This Vietnamese show isn't exactly groundbreaking, but it definitely keeps you hooked. It’s a quick watch with 10 episodes that only last about 15 to 20 minutes each, and even though it uses all the usual BL tropes, it really works because you can't help but root for the underdog. The romance actually takes its time to show up and then wraps up pretty fast, but the characters still feel way more relatable than in a lot of other shows like this. The story follows Phuc, who moves from Hanoi to Saigon to open his dream bar and live with his girlfriend. Things go sideways immediately when he arrives a day early to surprise her and catches her cheating, so he breaks up with her and leaves. He ends up reaching out to his old childhood neighbors, Cong and his sister Han, who he hasn't seen in years. The siblings are struggling on their own with a massive debt and Han’s poor health. Han thinks her brother works at a convenience store, but Cong is actually a heavy for a criminal gro...
Set in rural 80s, we meet Antonio (a hunk straight out of a leather bar) an isolated farmer who lives a quite mundane life. Fate makes him meet Marcelo, an injured motorbike driver, whom he nurses back to health. A worried affair starts between the two and they are having long slow-mo sex acts shown explicitly but also falling in love with each other with a lingering question of whether Marcelo will suddenly up and leave? But Antonio’s homophobic dad has sent a disruptor to his farm and things take a tragic turn. Antonio packs up the farm and drowns himself with a dead (?) Marcelo. The movie suddenly turns gears and we are now in an alternate universe? Or a dream? Or a nightmare? We jump to a much older Antonio, a successful artist living a huge house in the city. Marcelo has suddenly disappeared, walked away without telling and it seems that Antonio is relived he is gone. A few days later, Antonio gives away their dog to random gay couple and starts having an affair with his assistant, all the while the housekeeper wondering what happened? The film becomes thriller but just abruptly ends.
Where did Marcelo go? Why did he leave? Is he alive? Dead? Living his best life in São Paulo? But then, the movie gets distracted because it’s more interested in showing Antonio having sex with his personal assistant and then running off to the woods to have group sex with men who mysteriously pop out of nowhere like horny forest spirits. This was the most bizarre ending honestly. It is a shame because when the film started off, I had huge hopes. Despite most of the scenes in the film being almost silent, there was a visual appeal to it all. In fact I thought the first few sex scenes were both emotionally and sensually charged, but the nude scene kept coming. The erotically-charged, somewhat hardcore sex scenes and oodles of nudity will certainly attract the gay crowd, but everyone would leave frustrated because of so many open ended questions. It is a shame because the artistic poetic first half wasn't bad at all. It was visually stunning and watching these two absolutely gorgeous men in their full glory was a feast for the sore eyes. Having seen the whole thing now, it feels like this is another skin flick that prides itself on being artistic, not porn, because it has tragedy and angst to accompany the nudity and sex. A beautiful story that had potential, that was ruined by the makers ambitious artistic aspirations. (4/10)
Comments