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...
Twin brothers Papi and Max have not met each other for 20 years. Papi is a gay, over the top fashion designer in Paris with a young boyfriend and Max is in Israel, running a plumbing company with his wife. One day a lawyer shows up and finds Papi and tells him that an uncle has left them an inheritance of 20 million dollars each with the condition that both brothers need to be married and have three biological children of their own. Papi flies to Israel to meet his brother, who is a player, who has 2 kids so far and a very suspicious wife. He convinces him that he will somehow find a girl to marry, but can his brother do the 'job' and getting the girl pregnant, which means he will have to act gay and what not. This is where the silliness goes full throttle. We see the process of finding a girl, a Russian prostate looking for stability, Max's wife going full on doubting her husband's fidelity and Papi's boyfriend finding his military life difficult and getting it on with another model to prove a point to Papi. Anyway, by the end and all the confusion, the condition is fulfilled and they both get the money.
I am guessing the film is loosely inspired by the play 'Comedy of errors', because it very much feels so. The story and narrative has been adjusted as per the local sensibilities. To be hoist, I quite enjoyed the first half, the process of elimination to find the girls, the wife always finding the same cab driver when she goes looking for her husband Max, the comic touches and over the tp gay stereotypes; it was all campy and fun till the time it wasn't. I wish at some point there was some sort of redemption for both characters but there just wasn't, and may be that was the point of the film. Their plan was to entertain the audience. Its me trying to find that something extra in a film, which didn't exist here. The lead actor playing the twin roles, of a straight man, a gay man and a straight man pretending to be gay man is fantastic. He portrays all three scenarios with confidence and ease and is extremely good. All the other actors do exactly what they had been signed up for. This is not a great film by any means, but if you are looking for something silly, meaningless and just want a decent laugh, you can go into your archives and look for this film. (4/10)
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