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...
Story starts off pretty simple. When a young and poor-ish Wu Suo Wei gets dumped by his girlfriend, he finds out that she dumped him for money and is now seeing the rich tycoon Chi Cheng who loves snakes. He hatches a plan where he thinks that he will seduce Chi Cheng and get his revenge. He reaches out to his newly gay doctor friend to teach him the art of seducing men and the two come with a whole bunch of funny ideas to win over Chi Cheng. In a twist, this gay doctor is being aggressively pursued by wealthy playboy, a close friend of Chi Cheng. This simple plot of a lot of drama, extremely funny situations, how Wu Suo Wei goes about seducing the man, how he succeeds in doing this. From staging constant “accidental” meetings, fake-reading complicated literature, and playing basketball, to smoking cigarettes, pretending to love classical music, and even learning to breed snakes, Wu Suo Wei tries every trick in the book. He succeeds in breaking up the couple but in the process at some point real feelings start to develop. Chi Cheng likes guys but for Wu Suo Wei, it takes him time and denial that he can never fall for a guy that too a rich arrogant person.
It's really hard to explain on paper the kind of chemistry that the main two leads share. It's romantic but also cute and funny with the way they play antics over each other. Wu Suo Wei is comically cute and everything he doe again to again to first bring Chi Cheng close to him but as soon as Chi Cheng tries to kiss him or have sex with him, he completely freaks out and the situations become quite funny. The duo's onscreen chemistry is very addictive, especially every time Wu Suo Wei gets 'gay panic'. The secondary couple of the doctor and the playboy gets almost same time as the lead couple and they both do a great job as well. We also get to see doctor's backstory which explains why he is so reluctant o get in a relationship when the rich playboy pursues him relentlessly. So from a story perspective and how it is treated is a great watch, but my problem is that there are way too many subplots and complications keep coming up one after the other. Just when you think, things will come to a close, something new happens. Wu Suo Wei and Chi Cheng are on-again off-again kind of couple but I was lad at least they communicated. They feel like a committed couple but never truly commit till the end. The complications arise from ex's, from business rivalries, from parents, but the one thing this show does is a good balance of serious drama and comedy (which comes mostly from Wu Suo Wei and his reactions). I also appreciated the fact that the series does full justice to the pure friendship between Wu Suo Wei and the gay doctor. This show will demand your attention and is likely not for a binge watch experience (which is what I tried). Personally I felt that the show was very much stretched out at various places and could have done with less episodes because somewhere in the middle I felt that things started to get very repetitive. The whole parents drama in last 4 episodes just did not need that much time. All said and done, the conclusion is warm with the love couple entwined and smiling in Wu Suo Wei's childhood home. The production quality is top notch and no expenses spared to make this a show a memorable one. The series is not without its flaws, so it is definitely not going to get a very high rating for me. But I did enjoy the show a lot in many parts and mostly due to the actor Wu Suo Wei. HIs gay panic reactions, his fear if actually finding himself falling for a man were all extremely natural, funny and something I connected with. (7.5/10)
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