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Soul Mate (Japanese Series)

By Golu
Is this technically a gay show? Even after getting through the whole thing, that's still kind of tricky to answer. There's never any physical intimacy shown between the two leads, not even a single kiss. What it gives you instead is something that goes way deeper than that. It traces an emotional bond that spans a full decade between two guys who are both dealing with their own baggage, and what they share basically amounts to being soulmates. The story moves across Japan, South Korea, and Berlin. Honestly, whether people want to call what they have a romantic relationship or not doesn't really matter to me. A relationship doesn't need a label like boyfriends attached to it to actually mean something. And closeness doesn't need to be physical to feel genuine. What this show captures is something quieter but way more powerful, a bond rooted in understanding, respect, and just showing up for each other. Across eight episodes, each running 35 to 45 minutes, this is one...
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Maschile Plurale (Italian) [Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake]

By Golu
This film is the sequel to 2021’s film Mascarpone, which I remember liking very much. So naturally, my expectations were quite high from the sequel.  As a reminder, in the original film, Antonio splits up with his husband and moves in with a sex worker, Denis. Denis fixes him up with a job as an apprentice baker with Luca, whom he also starts dating, including having threesomes with Denis till Denis untimely death. The film sort of takes forward from the original story but three years later.

Three years have now passed and Antonio is now a successful celebrity pastry chef/food influencer with a hundred thousand followers on Instagram. He hasn't seen Luca since Denis' death. His dating record since then has been patchy as all his energy has gone into developing his career. One day, Luca comes into his café and the two men reconnect. Luca has had a tough time in the past three years and lost his bakery business. He is now, however, a successful youth worker working in a LGBTQ homeless refuge, and is engaged to his boyfriend Tancredi.  Antonio realizes that he still has romantic feelings for Luca, and sets out to destroy Luca’s relationship with Tancredi and win his heart for himself. To help make this happen, Antonio offers to go into a business partnership with Luca to reopen the bakery he lost.  He continues to mistake Luca's affection for his love and things do not go always as planned. His friends do eventually make him realize that he has no become a bitter person who is destroying a happy couple, coming in between them and in the process, he is himself becoming an arrogant person which he didn't use to be. Eventually Antonio sees sense and eventually sees that he really needs to give up on his past to see what future has in hold for him.

I clearly remember mentioning in my post for the original movie that the guys in the film were hot. The story continues here and needless to say that both Antonio and Luca are still extremely hot. I didn't find actor playing Tancredi very attractive (my personal choice), but the character he was playing was extremely relevant and nice. The style of the film is same as the original with good looking cast, vibrant colors, some mouth-watering desserts and humour in the most unexpected ways (either through situations or facial expressions). Some side characters also do well like the funny female accountant friend of Antonio or Ricky, a troubled youth from the refuge who comes to work with Antonio and Luca. I have always enjoyed these Italian films where we have main characters but the side characters make it more realistic. Also almost everyone is flawed and the film doesn't shy away from it. Here they show, ho Antonio, even though used to be a very nice person, but without realizing, goes too deep to win back his first love despite Luca having moved on. And I liked that. As audience you know what the right thing to do would be, especially when you find out how Luca ended up selling his original bakery, but you also pine for love and part of you wants the two good looking guys to get together. The film has a befitting end, which was only right and hopefully we may see another follow up where a handsome brand new guy enters Antonio's life. (7.5/10)
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