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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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Hello Love! (Cambodia Mini-Series)

By Golu

We don't get a ton of BL content coming out of Cambodia, and honestly, if this is the kind of thing we'd be getting more of, I'm perfectly fine skipping it. I know that sounds harsh. But the whole concept of ordinary people in ordinary settings stumbling into love only really works if there's something genuinely compelling behind it. Both the leads and their romance here are so flat and generic that nothing about it is going to grab anyone who's watched a decent amount of BL or gay content before. At least it's only five episodes, each running twenty to twenty five minutes, so thankfully they don't drag it out longer than it needs to be.

The setup involves a group of students who get assigned a project by their professor, meant to teach them about how rice gets grown and processed, and to help them appreciate what makes Cambodian rice special in the first place. While out in the field they run into Sal, a resort manager who offers to show them around, mainly because he had a dream about one of the students, Sam, and wants an excuse to spend time with him. Sam and Sal clearly have feelings for each other right away, with this obvious romantic and sexual tension building between them. The more time they spend together, the closer they get, and they agree to stay in touch afterward. A few days pass and Sam starts missing him, so he decides to head over to Sal's resort to see him. Not long after, Sal's female friend comes to visit, and Sam gets noticeably jealous over it, eventually blurting out that he actually loves Sam and taking off before Sam even gets the chance to respond. Predictably, Sam tracks him down afterward, admits he feels the same way, and the two of them end up happy together with a kiss to close things out.

This is clearly a low budget production, and you can tell they're trying to cram a lot into a short runtime. There's a ton of drone footage, a lot of it repeated, showing off the rice paddies and countryside, and while it looks nice at first, it gets old pretty fast. The shots themselves are well done, but they end up feeling like filler, mostly because the script underneath is so thin. Even the two leads don't really bring much charisma to the table. They've got okay chemistry together, but as someone watching, I just couldn't bring myself to care. You can tell exactly where this story's headed within the first few minutes. The opening two episodes spend a surprising amount of time teaching viewers about different rice varieties and how it's grown and distributed, which honestly was kind of interesting on its own, but not really what I'm looking for in a BL. It almost feels like the creators couldn't decide if they wanted to make a travel documentary, an educational piece, or a boys love story, and just mashed all three together. And that final kiss scene, you could tell both actors were super uncomfortable shooting it, it really shows on screen. They filmed it from these weird angles clearly trying to hide how awkward the whole thing felt. If you're new to the genre this might work fine for you, but for someone who's watched a lot of BL like me, this one was a real slog to get through.

Bottom line, thin story, awkward chemistry, and way too much rice education for a BL. (3.5/10)

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