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...
Mel Daluzyan was, at one time, a national treasure to the people of Armenia when in 2006 he became the first female from the country to win a medal in the World Weightlifting championships. Having been born with higher levels of testosterone than an average woman, Mel had a noted advantage over his competitors. He would continue to see further success until the 2012 Olympics when he was unable to set a total. Mel now has a girlfriend Lili and when the threats become too much in a conservative society, he seeks refuge in Netherlands. As time moves by, Lilit feels the pressure of not only leaving her family and friends, but supporting her boyfriend while the cameras follow her everywhere. When they attend couples therapy, she seems to take it more seriously than Mel. The documentary focuses as much on their relationship as a couple as well. In fact it is mostly about that. In the end we see Mel gets top surgery and after few days of recovery finds courage to start strength training again.
Mel is a love story about a man’s love for his sport and his partner, and the film never settles for an easy solution for either. This documentary doesn't go too deep into what it means being trans, how should they life their life or something else. His trainer and his nation refused to accept it. We see far-right marches for “traditional values”.The difficult decision is made to start a new life in the Netherlands. This is an immigration story, and a sporting story, and partly a love story, though the strains of moving away from your homeland eventually take their toll. As Mel becomes more comfortable in their identity in the Netherlands, his relationship takes on the very different different kinds of traditions of modern masculinity; emotional constipation, women’s agency taking second place to men’s control and ambition. It’s a fascinating dichotomy and Mel’s partner Lilli is in many ways just as interesting a figure, in her roles as therapist, caregiver, and number one fan of a former Armenian hero. I don't know what I was expecting but somehow based on what I had read in the summary of this doc, v/s what I saw, it felt quite underwhelming. The good part if we have seen lots of content on trans women but extremely few on trans men.(4.5/10)
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