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...
Joon works odd jobs here and there including a gas station. His co-worker is a girl named Soonhee, who is an ethnic Korean recently escaped from China, who gets unwanted attention from their boss who tries to exploit them both financially and who also makes moves on the girl. After a violent altercation with the boss, Joon and Soonhee skip out and spend some days wandering the city together. Whether they actually explore the city or is it more of a fantasy, we are not sure. In another roast of the city we meet a young pretty boy Hyun, who is a sort of a keep of a older businessman. He lives in a big loft in a high rise. It’s not exactly a mutual love match, but older guy, apparently mostly lives with his wife but is also obsessed, and jealous that Hyun still goes out occasionally. Once the two stories are shown, the opening credit appears after 90 minutes and somehow Joon ends up meeting Hyun and together they decide to end their life after making love in a dream-like sequence.
Yes, thats exactly what happens in the climax. I am still very confused. In fact, I am even contemplating if they were supposed to be representation of a marginalized people persona embedded in one person, I am just not sure. I think the focus of the film is supposed to be the two boys who are in different situations but their struggle of survival is somehow related. The character of the girl, whom we invested in as an audience is suddenly dropped without any explanation. The film feels like a mish -mash of multiple issues like illegal immigration, closet gay man, gay prostitution, sexual exploitation etc. The film ended up being way too artsy for me than I would have liked it to be. Some sort of explanations would have helped. How did the two boys end up meeting? Why did they decide to end their lives? If one was already dead and the other escaped, how did suddenly dead guy become alive? And the. Is what makes me think if these two boys were just representations of the marginalized people struggling to survive. Coming to the cast, I think they all do a tremendous jozshowing their loneliness in a fantastic way. The fault here is solely of the film maker. Using long stretched out sequences, the world of two men is clearly delineated. Joon is mostly seen in daytime and ground level, whereas Hyun is either in the penthouse apartment high above the skyline, generally at night, or in a windowless club. But is that supposed to be representation of something? I am sure, it is. But who has the time to think about all that.
On the whole, I think this film is a cocktail of ideas and styles in the director's own cinematic language which very few will be able to make any sense out of, despite some real good acting. (3.5/10)
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