So, about a decade ago, there were these five movies that made up the whole Takumi-kun series. Now, the creators have come back with a six-episode show, with each part running about 25 minutes. I'm guessing they wanted to introduce a newer generation of BL fans to this world, but honestly, it backfired. The whole thing feels incredibly dated, like it’s completely out of touch with how modern BL shows are made today. Between a cast that’s way too crowded and a mountain of different couples to keep track of, the storytelling is just a total train wreck that doesn't make a lick of sense. The whole thing takes place at an all-boys boarding school. You’ve got Gii, who just moved back from the States and is the son of a super wealthy CEO, and he's roommates with Takumi. Right from the very first episode, Gii is basically obsessed, taking every chance he gets to shout his feelings from the rooftops. Takumi is really shy and has no clue how to handle all that heat, so he just doe...
Tchaikovsky was very young when he was sent to boarding school. Having lost his mother at the young age of 14, he started training in music and soon starts getting popular. When he becomes a college professor, he meets his first love who inspires him to compose for Romeo & Juliet, but eventually he dies after few years of cholera. Incidentally Tchaikovsky's brother is also gay and they both along with other popular artists spend time as themselves in an underground gay club. After years of promiscuity, at some point he starts fearing that public knowledge of his sexuality would be the end of his career and he could get arrested, he decides to get married as a cover. He meets Antonina, who apparently has ben in love with him and proposes her. But as expected he can't be a husband and soon flees to Italy. He finds a wealthy patroness via chat who is more than happy to cover for all his expenses as she shares common love for his music. In Europe, Tchaikovsky's compositions flourish and be becomes a world famous composer. Dejected in love by everyone, his last few years are spent with. his nephew in a remote village where he breathes his last at age 53 because of cholera.
Apparently, whether Tchaikovsky's death was suicide or natural is still a mystery, but it was interesting to understand the life of a musician. Personally, I had never heard the name but the fact that it is a true story and how scandalous it could be to be gay in Russia in 1800's is truly unfathomable. That way the drama was quite interesting but there was a lot of music pieces too, which is totally legit since he is a composer but personally thats just not my cup of tea. I would have preferred a full fledged film on his life. Surprisingly, most of the film focuses only on his sexuality, which I am not complaining about; but for a true biography, it would be nice to know other aspects of his life too. A person cannot just be defined by his sexuality. Sure, the sexuality defines the character but thats not all. The production values were quite good and so was direction and acting. Essentially all the parts that were actually filmed as film were interesting.
Know that this is docu-drama an not a full fledged feature film. If you are not into classical music, you will enjoy the film a lot more if someone can bring us a version with the long music pieces. (5/10)
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