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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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Celluloid (UK)

By Golu
A small budget, dysfunctional family film, I am not sure if I would really call this an LGBT cinema, but I guess since one of the three characters is gay, maybe I will give it a go and review it here on my blog. I do have this moral conundrum many times, on what really qualifies as being a queer cinema. Is it just any character of main character or main story or what exactly and I wish I had an answer to that.

We have Dawn, a single mother with two teenage kids Josh and Nicola. Dawn is going through mental issues and is seeing a regression therapist and says that she was abused as a child but no one is her family believes her. Other they are or not, the whole situation becomes difficult for Josh and Nicola to handle. Nicola spends most of her time out with friends and drugs. Meanwhile, Josh is dealing with his sexuality. He is secretly in love with his best friend and the duo share a common interest of making films. Since, he has no one to talk to, he creates a online friendship with an online blogger Ryan and even goes to met him when he visits London. In the end, thanks to the shrink, the siblings finally understand their mother's pain and Josh finally tells his best friend that he is gay, who accepts him for who he is.

There are many problems with this film actually. It tries to juggle a lot of issues and styles and in the process cannot decide what to really wants to be. Each character is flawed and muddled but it never really comes across as genuine that would wanna make you feel for them as an audience. There is so much going on that each of the story’s strands doesn’t get enough time to properly develop. The mom dealing with hysteria shouting over her kids, starts getting repetitive after a while. The acting is pretty below average for the most part, except for Josh, who is a sensitive soul who is trying to be strong for the sake of his mother whilst hiding his sexuality. Overall, the movie feels like a surface deep attempt rather than a realistic portrayal of a family dealing with a variety of difficult issues. Also, I am really not sure why the title of the film? It makes no sense. (3/10)
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