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 documentary starts with Olly visiting his mother in the home he grew up in. He tells her the full extent of his depression and self-harm. Her reaction is to blame herself and wish she could have helped more. He meets his life-long school friend Georgia and she too admits self-harming and depression – only just recently having come out. Olly recounts the school bullying. And he says how this bullying leads to a spiral of feelings of loneliness, insecurity, and a sense of unfairness. Two-thirds of LGBTQ+ teens will have self-harmed and many will have tried suicide. He meets Sean, a dancer who is still dealing with drug issues, which came out of his time on the gay partying scene in London. And in Brighton, he talks to Tom an English student who is struggling with bulimia – purging up to 6 times a day. It’s the pressure of looking a certain way, and being a certain weight- a situation Tom frankly says he can’t see himself getting out of. There are positives on show too – self-help groups and diversity sessions in schools, a men-only eating disorder group, the only one of its kind, and a Big Gay Mental Health event at London club The Glory.
Olly constantly has his heart not on his sleeve but on full display and there are times in this hour that he simply breaks down in front of the camera being reminded of his past traumas or seeing them replicated in other youngsters he meets. His positive and energetic personality shines through , and though his musical fame has given him a grounding, he admits that the problems he’s faced lie just below the surface and are not fully overcome. He is trying to explore what could be done to prevent the problem in future. He begins to ask 'why is this happening and how can we stop it for good?'. The statistics behind every single troubled life are staggering and the documentary tries to tackle as many uncomfortable topics as possible with depressions, self-harm, suicide, bullying, anxiety etc. This message is at the heart of the film: that anyone – queer or not – can help by engaging in the conservation about growing up gay and mental health. The documentaries are. huge win if your narrator is charming and can hold your attention. And to top that when you have a sensitive subject to deal with and you do justice to it without digressing from the main course, it makes for a compelling watch and also makes you think. (6.5/10)
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