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...
Sun woks as a debt collector for an old man. He is not very good at his job but has managed to stay on just because the boss is a friend of his father. Sun's boss eventually gives him an ultimatum that if he doesn't finish his next debt collection, he will be fired (a young guy has already been hired). To his surprise, Sun must collect the debt from his father, who borrowed a lot of money due to his gambling problem. Sun's dad reveals that a young man from an island owes him money. He instructs his son to visit the island to help him collect the debt. During Sun's travels, he befriends Nemo, a guy living in the same hotel. Later, Sun discovers that Nemo's older brother is Athit, the person who owes his dad money. Sun and Athit have a terrible first impression of each other. Athit seems rude and standoffish, insisting this visitor from the city doesn't belong on the island. Sun eventually works up the courage to ask Athit for the money. And it might actually be the other way round. The duo, as you would imagine eventually fall in love. There is another love story of the boss' son, who wants to be a boxer. However, he trains by himself and there's nobody to challenge. One day, Ashing's father introduces him to Mangkorn, his new assistant. Mangkorn's dad owes money and his son takes on this new job to pay off the debt. How these two also go from enemies to lovers trope is also explored. In addition, we have various other random folks on the island and even other members in the debt collecting agency.
The plot was super confusing and made almost no sense most of the time. I felt like there were so many loose ends at the end that they never explain. Incoherent storytelling, bizarre characters, awkward romances, and embarrassing scenes; it's al here and it is not pretty. Nothing makes sense in this series. Even Sun is worse than random fluff. It's utterly pointless gibberish with a few contrived BL scenarios here and there. It features constant personality clashes and noisy quarrels, but these senseless conflicts aren't compelling to watch. Even less appealing are the pitiful attempts at lighthearted comedy. The few amusing moments get outnumbered by too many juvenile and insipid jokes. The lead actors hate each other, which somehow we are to believe that they are flirting. Trust me, they are Not. And they randomly fall for one another and have sex and fall in love. And who the hell came up with the idea of having the two guys handcuffed. That kind of power play was very off-putting. So random. In the secondary couple, I was tired of just watching guy kick box in every single scene. And as I already mentioned above, there are too many useless characters with no purpose in the plot for no reason. The only thing for me that was really nice was the island they shot on, wow it looked absolutely beautiful, but other than that an insipid storyline, uninteresting characters, poor romantic development, there is no reason thatches show should have been made. (2.5/10)
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