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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 Turns out he had an injury that ended his football days, and that's what pushed him into being more withdrawn, and it only got worse once his younger brother got picked...
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Bittersweet Waters (Spanish)

By Golu
Being openly gay is extremely hard in small town rural areas anywhere in the world. It's no different Mexico, where where everyone knows one another and everyone is in each other's business. Its almost impossible to live true to yourself and at the sometime it is difficult hide and you become a subject of gossip sometimes. This film may sometimes feel amateurish in its treatment but I feel it's heart was in the right place while creating the subject.

Atl and Diego have been lovers and inseparable since they were 15 and are now fully grown men. Because of social pressure, Diego even has a girlfriend who is now pregnant. All lives with his mother and grandmother. For odd reason, the mother completely dislikes her family including her son, more so, because when the father died, he gave all his property to his son rather than wife. They are secretly aware of Atl's relationship with Diego and the mother uses this to extort money from him all the time. Diego's girlfriend also has suspicion about the two men being lovers and she warns All never to see her soon to be husband again. The two lovers decide that Diego will need to be the good husband and father and sadly they both decide to go their separate ways. These incidents make Atl grow up and he decides to move away from the small town along with his grandma and travel around the world with the saved up money.

The story may be simple yet it does present interesting dilemma that closet gays face in rural communities. There is no way anyone would accept this kind of love, so how people like Diego and Atl, even today have to fall to societal pressure and give in. We all know that Diego is never going to be happy and his wife now knows it too but no one will do anything about it. The two men act well and share a wonderful chemistry thankfully. The sequences where they spend time dancing and kissing alone is the only time the duo are allowed to be themselves and those scenes are handled beautifully. The whole drama with mother and her sending her lover to rob her son of the money was totally not needed in my opinion. Also the mother overacted quite a bit. I liked the quiet grandma and her unconditional support to her grandson. Its a tragic love story, simple and heartfelt. It doesn't really have much to say but it does show a chapter of life from a part of the world, where it is still not easy being yourself. A sweet simple uncomplicated film about being gay in a small town and trying to conform to societal norms with a dash of family deceitfulness. (5.5/10)
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