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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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Girl Stroke Boy (UK)

By Golu
This film has got to be one of the earliest and most fascinating piece of cinematic history for its positive portrayal of a trans woman-of-color and her romance with her cis-gendered, white boyfriend. The fact that the film came out back in 1971 is just unbelievable. This film , in some ways, is still more progressive than a lot of current cinematic depictions of trans people. And to top that, the entire film is laced with some zany dialogues. I can't remember the last time I laughed at so many places because of some really smart dialogues and fights between the husband and wife.

We meet George and Lettice: a school teacher and a celebrated author who are preparing for their son's visit who is bringing home his girlfriend. The father is pleasantly surprised because he didn't think his son ever had any interest in girls. And the mother, as much as she believe she is modern, she is only faking it. When their son Laurie arrives with Jo, it's a shock for everyone because Jo is black and trans. George is immediately taken by Jo, he thinks she seems wonderful. Lettice is disdainful, not only is she not happy that her son’s girlfriend is black, but now, she doesn’t think her son’s girlfriend is a girl. The film goes through the dinner, midnight , breakfast next day and finally to lunch with some very interesting conversations. But the ending is rather clumsy with the mother having a sudden change of heart. The son decides to tell his parents that he and Jo have actually gotten married, in a church, the day before they came to visit. No, they have not really gotten married, but Laurie does this to create a charade that his mother will accept. And she does, immediately. 

The film has plenty humor in the whole situation of refusing to acknowledge the elephant in the room. Thankfully the humor and the jokes comes at the expense of the parents without taking a dig at race or sexuality of their own son and Jo. The sharp and crisp and funny dialogues between the parents. Is absolutely mind-blowing. It will be hard fo rme to put some samples here, but there were so many times that I couldn't but laugh at how smart some of those were. And to top that the amazing acting by the father and the mother. The understanding father and a scared husband living under shadows of his wife, the actor was absolutely brilliant. Jo's representation of trans woman was also very dignified. Her dialogues are mix of strength, politeness but determined. She poses questions that can't be answered in order to show the mother the impossibility of her worldview, to try to get her to exit her anxious loop. The quirkiness of the scenes and the film overall will keep you glued to your screens. The film's heartfelt but intelligent and unsentimental plea for tolerance in an intolerant world hopefully has not lost any of the relevance even after 50 years of its original release. I still can't fathom that this film is over 50 years old but still so so so important. (7/10)
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