Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

This was an interesting series in the sense it was hard to like it or dislike it. The story is really barely there and s just paper thin, but look at the guts of the makers that they decided to convert this into 30 episodes each of about 8 minutes to keep the viewers hooked a few days a week to wait for what would happen next. Thankfully, as always I saw it when the whole thing was out.  It is the story of two worlds. Navee is a young man who works at a radio station. At the halloween party, another man dressed in traditional royal clothes catches his attention but disappears. The same guy starts showing up as a ghost at his apartment at regular intervals scaring Navee. Navee tries making offerings and prayers but nothing helps, so he eventually gives in. The man tells him that he is a prince from 2000 years ago and he has not crossed over and it would happen only when Navee remembers everything. Slowly love Strats Tod develop between the two in this world and in small fragments, N...

A very interesting perspective on the sex underbelly life of Manila sex-workers, this film tackles the grittier realities of queer life, where survival often means turning to sex work and petty crime. Manila is almost a character in the film which takes no time to hurl you into its immersive world, an incredibly vibrant and chaotic cityscape with a darker underbelly. Neon lights, street food vendors and frisky rent boys. The sights and sounds of Manila are more than enough to make this engrossing tale of life on the streets worth seeing. The queer road drama, in some ways, could be considered a ‘post-tragedy’: rather than the stories we’ve seen over and over that end in queer sadness. We are introduced to a young sex worker Uno, working on the streets alongside his group of 3 other friends. He is confident, knows what he is doing and he meets a new guy Zion, who seems to have been beaten up. As the night progresses and each of the 4 guys continue to look for tricks to pay their rents, ...

Biographies are tricky, because they may work for the country where the main character is based on, but maybe not in other places. This film is the biography on the life of Peruvian actor and drag queen Ernesto Pimentel 'Chola Chabuca' and a very famous TV show host. As it happens most of the times, I had no idea who this person was. But that did not stop me from throughly enjoying this film. It is one of those well made biographies and is a story that will resonate with most folks irrespective of what you have known this personality or not.  The film starts with Ernesto Pimentel, dressed as 'La Chola Chabuca', about to enter the air to host his first television program, and he faints. Using this scene a few times, we are then taken through the journey and rise of Ernesto. As a very young boy, Ernesto loses his mother and is raised by his grandmother. He also needs some economic stability, so he starts taking random theatre jobs here and there, but is always hard workin...

n00b is a New Zealand coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama television series. Set in the town of Gore, it is primarily about Nikau, a high school student who becomes a social outcast after being outed. He becomes a social outcast and along with a group of "freakish friends and foes" traverses the complicated world of high school, and the internet, in search of the confidence to be his true self. The show is 6 episodes of about 20-23 minutes each. The series is set in 2005 with bad fashion choices, emo music and flip phones, which also serves as a love-letter to the internet. Nikau is a popular high school student and a star rugby player and captain. Secretly he has been writing gay fan fiction stories on the internet. In real life he has a girlfriend Lauren, who dreams of making it big in LA. She is pretty but also like a bitch putting herself always before anyone else. Nikau is finding it difficult to lead double life and Lauren is  getting increasingly frustrated at the lack...

A queer themed time loop story is definitely novel idea. I have seen a few time travel stories so far (primarily in the Asian BL market), but time loop is definitely different. There is a certain appeal to the idea of a protagonist reliving their lives in a loop while trying to figure their way out of it and Spark fits well into this category. It is a thriller love story that makes for a decent watch, but somewhere remains short in keeping viewers engaged for a long time.  Aaron, is the careless, in-love twenty-something caught in an annoying time loop. Every afternoon, Aaron wakes up to their roommate Dani, offering them a glass of wine that has gone horribly off. Dani reminds them her habit to refuse to see red flags in guys and Aaron promises to do better. All that starts to change once he meets Trevor, an intriguing stranger he’s paired up with for a birthday party scavenger hunt. While Trevor at first seems fairly distant and aloof, there is a hint of interest, which is enough...

The second season of this show was pretty messy according to me. Numreous characters are introduced in every episode and after a while it is so hard to keep a track on who's who, what they are doing, what is their motivation etc etc. As it is the show wasn't great to begin with, but Iw as hoping that some of the stories that were left open in season 1 would be tackled and completed here, but I was disappointed. After a point I didn't even care and wanted to just know a little bit more about 3-4 characters who I had connected with in season 1 and see what happens. So in my very brief review here, thats all I will talk about. This season was 6 episodes of about 20-30 minutes. 18 year old virgin Marco finally gets lucky, when his straight friend agrees that he also likes Marco and is open to trying to do something. They both have their first sexual experience , which is both awkward, messy and clearly they were unprepared. Marco is still very much into open, but his experience...

The little mini-series from Vietnam was a decent watch. IT had drama, love, emotion, family, everything in it. Sure, it is really hard to combine all this in a small series, but I would rather have the story move forward fast and crispy rather than it being starched unnecessarily. With only 5 episodes of average 15 minutes each, this is an easy watch. The series starts with a girl introducing her boyfriend to her parents, Hi name is Bao. When her brother walks in, both the guys are surprised. The brother Khanh works a s aTA at the same department where Bao studies. We are told that just a couple of days back , the two had a steamy gay hookup. Also turns out that Khanh has a wife and he is always trying to avoid her. While continuing his affair with Bao, Khanh keeps requesting him to not play games with his sister, but in reality this was all a sham. The sister is actually lesbian and good friends with Bao and they were pretending to do a sham marriage so that eventually she could divor...

This Korean series has its merits and not so good things here. This is a pure romance story between two boys, with their romance unfolding through mutual, conscious choices. There’s no dramatic villain here either; the real challenge lies in balancing public athletic careers with the desire for privacy. It's a campus romance which could have used tighter pacing and a slight more. Eventually, for me it ended up being extremely vanilla and bland. The series has 8 episodes of about 30 minutes each. Ji Won is a retired gymnast who has just entered university. He used to be a popular athlete, so for a change he just wants to lay low and not get any attention. He meet the basketball star of the university Jeong U , and the two cannot look away from one another. They are both aware of each other's popularity as well. Soon. Friendship and an attraction starts to develop and they both make it obvious in their own way. One day when Jeong U finally confesses his love and aspiration to dat...

Exploring the romantic relationship between two childhood friends, Loy and Kaew, this series features themes of forbidden love, social class differences, and the struggle against prejudice in rural backdrop in Thailand countryside.Unfortunately there are way too many characters and a very soap opera kinda feeling and direction made this show a bit boring for me. The series is 6 episodes of about 40 minutes each. Loy, is a kind hearted son of a widow, whose father died and they have big loan to pay and then we have Kaew, who comes from a more nobler family. The setting is rural Thailand where farming is the way of life. The dup have been extremely close friends since they were kids. Both are strikingly handsome, natural leaders & pillars of the community, and are desirable by a lot of eligible females in this rather small community. One day they kiss each other (happens in the very first episode) but the leaves both of them confused. A few days later it happens again and they realiz...

This film is supposed to be a comedy thriller but honesty I enjoyed the film only in bits and pieces. It starts off almost serious about this gay couple desperately looking to become parents. It soon veers into a road film, to a series or murders, back to gay child adoption. Satire is clearly not a genre that I most related to. It could be fun if done right, but IMO this was not. Dom and Cole are a married gay couple looking to adopt a baby. While making videos about themselves, they are still waiting to get picked up by a potential mother. For their upcoming anniversary, they decide to take a Roman holiday, which would also double as their baby moon, give they are at very last stages. The dup have some anxieties about parenthood, but nothing different from anyone else. For their anniversary night, Dom's father's closest friend who is Italian has booked them into a dinner experience at some really popular chef in rural Italy. Meanwhile, the prospective mother chooses them as th...

This Taiwanese series is supposed to be an action-romantic-comedy, but it ends up largely being a silly, cutesy romance, with some elements of action and comedy sprinkled here and there. So, essentially, if you take away bits of spy-fights etc; it is once agin tier another series which is about two boys falling in love following the usual BL tropes. The series has 12 episodes of 24-28 minutes each, so thankfully easier time management. Story is that bold and the show could have easily been folded sooner. The show starts with Xiao Bai and Da Hei looking for an apartment as roommates together. They dont know each other well. Once they find an apartment, we find that Da Hen is actually an investigation officer, who has been sent to keep an eye on Xiao Bei, who works for a local gangster to raise some money for his sister's surgery who is in hospital and insurance doesn't cover. Da Hei has lied to his grandmother who runs a food stall near the gangster's office about the sister...

“Identity Crisis” dives into one of the most polarizing debates of our time: the rise of gender ideology and its impact on children. It takes a critical look at the modern conversation around gender identity, particularly how it's playing out in the lives of young people and their families. Now do I agree with this documentary or representation? 1% yes, largely no and we will see how it plays out. The core of this documentary feels like something based through an Anti Transgender agenda. I would be the first person to say that I don't understand Trans completely but I believe in people having the right choose what they want for themselves. This documentary largely shows us a perspective from the other side. It shows us individuals, parents and families, who did let the individuals go through transition by taking medicine and many cases going through surgery as well. They feel like gender ideology was on such a rise that doctors would force and tell parents if you do not accept ...

Trust BBC to always come up with show that constantly redefine content but also find stories (this one is inspired by a true story), that give a great representation of the LGBTQ+ community. I have seen many stories about trans people, but I am not aware of a major production house creating a series of this magnitude, reminding people that trans lives have always existed, and will continue to exist long after this moment. Apparently the series brings in Paris Lees’ acclaimed memoir to the screen (in all honesty, I have no clue who Paris Lee is, but the fact that it is still an inspiration from someone's actual life, makes it so much more interesting). The series offers a fearless and deeply human portrait of a trans, working-class person rarely seen on British television. It is 8 episodes each of 50-55 minutes. The story follows 15 year old Byron, caught between the homes of his mum, dad and gran, finding ‘freedom’ in Nottingham’s underground club scene. Show starts with us meeting...

Set in 2006 in West Yorkshire, this is your simple boy-meets-boy teenage gay love story touching on nostalgia, teenage angst and indie pop with a gentle hand. We have seen many films in the same genre, so I was hoping for something different, but sadly the film follows a very predictable narrative approach. It's not bad at all, but how I wish there was something more. The film works only thanks to the charm of its two leading actors.  George is 16 year old teenager, navigating the difficult road of social and academic failure in a small town. George, who’s certain of his own talent even though no one else seems to share that belief, dreams of becoming a famous musician. He is not good at studies ether and his father and school teachers are very worried about his future. Enter Max, a handsome student, the son of a mega-famous musical duo, who much to surprise of George, takes interest in George and his music. Their budding friendship both excites and confuses George, leading him to ...

This show should be avoided completely. Firstly, the show is clearly left midway after 6 episodes. There is no proper conclusion and as audience we are left with a lot of questions. I read online, that the makers did not pay the actors because of which they left the show midway and hence the so called 'incomplete' show. Which Actually might be a blessing in disguise, because the acting and direction of this show were so ridiculously bad. But then you never know, the makers may hire a new crew and make season 2 for all you know. For now this series was 6 episodes of 50 minutes each. Nerdy student Nu is told by an astrologer that once he encounters three mishaps, he will find a sexy hot man as love of his life. While walking to college, he is almost hit by Sun who was driving his car. Sun a second year medical student. Once he goes to college, he meets Chain, a senior on his faculty who seems to like Nu. Since Nu is a nerd, he is unable to make many friends, and Chain introduces ...