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...
The film starts with the lead singer of an upcoming band found dead in a violent attack in a back alley. We follow the friends and lovers of ‘Handsome Jake’ as they try to come to terms with the singer’s untimely death. As the band travels to Nashville to honor his passing, we discover that there are many Jake’s - the brother, the lover, the poet, the liar and the cruel manipulator. As the band members cross the Midwest with Jake’s ashes on board their Winnebago, they must now struggle to regroup, understand what happened, and find a way to move on.
Yes, thats pretty much the story of the film. The characters and the acting of everyone was so bland that not even an inch of interest could have been generated in me as a viewer. He has a girlfriend who is pregnant, he has a secret gay male lover, whom he wants to keep hidden, he also has two other male admirers in the band who long for him, but really nothing major happens to be honest. They all talk and talk and remember Jake as the person that they have in mind. There is really no closure on why the death happened or who was responsible. The flashback sequences are boring and it gets in a repetitive pattern connecting the the dynamics of the band members along with Jake's struggle to come out. His boyfriend wants him out in the open but Jake doesn't and this hampers their relationship too. Overall, the relationships are not all that novel or interesting and neither the film. Completely avoid. (1/10)
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