Skip to main content

Khemjira (Thai Series)

By Golu
I honestly think this might be the first time I’ve actually enjoyed a proper horror BL. I’ve checked out a few others in the past, but they usually felt a bit unpolished or amateurish—I can’t even remember their names, to be honest. This one is definitely a slow-burn rather than a fast-paced romance, tucked away inside a world of supernatural mysteries and fantastic secrets. You can tell the production is high-quality and well-researched; it feels like the creators really pushed themselves to give the audience something fresh. If you’re into BLs mixed with suspense and ghost stories, this is right up your alley. Just a heads-up: it’s a massive time investment. There are 12 episodes, each over 75 minutes, and the finale is basically a two-hour movie. The story follows Khem, a young guy in his twenties whose life is getting harder by the second because of a heavy family curse that lets him see ghosts. There’s this terrifying rule in his family where the boys don’t live past age 20, so hi...
Post a Comment

My Dear (Chinese/English/Hungarian) (Documentary)

By Golu
My Dear is a self-reflective documentary about the will of a young Chinese director Yao to express his own sexual identity in Europe. Shifting between observational footage, paper puppetry, and poetic symbolism, he explores expressions of sexual identity in this essay about queerness, immigration, and performance. (A question I have is, since Yao was living in Budapest, why is the country of origin shown as Portugal?)

Yao, a Chinese national, is nearing the end of his two year European college education.  Yet the 26-year-old is reluctant to return to China because he is already being pressured by his parents to come back home, get married and have kids. This closeted gay man has been in a relationship with Asim, a gay Iranian living in China for almost 6 years now, but no one in China knows this. He thought that coming to Europe would liberate him but now that he is finishing studies and finding a job is becoming increasingly hard, choices for him are minimal. He realizes that maybe one performance as a drag artist will make him feel free and liberate him before he may have to eventually move back to China. 

With just an hour duration, thankfully it was not too long but it just felt incomplete. Most of us have our own coming out stories but there has to be something very compelling and unique to make a film out of it, something that people would wanna watch. Is being together with the one you love worth abandoning the culture that defines who you are?  Is swallowing the dictates of the culture you were brought up in worth betraying and repressing your true nature?  This film offers no resolution of these questions. Yes, using puppetry and imagery to show us the conversations with his family is unique, but the story overall holds no attention. Why is Yao interested in drag? What is the boyfriend's back story? I would have liked to see some of that. Also the ending felt rather abrupt. The whole build up towards Yao trying to find a mentor to perform should have ideally culminated with the actual performance. But we never get to see that. I mean we don't even get to know what really happens to him or his boyfriend. The title of this documentary comes form the song that Yao is preparing to perform on, but honestly overall this documentary is something which doesn't really offer anything new or unique and I wouldn't consider it an essential viewing. (4/10)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sei no Gekiyaku (Japanese) [Dangerous Drugs of Sex]

By Golu
Every person has their own unique way of dealing with loss. This film is as much a psychological thriller as it is a soft porn BDSM portrayal of two young men that makes the film overall horrifying as well as humane. It is really hard to describe the genre of this film in one word. Its important not that the film has some really disturbing scenes so if you go into seeing this film, please proceed with caution. Although any sexual non-consensual activity is not ok, this film has its won strange way of showing that suicide is not the only solution to all life's problems. Makoto is a regular office goer, who just finds out that his girlfriend is probably cheating on him. ON top of it, his parents sudden death coming back from a trip that he forced them to take, he gets completely dejected and decides to commit suicide. Unknown to him, he is saved by mysterious man Yoda Ryoji, and he wakes up finding himself tied up in leather and belts in a very BDSM setting. This mysterious saver soo...
3 comments
Read more

Drug Shore (Chinese)

By Golu
Apparently tis film was adapted by a true story Well, true or not, movies/series about drugs are not easy to watch. I have always said that drugs is like the end of life for anyone. For those who sink into this sea of addiction, some manage to swim upstream to recovery, while others cannot make it to the shore. The film may not be the best, but it does have a noble intention to remind everyone of the evil affects of drugs and combining that with sex. Ah Zhe is in a happy relationship with his influencer boyfriend. On his partner's birthday, they end up going to a party, which interestingly is being hosted at a drug dealer's house and this is where for the first time he is exposed to the world of drugs. The duo somehow do it just enough and come back home but next day Ah She gets invited by the dealer Xiao Fei for a meal. The dealer has a soft corner for Ah Zhe, but before anyone realizes, Ah Zhe's life spirals out of control when slowly he starts doing more and more drugs, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

By Golu
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...
5 comments
Read more