life is spiraling out of control. Alek sees all this and has a change of heart. But Alec's partner will have none of it. When the partner goes to extract money from Margaret, Alec shows up and in a fight Alec's partner ends up getting dead. Alec pleads Margaret to go back to her normal life. 

One night that stands out is that while Margaret is going through the most painful few days, her son Beau has no idea what is happening around her and what kind of stress she is dealing with. The film's subject is thriller but the film's direction has an eerie calmness to it. Tilda Swinson as Margaret is amazing. Until these events, the closest she had come to falling apart was when she tried to manage her three children's after-school activities while dealing with her sick father-in-law. The strain of forcing herself to take step after step to bring things to an end begins to exact its toll, because the predicament never ends. Gay aspect of the film is there to create the basis of the story, but the film has nothing more to do with it. Hence, I was grappling whether I should even review this film on my blog, but here we are! What surprised me was Alec's sudden change of heart. Was he falling for Margaret or something else? I am not sure. The film is good for the lead's performance and is an overall movie. Do not expect this to be a LGBTQ themed movie (as per my criteria normally for my blog). (5.5/10)
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