Is this technically a gay show? Even after getting through the whole thing, that's still kind of tricky to answer. There's never any physical intimacy shown between the two leads, not even a single kiss. What it gives you instead is something that goes way deeper than that. It traces an emotional bond that spans a full decade between two guys who are both dealing with their own baggage, and what they share basically amounts to being soulmates. The story moves across Japan, South Korea, and Berlin. Honestly, whether people want to call what they have a romantic relationship or not doesn't really matter to me. A relationship doesn't need a label like boyfriends attached to it to actually mean something. And closeness doesn't need to be physical to feel genuine. What this show captures is something quieter but way more powerful, a bond rooted in understanding, respect, and just showing up for each other. Across eight episodes, each running 35 to 45 minutes, this is one...
Roberto and Miguel have been together for over 10 years. Over the course of 4 days in November, the talk and discuss and reminiscence the memories of all these years remembering some specific incidents. These include how they met and when, when they started living together, when Miguel was thrown out of home for coming out as gay, when they both struggled for their jobs and the political unrest around the Berlin Wall. A seemingly strong relationship will start to crumble with each new memory. The memories are not shown all at once and the film keeps moving back and forth in a very non-linear time format, peeling layers only one by one. We are also told, how they fight, bicker, talk about almost anything to keep busy, but somewhere around them, the Two Berlins is also a point of contention. They have shared resentments for life or even for each other and just like the wall that came down in November, maybe the wall separating this couple will also crumble.
The concept of the film is interesting but the whole movie is talk talk talk and I found the repetitions just a little exhausting and tiresome. The film is in Galician language (which I have to admit, I wasn't even aware of as a language in Spain). The entire movie is about this gay couple who understandably argue about many things which is bound to happen, when you are running out of your savings, you don't have a job and you spend most of your time cooped up in your tiny apartment. The acting by. Both the leading men is actually quite good and the film portrays oppression extremely well, and it really does eat at the heart and the soul. But I still struggled to understand what was the whole point behind the film really. Sure they are poor, they seek independence, and more from life, but as an audience, I wanna know where is this all heading towards and I couldn't get that clarification or even a satisfactory ending. For me, it got emotionally exhausting, with everything thrown in your face about the couple by way of flashbacks and memories and no seemingly ending. Not sure we need the drag act as part of their initial meeting or one of them getting positive. I would like to think, most people would struggle to enjoy the film. (4/10)
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