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...
Rosie is old and lives by herself and one day falls and is admitted to the hospital. His gay son Lorenz who lives in Berlin, comes back to take care of her. Lorenzo, who is in his mid 40s, writes gay fiction but of late his books are not getting good reviews. He also has a sister who is herself dealing with her family issues. They both argue that neither of them can take care of the mother. But Rosie herself insists that she wants to stay independent and refuses any help. Lorenz struggles with her strong-willed mother but ultimately gives in and make frequent visits. Love comes knocking when he meets Mario, neighbor's grandson who is very attracted to Lorenzo. They have a great one night and Mario wants to see this grow into something. But Lorenz pushes him away and it becomes obvious he isn’t dealing with his own issues, let alone those of anyone else. Eventually the drama continues to built and some past family secrets are revealed that delve deeper into why the marriage between Rosie and her late husband was a disaster and how this has eventually affected the relationship between her and kids and why Rosie has become the stubborn person that she is. Eventually when Lorenz realizes his love for Mario after pushing him away many times, it might be too late to make any amendments.
As mentioned above, the film is not a gay film but it does spend sometime focussing on issues that Lorenz has with Mario who he still thinks of as a young man and that eventually his relationship will fail. The family dynamics between the mother and 2 kids is very real and it deals with some very relatable issues. At first Lorenz becomes frustrated with Rosie and sees her as stubborn but as the film progresses he begins to understand that accepting your limitations isn’t something that’s easy to do. Rosie was brilliant as an actress. She carries the film completely on her shoulders and has a charm. She also brings in some light moments and humor times. Having said that, the family drama was way too much for my linking and it felt stretched in a lot of places. Given the changed title, I would have liked to see a lot more focus on Lorenz and on his past and current life focussing more on Mario. There was a lot of scope there. Lorenz and Mario have good chemistry and you can see and actually relate to why Lorenz would try to push Mario away.
Overall not a bad movie, but please don't think of it as a gay film. This is a film about relationship of a mother with her kids where the gay son plays an important part. Its stretched a bit but doesn't bore you. (5/10)
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