This dark gritty Japanese BL is something I was not expecting. The story focuses on a Yakuza bodyguard assigned to kill his young boss. The premise sounds interesting but the execution was just weird. There were lot of problems with the show like violence, abuse, coercion and even forcing themselves sexually. Eventually it somewhere becomes. BL with some nonsense stuff. Thankfully the series was only 6 episodes of about 26-30 minutes each. Kataoka is a respected yakuza leader. His boss has grown old and frail, unable to manage the organization anymore. Leadership now falls to the boss's son, Keito. He assigns Odajima as Kataoka's new handler to keep him in check. Kataoka is impulsive and treats Odajima aslmost as a servant even forcing sex on him. But beneath the rough exterior, Kataoka occasionally reveals a gentler side. Odajima, on the other hand, is stoic and distant, keeping his emotions under tight control. What Kataoka doesn't know is that Odajima has a hidden agen...
Yassine, is a moroccan student whose family has made sacrifices for him to be able to study architecture in Paris. He is doing so well, except he gets piss drunk the day before final exam and hence cannot finish his degree and hence now his visa is at a risk. He also had a crush on this girl Claire in college but because of embarrassment, he stands her up on the last night. He now works as a labour in a construction project. Fred and his girlfriend Lisa move in next to Yassine and very soon Fred and Yassine become very close friends. Fred is a blond deadbeat with no job and no ambitions and for some reason not interested to marry Lisa. To keep his visa situation in check, Yassine asks Fred is to marry him, which he willingly agrees. Now starts all comedy when the state official Dussart needs to find out of the couple is for real or just faking it. There are many scenes in which he follows the couple or visits them and how then they handle him. Thinks take another turn when Yassine's mother shows up unannounced and Yassine then introduces Lisa as his wife. The mother now starts planning for his wedding. Meanwhile Yassine is still crushing on Claire at work but she still holds grudges. As expected, the secret eventually comes out when Yassine confesses. The mother is shocked but Claire eventually comes around and Fred finally realizes that he actually likes men.
The story of the film is wonderfully written to keep bringing in comic relief every now and then. There is never a dull moment in this fast paced film. Each character brings something fun. Now, the situation son Fred and Yassine trying to act gay, even though funny feel slightly dated on how gays are stereotyped with their clothing, mannerism, sex obsession, over the top clothes. I felt weird but then I looked from another angle that maybe what they were trying to show is that still many straight guys are so ignorant about gay world and gays in general that in their mind, this is how gays live and behave having no clue whatsoever about the similarity of lives and ways that gay men have with straight guys. It made me feel less bad but I wish how they would have kept at least one stereo-free gay character. But I guess most mainstream comedies like to take the short cut to bring some laughs. Chemistry that Fred and Yassine share is amazing. Fred was definitely my favourite character who literally takes everything he does to his heart and does with passion, be it the fake marriage, dance competition or anything else.Some of the random characters like the loan shark and the blind guy also added good funny moments. The whole Claire angle was very underbaked and really didn't add much. Maybe they just needed an arena for Yassine to have. a reason to speak out his truth. Another thing was how sake all the Moroccan scenes looked like. And why were they all talking in French and not Arabic?
Keep your mind aside, and just try to enjoy this film. Try to not be offended with typical stereotyping. The film is not showing homophobia intentionally. I was entertained for a change. (6.5/10)
Comments
No wonder Fred and Yassine have great chemistry, they are really well known in France as part of "la bande à Fifi", a group of actors/friends that always do the most hilarious movies together. If you want a good laugh with goofy humour I sincerely recommend you go watch some of their movies : babysitting, alibi.com etc... The energy they have is contagious. Cherry on the cake, they always add a crazy number of geek references, it's a pure paradise for a video game/manga addict like me (don't watch Nicky Larson if you don't know the manga, you'll miss 90% of the movie...)
Btw, Marocco was a former french colony, they speak both french and arabic :)