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Journey With You (Chinese Series)

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...

Prince's Prince (Korean Series)

Let me first clear it. This is NOT a BL series. The two leads identify themselves as gay men and there are a couple of scenes that show that maybe there is a potential love angle there, but it never happens. The show is not about BL romance at all. The show started off well, even silly but funny in a weird way, but the second half went in a different direction. Also, to be honest I am a bit confused around the whole plot. I hope I have understood it ok, but I would never know. The good thing is only that the show was only 10 episodes of 10 minutes each.

The main character here is Shi Hyun. He has just returned home after a long time and is shocked to find his younger sister too engrossed in computer games. She lives in virtual world of comics and otaku (a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills). And because of this she is obsessed with Mong Ryong. He is president in some gaming company. Shi Hyun joins the company, to do something so his sister can come back to real world, to the reality she should be living in. But as employee and president Mong Ryong doesn't want that. A cat-mouse game starts, which is initially funny but then becomes a bit thriller of sorts (Shi Hyun had earlier made a woman bankrupt , while in a separate incident Mong RYing had fired an employee), which I did not completely understand. There is some flirting, romance hint between the two but never fully explored.

The overall plot was extremely confusing and I felt that the idea of bringing in homosexuality was pointless and didn’t really have anything to do with anything. I think the plot (the little there was) needed more time to develop. Looking back over the ten episodes, I don’t really know or understand many of the motives of the characters. The acting was fine by everyone involved because they tried to give a comic vibe but somewhere in second half it just did not work, and I would think it is largely because of the genre shift midway from a story perspective. Yes, it was a short series and did not ask for too much commitment, but almost a total lack of any romantic love angle between two men, I feel like I wasted my time. (2.5/10)

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