This dark gritty Japanese BL is something I was not expecting. The story focuses on a Yakuza bodyguard assigned to kill his young boss. The premise sounds interesting but the execution was just weird. There were lot of problems with the show like violence, abuse, coercion and even forcing themselves sexually. Eventually it somewhere becomes. BL with some nonsense stuff. Thankfully the series was only 6 episodes of about 26-30 minutes each. Kataoka is a respected yakuza leader. His boss has grown old and frail, unable to manage the organization anymore. Leadership now falls to the boss's son, Keito. He assigns Odajima as Kataoka's new handler to keep him in check. Kataoka is impulsive and treats Odajima aslmost as a servant even forcing sex on him. But beneath the rough exterior, Kataoka occasionally reveals a gentler side. Odajima, on the other hand, is stoic and distant, keeping his emotions under tight control. What Kataoka doesn't know is that Odajima has a hidden agen...
Zabo has just lost his best friend Pol who committed suicide. Trying to avoid grief, he is trying to spend him time with his friends. Since he has also turned 16 recently, a lot of his thoughts are about partying, sex and drugs. He starts writing a blog collecting his thoughts and things happening with him, sort of memoir. He has dated a few girls but none of them have everything that he is looking for in love. He realizes that the only person who has all the qualities he is looking for is Tomas, one of his closest friends. But Zabo doesn't know if he is gay or not. He reaches out his childhood friend, who he lost touch with since he was gay and professed love for Zabo. This kid was Pol's boyfriend and he recommends that only way for Zabo to find the truth is to how up with another boy and if he likes that, he would know about his preferences without risking his friendship with Tomas. Zabo starts avoiding Tomas and becomes close to another school boy Ramiro. Before you know the boys are having sex regularly. But Zabo is also having sex with a slightly older girl Tina who also has another boyfriend. Zabo thinks of Ramiro only as his sexual outlet, which he enjoys but doesn't consider himself gay because of it. Tomas, meanwhile gets a girlfriend. When Ramiro finds out what Zabo really thinks of him, he serves ties and Tina also breaks up with Zabo. He is left all alone. He decides to take up his life in the end (similar to Pol), since suddenly he is very lonely and he cannot deal with his pain anymore.
First thing that catches your attention is how cute and charming Zabo as an actor was. He is delightful and you can see why he is always surrounded by friends. We see everything through Zabo's eyes, but his vision proves unreliable. He writes that he doesn't make friends easily, but his life is filled with social interactions, dance parties, drinking, smoking, and sex, with a steady core of friends. This contradiction signals to us that his observations may not be clear or realistic, so when he abruptly kills himself at the film's end, it feels like it came out of nowhere, because up until this point, there was no emotional or logical preparation for this. Perhaps the message is that seemingly well-adjusted kids are just as likely to kill themselves as depressed ones. So in that sense, the film was a bit shifty. The film is enjoyable when you see Zabo going through usual teenage angst of drugs, love, sex, friends and even loving family who he finds annoying. His scenes with Ramiro, with Tina and with Tomas are all fun and very real. You have a constant smile throughout. The lead actors charm make it worth seeing all these little chapters of his life and how he is learning from each of those.
Any film calling attention to the tragedy of teen suicide deserves attention, but this one has flaws and came out of nowhere. I think this deserved a better screenplay. (4.5/10)
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