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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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Proyecto Fantasma (Spanish) [Phantom Project]

By Golu
This film was such a half-baked slice-of-life drama intermixed with some sort of a ghost story. Now, my problem with films like this is also that should I really count this film as a queer cinema and review. Sure, our protagonist is a gay actor, but that angle has absolutely nothing to do with the story that this film is trying to say and this character could easily have been straight or trans or whatever and it wouldn't have made even an iota of difference. And to top that the story is weird and I am really not sure what the makers were trying to say.

Pablo, handsome young man, is an aspiring gay actor. He has broken up with popular YouTuber boyfriend (but they are friends with boundaries now). To make matters worse his roommate also moves out without having paid last two months rent. Pablo is really struggling with money, so he takes up participating in clinical trials to make ends meet. But ever since the roommate left the house and left one of his sweaters behind, Pablo feels a strange presence in his apartment. The rest of the film is all about Pablo and his friend discussing random things including supernatural phenomenons, people coming in and out of his life including a potential romantic interest, a neighborhood girl who constantly fights with her boyfriend and finally an opportunity to act in a film. The material doesn't go anywhere. The haunted sweater just acts as a catalyst in bringing some of these people together. This is Pablo's journey, meeting new friends and allies, finding out that the path to fulfill his dreams will be more tangled and strange that he thought.

The supernatural genre shown using animated sequences just did not connect with me at all. There is a weird scene where supposedly Pablo I having a sex with spirit. It was just odd to watch. The film moves form supernatural to slice of life, to a random romantic comedy to coming of age and it just doesn't stick to onetime; which is not bad per say, but at least make up your ind on what really are you trying to say here? The spirit’s connections to the main characters needed to be much stronger to warrant its existence and importance to the story. The movie jumps haphazardly between characters and storylines, making it feel disjointed and unfinished.  At some point there were so many female characters that I couldn't separate one form another, but by then I also knew not to care since clearly there was no pattern being followed here. Individual moments are insightful and amusing, but the overall result is wispy and dissatisfying. I see the film has been getting a lot of good press online, but I just fail to understand what is it her that's connecting with the audience. Sometimes I wonder, just make a complicated film that makes no sense and critics might be all over it. To me, despite a very natural and good performance by the lead actor, this film just left me frustrated due to lack of coherent story. (2.5/10)
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