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Soul Mate (Japanese Series)

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...

When Darkness Falls / The Best of Care

This is a set of two "gay horror" films in one set made by the same producer/director. The first one is a full fledged film while the other one is a 30 minute short film. Sadly both the film are pretty bad in terms of story, acting, direction.. everything.

The main feature is "When Darkness Falls", where Kevin, a prankster invites his most recent boyfriend, Danny, to his parent's summer home in the woods. Danny, the antithesis of Kevin, is a fearful, sweet, one-man guy naive to the likes of Kevin and his friends. Kevin gets a kick out of scaring Danny about the local folklore surrounding his house and the zombies that supposedly roam the adjacent cemetery. When darkness falls, noises outside the house begin to scare the two shitless. Even after Kevin's friends reveal they were behind the creepy happenings, things continue down a scary spiral revealing the true story of the zombies that wander the night. Neither the story is original nor the acting. The film is stretched beyond patience for no reason at all. The story is pretty simple, but they actually manage to build a tad bit of tension. The use of sound affects is horribly overdone, and is often ignored by the actors.

The second short film is called "The Best of Care". Billy has been taking care of his ailing boyfriend for a while now and the pressure and constant nagging by his boyfriend is getting to him now. When the constant complaining pushes Billy over the edge, he kills his partner. Just when Billy thinks his problems are over, things start to get eery and his problems get worse than it can possibly get. Again, this film could have been easily 15 minutes shorter because nothing made sense.  Some guy is taking care of his sick asshole boyfriend so he can inherit the money, and then things go awry. I appreciate the makers trying to give us something out of the box in the gay genre but sadly in the process they end up making something so bad, so one is embarrassed to even admit having seen some of these really god awful films. 

Both these films feel like home movies made by a group of friends to laugh about with each other afterwards. I hope they had fun making it. I am hoping I don't see anything this amateurish again for a while. I need a break. (2/10)

Comments

ILHiker said…
How ironic that you would review another Jeff London film right after I commented on Best Day Ever. I remember kind of watching these some time ago, but them not holding my attention enough so was probably doing something else as well at the time. This is not on my re-watch sometime list. I feel like I should go leave a quick comment under Jeff London's Regarding Billy and Arizona Sky because I'm really fond of those films and would like him to keep making more movies. I probably won't, but I often re-watch Regarding Billy around Christmas, so I will then.

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