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 year is 1968 and the film starts with film images of men cruising in public toilets via hidden camera. This happens at the trial of one of the men seen on several occasions, Hans Hoffmann, who is sentenced to 24 months for “deviant practices” with no possibility of probation. His silent acceptance makes us believe there is more to it and as if he is used to it. In prison, his eyes lock with an older cellmate Viktor. Turns out they have a history. Back in 1945, they were cellmates. Since Hans is marked with charges with section 175, straight Viktor warns to not even try to touch him. But when Viktor realizes that Hans has actually been to a concentration camp too, he softens up. Viktor offers to tattoo something over the serial number. An unsaid trust starts to establish between them. We also see a section in 1957, where Hans was arrested again for 175 at the same time as his lover Oskar, who was perhaps the closest Hans ever got to experiencing romantic love. They are in different cells, but using Viktor's help in return for a blowjob, he is able to exchange messages with Oskar but he eventually commits suicide breaking Hans completely. Back to current time in 1968, we meet Leo who was also arrested along with Hans, and they find a way to share some intimacy. But since he is a schoolteacher, Hans confesses that he solicited him, leading to him getting free on parole. Viktor manages to get Hans as his cellmate and they become more intimate over time, and the connection between them evolves into a kind of love, but one rooted more in the mutual longing for comfort than in physical attraction.. Viktor has always imagined he will be free but is still there. Soon 175 gets abolished and Hans is free. In a very haunting climax, he visits the gay bar 'Great Freedom', sees men free drinking, kissing. He explores the labyrinth underground sex chambers, which quietly affects him and his longing ness to be back in prison is more prominent.
What a beautiful ending and such a haunting film overall. Moving between three timelines and through the eyes of Hans, our repeat offender, the film is an exquisite marriage of personal, political and sensual storytelling, embellished with some fo the best acting I have seen in recent times by a leading actor and all supporting actors. The silence speaks so loud in the whole film. Years pass in the blink of an eye but in this elegantly structured script, the sense of time passing and stalling all at once is conveyed so beautifully. Hans has gone through so much, concentration camp, multiple jail times including solitary confinements, lost love more than a few times and how it breaks him yet makes him stringer; but what resonates most, however, is the way that systemic oppression has crushed the urge to live freely in Hans, leaving love in confinement as the only love he understands. And the beautifully shot and unexpected climax is a beautiful testimony. We never get to know much about Hans's personal life outside the prison, and its not important. What needs to be understood is how did Hans reach here, what has happened in the past, how has the relationship evolved over the years between him and Viktor and the film's shifting timelines slowly tell us all the answers.
The film is about imperfect allies in desperate circumstances. We are shown brief stolen moments of intimacy in the harsh environments through situations like Viktor tattooing, Hans sending a love note through Bible to Oskar, Hans and Leo getting intimate by breaking rules and finally the companionship between Hans and Viktor. Even though Hans manages some love in life, the film's primary focus on on Hans-Viktor'r growing relationship from hostility to passive-aggressive acceptance to mutual dependency. Most of the shifting affections and nuances between them are unspoken, beautifully conveyed by the actors. The acting by Hans is just incredible. You feel his pain and love at the same time and at every single step you feel what he feels. Slowly when you get to know Viktor's history, things strait to make more sense. Story and screen is undoubtedly the big winner here along with the director, the captan of the ship, without whom this film will not be the brilliance it is. There is so much I wanna write about this film, but I am also somehow at loss of words because I may not be able to express how totally beautiful this film is. This is a film about being true to yourself, in life and in love, set against a world that has other ideas about who you are and who you are expected to be and that will grind you down every chance it gets. I can't recommend enough how important it is to watch this film. Its different form any notion of a prison film or a gay love story or relationship that you could have imagined. YOU CANNOT MISS THIS ONE. (9/10)
Comments
It's harsh at times but has all the right feelings in the right place. I must say I'm not always a big fan of the "silences tell everything" and "you have to read behind the harshness of characters" (leading to me not able/wanting to relate and feel for them and miss out on the movie completely) but it was particuliarly well done here.
The kind of movie where some scenes and situations will stay with you forever. And that makes us modern gay appreciate more what we have.
I went through so many emotions while watching this film and stuff like this always makes me appreciate the story writers and the directors for the unique talent that they have and for them to bring to us such incredible cinema.