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...
Movie starts with Natalie having discovered that her husband Ernesto is having an affair and invites the person to the house. She is shocked to see that the person is actually a young boy and that her husband was cheating on her with a man. Daniel is a part-time sex worker, and Ernesto paid for his company before love began to bloom between the two as time went on, a love that was conditional on Ernesto continuing with his marriage. Just as she plans to confront him, she gets the news that her husband had had a stroke and is in hospital, she rushes there. Daniel hears it and also goes. Over the course of next few days, these two people connect on the tragedy but at a superficial level. As they wait in the ICU, tensions rise, emotions unravel, and the two are forced to navigate their complex feelings—grief, betrayal, and unexpected connection—while confronting the uncertain future of the man they both love. Ernesto is soon moved to a private room, where we get to know a little bit about his roommate(s). Eventually when Ernesto wakes up, he asks for forgiveness, but eventually the wife wins over and gets to take back him home. Ernesto will likely be left lonely but ending leaves us hopeful.
As I said before, I wonder of the idea here was to make a dark comedy but it fails. I say that because you get to hear the interactions between two nurses, which are absurd; then Natalie meets a woman whose daughter has cancer and they share secret or jus the whole premise of a man, his wife and boyfriend in a hospital environment itself. It did not feel comedy to me but at the same time, the drama as well did not engage me. It struggles with the deeper themes of identity, deception, and authenticity versus insincerity. As far as performances go, both Natalie and Daniel do a great job. She is the confident yet fractures and wronged wife desperately searching for answers and her potential future while Daniel is a boy who believes he has found love but, in reality, remains alone: a male concubine who Ernesto loves but equally shuns in favor of his façade of heterosexuality. If this was to be a dramedy, it did not work for me and the direction needs a lot of work. It was quite superficial while never really making s understand the conflicts that these two people face, their love, their guilt. And we definitely do not get to see anything at all from Ernesto's perspective. (4/10)
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