Vietnamese shows can really be a hit or a miss, and this one was no exception. The plot definitely had some good ideas, but it felt like they dragged it out way longer than necessary. Honestly, they could have finished the whole thing in eight episodes, but instead, we had to sit through fourteen installments that were 35 minutes each—and the finale was almost an hour long! Also, I’ve got to say, the "amnesia" trope is getting so old in the BL world. Writers really need to find some fresh ideas. The story is about Viet, a young artist who is going through a really rough time. He’s lost his parents, gets picked on by his boss, and eventually quits his job. To make things worse, his boyfriend has been ghosting him, and when Viet finally goes to see him, he finds out the guy has moved on to someone else without even bothering to break up with him. His only support is a female friend who sticks by him through everything. To clear his head, Viet heads to a quiet mountain village a...
The plot follows Jordan and Dave, a couple who have been together for a few years. Right before Christmas, Jordan pops the question, expecting a big "Yes!" but instead, Dave basically says, "Can't we just stay the way we are?" They head off on a train to spend the holidays with Jordan's aunt, bringing along Jordan’s "sister" Lisa—who was raised by the aunt—and her boyfriend. Most of the movie is just them bickering and talking through Jordan and Dave’s relationship issues. In a weird twist, Dave meets a 20-year-old ski instructor who seems to be closeted and invites him over for a hot tub session, hoping for a threesome, but that doesn't actually lead anywhere. The movie just kind of stops as abruptly as the rest of the story.
The way they filmed this was really awkward because it uses a bunch of flashbacks and has one of the guys talking directly to the camera, almost like he’s on a reality dating show. It felt like Jordan was trying to narrate everything, and the constant jumps to how they met were just annoying. To make it worse, the version I watched looked terrible, and the two leads had zero chemistry. There’s an aunt character who is supposed to be racist and homophobic in a funny way, but none of her jokes actually landed. I think the script itself had some potential, but the acting and the directing were so bad that it was almost impossible to sit through. You could tell the lead actor was struggling because he kept laughing at the wrong times or looking right into the lens. It feels like a short film that someone tried to stretch out into a full movie, but it just didn't work. Even though it's technically a Christmas movie, it doesn't really have that holiday feel to help save the weak plot. Plus, the whole side story with the sister and her boyfriend just felt like extra filler to show off a messy family.
It’s a low-energy holiday flick that suffers from a major lack of chemistry and a messy filming style that makes it a bit of a chore to finish. (2/10)
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