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 plot is simple yet complicated. A young gay man named Josef goes over to the apartment of an older man named John for a date night. After taking a pill in John's bedroom, they both start dancing and soon Josef starts to find reality slipping. Next thing you know is John falls down and Josef is arrested for allegedly murdering John. Now he's forced to deal with two boxer-clad police detectives, a mask-wearing public defender, and all kinds of odd figures who come in and out of the interrogation room, trying to extract information about him and decide whether or not he'll be charged for murder. But is this really happening or is this all after effects of this experimental drug that he took?
It feels like the director was going for an experimental cinematic vibe, but its strangeness seems even more arbitrary than it needs to be, preventing us from being emotionally invested in the proceedings. We are told absolutely nothing about either Josef or John to either empathize or have an opinion. You're forced to construct your own idea of who the character is solely through the dialogue-heavy scenes, but a lot of it is merely fed to the viewer instead of being shown. There is a scene in middle of interrogation where Josef is seen waking up in bed next to John, suggesting that the freakish events may be a nightmare or perhaps a hallucination induced by the drug he took. But then nothing comes out of that scene. The film is not bad, it's an interesting take but sadly a one that goes nowhere in particular. An attempt to show a gay man of color dealing with voyeurism, police brutality, privilege and prejudice but without real depth or complexity. Even the ending wasn't super clear, since he comes out of interrogation room , back to John's apartment. We just don't know everything that is happening is real or imaginary. Maybe neither or maybe both. (5/10)
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