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...
The film puts the focus on visibility and on how people describe their lives within the community. It follows a bunch of individuals sitting in front of a camera for face to face interviews, talking about how they came out, what their everyday struggles look like, and the connections they find with their partners and within themselves. Some are joined by their partners, and a few even have their accepting parents sitting beside them. People from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and age groups all come together to talk about what makes them who they are, and the one thing tying everyone together is love. It's great to see transgender and intersex people telling their own stories right alongside gay and lesbian people.
This is an eye opening documentary about what it means to be who you are, and it nudges you toward seeing LGBTQ+ people as exactly what they are, human. Everything a person can be is part of being human. The whole film is just interviews, and the interviewees are what keep it from falling into the usual tropes and make it so interesting and wonderful to watch. One of its big messages is finding out who you are and not only accepting it but loving yourself for it. Some of them figured it out much later in life and some pretty early on, and the film shows that either way, it's never too late to find yourself and love who you are. That said, for all the topics they cover, it never steps past strictly G rated territory when it comes to the sexual lives of these people. It also ends up showing a kind of haves and have nots split, with mostly white, cisgender people in loving, monogamous couples on one side, and everyone else seeming to be missing something on the other. There's also a clear lack of people of Asian or South Asian descent, and seemingly nobody from a non Protestant religious background. Bottom line, a warm and honest conversation that's held back by who it leaves out. (5.5/10)
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