Skip to main content

Nation's Brother (Vietnamese Series)

This Vietnamese BL series could have been so much better. They had a great looking cast, a decent story on hand, but like most companies, the makers got trapped to use almost BL tropes in one single show and the editing of the show was so bad. The scenes felt a disjointed at many places. What could have been a good goofy comedy, if treated well, turned out to be a below average fare. The show is 6 episodes of about 25 minutes each.

Minh is a businessman who lives with his younger sister. One night while walking he meets drunk student Tan and next thing you know is they have a one night stand after a night of drinking. His sister is not getting good Martin school so he is looking third tutor and Tan applies for position and gets the job. Minh remembers who Tan is but Tan can't recollect the said night. Slowly Tan starts to become integral part of the brother-sister family cooking them meals as well. Things change, when Minh's childhood friend arrives and it feels that he is madly in love with Minh. Its only later we learn that he just hasn't figured out who he really is. Meanwhile Minh and Tan are going through regular flirting but none making the move. There is the usual misunderstanding and Tan is asked to leave home but its only later Minh realizes his true feelings for Tan. Spanner is thrown in the mix, when Minh's assistant who has harbored crush on Minh for a long time tries to break up Minh and Tan but eventually love wins and all misunderstandings are cleared.

As I mentioned before, the makers a had an interesting story on hand, had they treated it right. Tan and Minh had great chemistry. Minh is someone who is questioning is sexuality (turns out Tan is the only one he has been with since he is literally allergic to women) and Tan is sure he is gay and also likes Minh, except he cannot handle his attitude. Minh is stubborn and a man with ego which clearly he tries to force on his sister as well, but thankfully the girl playing the role of the sister is amazing. She reminded me of Pearl from Gameboys and in my opinion, is truly the star of the show. She knows when to push buttons for everyone including her brother and tries her level best to ship Minh and Tan because she knows they will get along well. But the biggest problem is incoherent storytelling. It feels that many scenes are just stitched together and there were many places where I felt lack of continuity. Also, at least 2-3 times in every episode, a scene would be shown, then in flashback the context of the scene will be shown and then the original scene continues. I really don't understand what was the whole point of using that approach. It gets so annoying because it happens so many times. You give audience a scene without context, then give back story and then continue. This works maybe once or twice but not multiple times in every episode. Similarly, the goos natured assistant suddenly becoming jealous and almost villain was not needed. The best friend from school who thinks he loves Minh was slightly annoying but his track could have been more interesting if there was more comedy and light scenes with him and Tan. Talking about actors, besides the sister, acting wise they all do a good job and look good. Tan stands out with his innocent looking face. Sadly, a promising premise doesn't get the right execution, and the low production quality doesn't help either. Also, don't ask me, why the random title of this series! (4/10)

Comments

Sailor Maan said…
An ok one for me. I might actually be teh best vietnamese BL I've seen so far? Which is not saying much unfrotunately. The show does have nice things like funny and witty dialogues, and 2 good couples. But the horrible editing (probably very low budget) and those disjointed scenes and recycled images leaves a big negative impact.
I had recently seen "I want to see you" and it's obviously from the same production company, they have the same main actor, same music, same kind of intro, same low production value... and I'm pretty sometimes some of the same clothes. But in a worse version (doesn't have the comedy feeling and many horrible toxik characters)
Golu said…
I agree. Vietnam really needs to up their game in this genre. Their neighboring countries are so much ahead of their contemporaries.

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,