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On The Sea (UK)

By Golu
This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
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Chained To My Bully Stepbrother (AI Vertical BL Drama)

By Golu

This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. 

The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to help him out. Aiden tells Finn to stay away from Ryan too, but Finn brushes it off since Ryan seems like a decent friend, until Ryan actually drugs him. Aiden gets there in time to pull Finn out of that mess, and that's the moment their relationship turns physical. Ryan then flips the situation to blackmail both of them, threatening to blow up the family and wreck their futures. Scared of what that could mean, Finn and Aiden force themselves to pull apart. Then Aiden's ex girlfriend shows up and has Finn kidnapped, trying to write him out of Aiden's life for good, but Aiden shows up with the actual head of the family, his grandmother, and she ends up blessing the two of them and their future together.

The title comes from a dog caller that is from a gay club which Finn has which says something about Aiden's slave, which is how Ryan is able to blackmail them. What really stood out, and not in a good way, was how sloppy the editing was. I kept wondering if this was an older production because the episodes felt stitched together wrong, with odd glitches popping up here and there. I ended up watching the whole thing at double speed so it didn't drag too much, but my take on AI generated content hasn't changed, it just feels hollow, like something's always missing from it. I don't think this kind of content has real staying power long term. The kissing and sex scenes felt tossed in at random with no build up. And the most distracting part was that the three leads all looked way too alike, if it weren't for the blond hair and the glasses, I'd have had a hard time telling them apart. It's short enough that you could give it a shot and form your own take, but it just didn't land for me. Bottom line, weak editing and a cast that blurs together drag this one down even with its short runtime. (3/10)

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