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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

By Golu
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...
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Chou Jue Deng Chang (Mandarin) [Enter The Clowns]

By Golu
Billed as a gender-bender film, this film is quite odd and weird and stage itself more like a series of vignettes, trying to shock you possibly using queer, trans, gay themes. The way this film is shot, I doubt if this was ever seen outside any film festivals. Having said that, I am suite surprised that a film like this (with its bold theme) actually came from China.

Opening scene has Xiao Bo nursing his father on death bed who now wants him to call his mother. She shows remorse for not being able to feed Xiao her breast milk and as a dying wish, asks for his son's milk, who obliges the father with an act of oral sex. Yes this is just the beginning. We then see Xiao Bo renting with his boyfriend Nana who has had sex change now. Even though Xiao denies being gay, he is no longer attracted to female form of Nana. Desperate for revenge, Nana decides she will find many lovers but never let any man love her. He joins a club as singer where the owners brother falls head over heels in love with her, who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about her confused sexuality. The movie continues in this fashion, presenting a series of interconnected vignettes in which the main character is usually someone carried over from the preceding scene. And all sorts of interesting sexual interactions happen. I was so done by this time, that I really stopped caring of what's going on in the film

This film is abstract in every way, even though initially it started off as a familiar story about the pitfalls of denying one’s true nature of being what they are. Pretty soon it keeps going weirder and weirder and sadly without a purpose. It’s as though by going so far over the top, the director can disspell any expectation about sexual identity, and that becomes a liberating force in the film. Ben though the film is just about 80 minutes, with its experimental nature, it just feels way too long and you wonder why was this ever made. I am very sure this is not he kind of films I wanna see. (2.5/10)
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