This docuseries is a lively and personal look at what it’s like to be queer in New Zealand today. Hosted by the really charming Aniwa Whaiapu Koloamatangi, it feels like you're being invited into all these different parts of the rainbow community that usually don't get much time on TV. The first season is made up of six episodes, each about 30 minutes long, and they all dive into different topics like family, faith, and the specific experience of being Takatāpui, which is the Māori queer identity. It does a really nice job of balancing the tough history of the LGBTQ+ community with a lot of modern-day happiness and pride. The show starts with Aniwa traveling all over the place to meet folks from every walk of life to see how their background and identity mix together. In the first episode, Aniwa actually takes his first HIV test, works through some stuff from his childhood by playing rugby with the NZ Falcons—one of the country’s gay teams—and checks out what Rainbow Youth is d...
Shu Nian is orphan and at a young age is adopted by Xie Yan's family who are a big real estate magnet. Shu Nian is always to stay by Xie Yan's side. years pass and Xie Yan has just returned from studying abroad. You can tell that Shu Nian loves Xie Yan as his master and lover but Xie Yan doesn't love Shu Nian, though he is extremely close to him. This makes Xie Yan's girlfriend very jealous of him. She tries to create a rift between friends, even leading to sending Shu Nian abroad for studies. But Xie Yan eventually finds out his girlfriend's evil ways and dumps her. To take revenge, she plans for an attack and rape of Shu Nian, where Xie Yan reaches in time and saves him and realizes that he has special feelings for Shu Nian and that Shu Nian is the only one who can help to cool off his hot temperedness. In the meantime Shu Nian meets Ke Luo, another orphan boy, who somehow is 20% shareholder in a big company. Shu Nian treats him like a younger brother since he was orphan but Ke Luo starts falling in love with Shu Nian, who only has his heart set on Xie Yan. After playing hide and seek, the two lovers eventually get together and are in love. When Xie Yan's family finds out about this, the father reminds Shu Nian of his duties to serve Xie Yan and not love him. They force Xie Yan to get engaged to another rich girl who despite knowing truth that Xie Yan is gay wants him. In another act of conspiracy, Shu Nian is blamed for poisoning Xie Yan's fiancé and is then thrown out of home. It's too late when the secret is eventually out. Three months later, Xie Yan received a phone call which announced that Shu Nian had died during a car accident. When he was sent to the hospital, he was able to be saved but because he had no money for any medical treatments, he soon after passed away. Shu Nian's death left Xie Yan devastated, and so he isolated himself from the rest of the world.
The ending of the film is actually really sad. Asian cultures expect the kids to follow orders from their parents and you can see how both Shu Nian and Xie Yan struggle with this. Especially Shu Nian, who is constantly reminded of how he was adopted as an act of kind ness and should the right thing rather than follow his heart. It is clear that Shu Nian has always loved Xie Yan and eventually Xie Yan also realizes his love for him. But either evil individuals or circumstances keep the lovers separated with only a few moments or days of togetherness. The whole storyline with Ke Luo, seemed totally unnecessary to me. Yes, it does help Xie Yan realize and accept his love for Shu Nian but it unnecessarily drags the whole film and the essence of it. I would recommend getting away wit hit completely. Shu Nian feels that Xie Yan's possessiveness, is as an expression of love. This thought makes him believe that love equals being owned, where freedom doesn’t really matter. On the other hand Xie Yan sees love as a thing that you can easily buy with power and money. Instead of partnership, he believes love is a state of ownership, where he can do almost anything towards his possession. This is an interesting dynamic between the duo which eventually gets resolved into true love in part 2 of the film. The story is very predictable but thankfully the lead actors did a great job and share a good chemistry. The version I saw had really bad english subtitles, so i am sure I lost a lot of finer details.
In essence, this film is a cute love story where the lovers get together and are thrown apart like several times, but their love for each other remains true. (6/10)
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