Skip to main content

Legend Of Long Yang (Mandarin) [Rebirth]

There have been very few handful of gay films on China. Considering the very strict censorship laws there, its not surprising that these films are more of a homoerotic films with hints of love and no real action. Thankfully this film film did have a kissing and pseudo sexual scene but all in the end credits.

Film starts with Prince You coming back from a war and is attacked by assassins. A guard unknown to prince, named Long Yang comes to his protection, but eventually loses his life. HE sees that a token that was given this by the price has also broken and possibly. The prince has died too. Upon awakening though Long Yang finds himself having travelled back in time a year ago and he wants to use this opportunity to save the kings life. It turns out that the price had saved Long Yang's life when they were kids and had gifted him as a token. Long Yang reveals his identity to Prince You and before you realize they have an unbroken bond between them. He comes the prince's trusted advisor and bodyguard and a candid romance starts flourishing between them. This is not taken well by the process who is in love with prince and wants to marry him. She does her best to create misunderstandings between them to the extent that she even even accuses Long Yang of being part pf the conspiracy to kill the prince. She forces the prince to marry her but the prince soon realizes what game she is unto and manages to play trick where he and Long Yang can escape from the kingdom to there by live with each other in love.

At just about 75 minutes, the film went by pretty quick and in anyway its always nice to see elaborate kingdom sets. The problem here is the editing. If you do not pay attention, you can completely miss out on the time travel part and how the tings are being done right. At many places the scenes seemed completely disjointed. Its only later they show the reasoning and things fall in place. I am very sure that there are better ways of showing such sequences to the audience. I wish the film was more seamless rather than choppy edits that disrupt the flow of the narrative. The two male leads have excellent chemistry. The female lead playing the jealous princess does a good job in acting. You really end up hating her for forcing herself on the prince and blaming the poor Long Yang for the assassination plot. Thankfully the film has a happy ending and we even get to see the two boys kissing and undressing each other in the end credits. Overall, its not the greatest of film by any means, but it was nice pleasant distraction from the useless stuff that I have been seeing of late. (6/10)

Comments

Sailor Maan said…
Thanks for the review, I also think it was an ok movie. Strangely production value ranges from beautiful for the kingdom sets (especially the princess costumes that are gorgeous!) to very cheap (combat scenes and those horrible false petals flying haha). What disturbed me the most were the blatantly cut scenes. I thought there was something wrong in the editing but couldn't pinpoint what until you find after the end credits they were the kissing and "sex" scenes. China homophobia and censorship really is something...
Golu said…
True! But guess what censorship is still a very real and brutal thing in most countries.
And you are right about production too. Sometimes too good while really bad at other places.
Sailor Maan said…
You're sadly right about global censorship... I'm certainly seeing this through my western eyes filter and tend to forget about it at times.
Golu said…
It's all good. Some of us are lucky that we are allowed to be who we are.

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin

One Summer Night (Korean)

I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who

Ultimate masturbation: Shigoki no yama (Japanese) [The Ultimate Masturbation]

I would never know what was the point behind making this film. Was it supposed to be a comedy, cos it wasn't. It wasn't even porn. It was just a silly attempt at making something absolutely senseless and ridiculous. The story, as well as direction is equally shoddy. You could laugh for having seen something so bad, but I wouldn't call that comedy. An old man runs a camp about gay masturbation. The explanation given is that gays masturbate for pleasure unlike straight men, for whom the act is seen as shame or because they can't find a woman. One day a straight man shows up and wants to join the camp for his thesis. After discussion, he is allowed in. Rules include that you can masturbate together, you can masturbate one another, but there is no fellatio or anal sex. Some students of course breaks rule. The teacher then talks about 2 forms of masturbation which gives ultimate pleasure. He shows one without touching and then refuses to talk of the other. Somehow suddenly,