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...
I’ve got to be honest, if I’d caught this documentary right when it dropped back in 2011, I probably would’ve felt a lot differently about it. But looking at it now, it hasn’t aged well at all. The whole thing is built on the history of Section 377, that old law from 1860 under British rule that made same-sex acts illegal by calling them "against the order of nature." Back on July 2nd, 2009, the Delhi High Court finally scrapped that clause in a huge landmark ruling, which was basically the biggest win the Indian LGBTQ community could’ve asked for at the time. This film uses that massive moment as its backdrop to introduce us to the lives of its three main subjects.
The doc follows three people: a gay man, a lesbian, and a transgender woman. Their stories all hit pretty similar notes—they talk about the terror of trying to accept their feelings while growing up and the struggle of eventually facing those fears to find some peace. We listen to the trans woman explain how she still stepped up as the "son" to provide for her family, even though she knew she had to live her truth. The lesbian woman shares a story about her first love and how it hit a dead end because her girlfriend was forced into a marriage. Then there’s the gay guy, who’s basically just holding out hope that he’ll find love one day. All three of them are shown making their way toward the big celebration for the one-year anniversary of Section 377 being overturned.
The people in this movie are basically living out the struggle for equality in a country that’s constantly stuck between old traditions and new changes. But like I mentioned before, things have shifted quite a bit now, and even if I try to look at it through the lens of 2011, the documentary just isn't very entertaining or deep. Aside from the trans woman’s story, the people they chose to follow didn't really have anything particularly profound to say. In my opinion, most of their hardships and backstories felt pretty much the same as what almost any queer person on the Indian subcontinent was already going through back then.
This is a pretty dated documentary that doesn't offer much new insight or entertainment value, even when considering its historical context. It feels a bit too surface-level to really leave an impact today. (3/10)
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