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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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Stranger's Kiss (Filipino Series)

By Golu
I must have missed watching this during cove times for some reason. And now when I watched this now, it feels so laughable to be honest. This is obviously a low-budget production that looks like it was sort of thrown together. The production frankly is just awful, and editing made it hard to follow the story. They certainly packed a lot in this short series like love, homophobia, trans rights, rich exploiting poor, made up friends etc etc. The show has 8 episodes of about 20 min each average.

We have three main characters in the show - Nico, Prince and Julius. The series starts with Nico saving Julius in a motorbike accident. In a drunken state, Julius kisses Nico. Few months later, we now see that Nico actually moved to this place from his province and he left his younger brother to fend for himself after his parents died. Prince is his neighbor, who one days saves Nico when some local goons are trying to rob him. Two lonely individuals become good friends taking care of one another. Now Nico gets an additional part time job to make some extra money as a caretaker. Turns out the man who he has to care for is the guy Julius whom he saved him sometime back. After being an arrogant prick, eventually even Julius starts to fall in love with Nico. Some small dramas happen where Julius tries to forcible kiss Nico this time but it seems like Nico has hots for Prince, but he is also very worried about his brother back in province and he goes back to meet him eventually . Prince shows up there and they bond.

The show is very much set in slum and very poor areas of Manila and surroundings, so you can only imagine that the production team barely had any money. That aside, the story had a decent potential but hammy acting and some very very bad editing ruined the show completely. The camera work is awful and also most shots are shot in very little light and they seem dark all the time. Besides the main plot, there are other stories as well where we see Nico's brother is taken under her wing by some madam (although we are never told what she does), neighbors bulling for being gay or trans, trans characters wanting to live a life of respect and not being there just for comic relief, attempted suicide, fake friends etc. Despite all this, sadly because of the really bad production values, the show is just not worth watching. Most of the money, it seems went into doing photo shoot and creating a very polished opening of the show in every episode where every actor seems great, but reality is far from it. So, in short, if you managed to watch it during cove times because there was nothing better to do, then good; but if you are catching up on stuff like I am, its better to avoid it. (2.5/10)
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