Movie Reviews -
Gay Themed

Yay for a full on BL series from China. My friend mentioned that the series is getting very popular in this year, so naturally I was keen of watching it. And for various multiple reasons it took me more than 2 months to finish it. Not because t is bad or anything, but I had various personal commitments, I would start it and then pause again. And the fact that the show has 24 episodes of 40-45 minutes each demand that you need to invest a lot of time in this one. It is rewarding but it is definitely one of the longest Asian BL shows I have watched. And we know China is known for tightly censoring BL content, so I was quite surprised to see that this show isn’t wishy-washy when it comes to the sexuality of its primary characters.  Story starts off pretty simple. When a young and poor-ish Wu Suo Wei gets dumped by his girlfriend, he finds out that she dumped him for money and is now seeing the rich tycoon Chi Cheng who loves snakes. He hatches a plan where he thinks that he will seduc...

Confusing is the first word that comes to mind while I was watching the series and even after it finished. The idea of parallel universe have been explored in a few other BL series before, but man was this weird or not! Even the ending did not make much sense. If you were to ask me, what really happened, honestly I am not even sure. The show is 8 episodes of 30 minutes each. During this lunar eclipse, Yang You inexplicably crosses over into a parallel universe through a mirror into another world like his own but definitely not his. In what he thinks is a serendipitous encounter, yet it is not, he meets Chen Shi. He realizes that he must be near Chen Shi in this world or he will fade from existence and so he convinces him of his destitution and therefore he needs to live with him. During their time together, Yang You discovers that despite Chen Shi's tough exterior, he is unusually caring toward him. Gradually, Yang You falls for Chen Shi and boldly confesses his feelings. However, ...

This series may have the most simple and basic storyline we have seen in BL's but it still does feel like a warm cozy hug. The cinematography, The lush greenery, the rainfall and the beautiful chemistry between the two boys was amazing. The show is just 7 episodes of average 15 minutes and then 14 bonus episodes of approximately 5 minutes each. We will talk more details once we summarize the story. Xiaozhi is asked by his older brother to spend a few weeks at a summer camp to monitor children on an island that produces lychee fruit. He is a boyishly handsome young man, who is also interested in art and philosophy. He is roomed with a friend of his brother and about the same age as his brother. Chen Li, handsome and helpful, takes a liking to Xiaozhi and immediately the two of them become close friends. Both take separate soul-searching journeys that intercept and intertwine with one another leading to only one inevitable course. The two spend a lot of time in the camp just being th...

To make sure that this show gets a proper release (given restrictions around BL content in China), the makers of this show partnered with A Singapore studio to get around the usual restrictions and censorship that would have otherwise been imposed on it. The core of the story are our two lead actors who play stepbrothers Gu Shi and Shen Nan, who face adversity after falling in love with each other. The show has 6 episodes of about 45-50 minutes each and a final 10 minute special episode after. The problem with the story is the ending, which feels incomplete or even worse makers not knowing what would be the best way. Anyway, more on that later. Shen Nan, a dentist by profession, has taken sometime off from work and is visiting his father. There he meets a woman whom his father is set to marry who has a son named Gu Shi. After initial head butting, the two boys warm up to each other and a special bond starts to develop between the two, almost an unrequited love, but soon Gu Shi dies in ...

A film about sexually and love confused individuals, this film explores a very toxic love stories between a few group os people linked somehow, where they claw their way towards each other's love and approval to the point of death and destruction. The first half intriguingly depicts the characters’ various stages of secrecy, denial and bewilderment; while the second half felt like a very confused screenplay to me where the film maker was not sure where to take the film. I am gonna use the roles instead of names, otherwise it will get very confusing for me. The film starts with two men on a trip where they spend time and make love with each other. Turns out they were being followed by a 'photographer' to follow her 'husband' and the 'lover' because she suspected him of having an affair. What completely shocks here that this person will be a man. Out of anger and respite, she barges into the 'lover's' office and creates a scene. This makes the love...

China hasn't done many BL series. We can count them on our fingers easily, so naturally when I heard of this show, Iw as keen to see it. Although, timely sense prevailed and I kept my expectations extremely low, just in case. The show was clearly shot during covid days likely because you don't see any single person in big buildings and offices and homes besides the actors acting. The show has 10 episodes of about 16-18 minutes and is an easy watch. This drama tells the story of Ding Junjie, the deputy general manager of a cosmetics company, and Ying Jiaming, the son of the cynical chairman of the board. Ying is always sleeping and his boss Junjie is always at his case, without realizing who he is. Things turn when Ying becomes his boss but Ying continues his playfulness, almost annoying Junjie. One day, to get rid of her possessive ex-girlfriend Ying introduces junjie as his boyfriend and request him to play gay with him. Things take a turn from there. Clearly Ying is too much ...

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, ...

Sometime back I had reviewed this Chinese series Addicted. Even though when I started watching this show, I didn't remember much about the original show, but this revisited version of the original show (whether ir not you compare to the original) is a brilliant show in many aspects. First of all, let me make it clear, this is not a gay show or even BL for that matter. I would classify it more of a bromance but thats probably because of China's strict rules. And I am willing to ignore that and still review the show here because it deserves to be seen. Everything about this series starting from the story line, characters, settings to the direction, was topnotch. Having said that, this is not a small commitment. The show has 24 episodes, each of about 35-40 minutes long. Su Yu is a high school student, top of the class and brilliant. He lives with his father, have. Great bond and they just get by with modest earnings. Life hasn't been same since his mother left the father and ...

I had seen the Chinese film 'The Ambiguous Focus' long time back, so I was quite fascinated to hear that this film, which came after the sad film, was actually planned as a prequel to it. The story takes us back to high school when Zhang Zhe and Zhang Nan were starting to get to know each other and the moments that lead to potentially them becoming a couple. Zhang Zhe, a smart student, and Zhang Nan, a handsome swimmer, couldn't understand each other. They did not expect to meet each other at the same university, even though they have known each other since childhood. Zhe is a mathematical genius, but has a social phobia; Nan is an athlete, but he hates being used as a racing machine by his father. Soon they both realize that they can actually support one another. They soon come to a truce and agree to help each other out. Their mutual support and reliance help them to understand what they really want - Nan's deep abiding love of swimming without any of the trappings of...

This film was a very amateurish attempt at making a gay love story. The acting was average to bad, the scenes were unnecessarily long; in fact the story plot was paper thin and they still managed to stretch it to almost 2 hours of run time. It is full of plot holes and I am not even sure what really happened at the end. It suddenly got so confusing. This is the story of two school boys who are aspiring musicians, meeting by fluke and falling in love along the way to a music competition. An He (Chinese name translates to “River”) is a musical genius who is experiencing writer’s block. Xiao Yu (translates to “Little Fish” in Chinese) is a rich kid who runs away from home and has joined the same school as An He. Both have their own challenges in school and in life. A school girl fancies An He but he constantly refuses him. Somehow Xiao You manages to start living with An He since his mother travels a lot for work. Their friendship starts growing, till one day Xiao You literally pushed him...

Billed as a gender-bender film, this film is quite odd and weird and stage itself more like a series of vignettes, trying to shock you possibly using queer, trans, gay themes. The way this film is shot, I doubt if this was ever seen outside any film festivals. Having said that, I am suite surprised that a film like this (with its bold theme) actually came from China. Opening scene has Xiao Bo nursing his father on death bed who now wants him to call his mother. She shows remorse for not being able to feed Xiao her breast milk and as a dying wish, asks for his son's milk, who obliges the father with an act of oral sex. Yes this is just the beginning. We then see Xiao Bo renting with his boyfriend Nana who has had sex change now. Even though Xiao denies being gay, he is no longer attracted to female form of Nana. Desperate for revenge, Nana decides she will find many lovers but never let any man love her. He joins a club as singer where the owners brother falls head over heels in lov...

This series has such basic paper thin premise in the first place, that its choppy and uniteresting execution doesn't help it much. The premise somewhat reminded me of the series where people and color blind and there is only one person in the world in whose proximity, they can function. We are told of two kinds of people. Zhen_yuan are the people who are deprived o all senses and emotions so they're able to focus better on things and have a better intuition. Then we have Deluded, who have hard time keeping their feelings in check. If a Zhen-Yuan is in a Deluded vicinity, they'll be able to feel emotions and their senses will be restored. And the Deluded will be able to calm down his own violent feelings. Keeping the above in mind, Jiang Yi Feng is a handsome Esports player with no taste, sense of touch and can't see the color. Lu Lin is a famous idol currently admired by many fans. Jiang Yi Feng posts a bad comment about him on social media when he thinks his sister is ...

I have realized that gay themed films from China, even though far and in between, are made with certain reservations and rush where stories are pretty ordinary and sometimes they are not brought to proper conclusion. The 70 isa minute film has a very ordinary story, something you have seen a zillion times, yet it leaves a lot to be desired. School's popular boy You Xie is in a steady relationship with his girlfriend. When a new student Chang Jie joins the class, things change. Because of his interest in music, he and the girlfriend end up becoming friends. You Xie pays no attention to him, but one drunk night the two guys get into a one night stand and You Xie decides to do the right thing. He breaks up with his girlfriend and asks Chang Jie to be his boyfriend. The girl friend can't take this insult and will go to any lengths to bring back her love. But every single trick of hers gets exposed and it is increasingly hard for her to break apart the lovers. She then lets You Xie...

This is one of the more cheesiest and awful gay vampire films I have seen. I mean I have seen a few gay vampire American films that have been outrightly bad. This one doesn't stoop so low at that level (if thats any consolation); but despite that its still pretty lame. Its cheesy, full of cliches but so bad that at certain points I actually ended up enjoying things. I know I know, its embarrassing but what can I do. When Ai Fei gets into a bar fight, a vampire Thomas saves him and bites him to save his life. Thomas brings him home  to slowly fully convert into vampire in the next three months. Initially disgusted with the idea Ai Fei wants to run away but eventually gives in. In fact the dup soon find themselves falling for each other and become lovers. All this while Thomas has been hiding a secret. He is in search of a 'Vampire Bible' to fix something from the past thats related to Ai Fei. It turns out that he accidentally killed his parents and wants to do right by them....

This film would have been much better had it been a nice short film. The plot was nice but it just wasn't detailed enough to warn a full fledged feature film, also given how slow the film is. Granted, the scenery and filming locations are gorgeous, but its a paper thin plot with a tragic end. Thankfully its just about an hour long. A young boy Lin Qingyu arrives to a small town in mountains. We find that he is trying to avoid facing death of his father. He soon realizes that he left his wallet in the bus. Unexpectedly, he gets hired by A Ren, the local village lad for him to teach small students in his village. A Ren is also a lonely man an every much loved in the village. Two lonely hearts soon get attracted to one another. But Teacher Li eventually ants to move out of the village taking A Ren with him and the latter categorically refuses to leave the village. When the village people find out about this, Lin Qingyu is asked to leave the village, leaving almost no choice for A Ren ...

The second film in this series, it again took a long time to finish watching it. I am really not sure why this movie or mini series had to be almost 3.5 hours long. The message or the struggles that. They were trying to show could easily have been squeezed into shorter segments with much more impact. So sadly, this one negative from the prequel still exists in this second feature. The story is a logical progression from where the prequel ended at the two boys coming together. This time it's really all about dealing with being a couple and families who are vehemently opposed. The story here now moves from what happens after An Ziyan and Maiding are a couple. The duo go on a holiday where they meet another couple who pretty much share the sam dynamic as them. One of them is more serious whereas the other is more playful. Almost 40 minutes are spent in establishing their friendship and then its nowhere mentioned again. When they are back home, Ziyan's parents forcible take him bac...

China has historically come up with very few gay series and films, so every-time I see something from there, quite naturally I am quite excited to watch what it has to offer. On the outset, it seems a usual campus love story between two boys, which is exactly what it is. I somehow kept hoping that some drama or action or something will happen, but the film just continued at the same pace and scene were elongated and stretched beyond reason. The story is simple. At a military school, goofy Maiding has a chance encounter with recluse Ah Ziyan. Post this meeting, Maiding becomes persistent in his pursuit of Ah Ziyan, since the latter is a popular student because of good looks, but his reputation is that of a jerk. Maiding's persistence pays off as this conflict soon turns into a reluctant friendship between the two polar opposites. Before you know the two are spending time with each other turning their friendship to love. But resistance comes from Ah Ziyan's sister who is very opp...

Its such a shame, when a film starts and something about it is captivating, you raise your expectations and clearly it has potential, but by the time it ends, it really just doesn't go anywhere as a whole. This film is a good example of a good idea and nice visuals but poor storytelling, bad pacing and overall losing the message in overall social concept. It feels good to watch, you wait for something to happen but unfortunately you never get an opportunity to really connect with any of the characters to empathize with them. As a young adult, Fei joins the hustling world. There he meets fellow hustler Xiaolai, who gets very protective of him. At one such incident, when Fei gets beaten up, Xiaolai takes revenge but he ends up losing his leg. When police comes looking for Fei, he runs away. Five years later, Fei is still working as hustler and leading a decent life but is very lonely. He operates form his apartment and has mastered the art of satisfying his clients. His family accept...

I don't remember seeing a film with absolute minimal dialogues and the story being told just by the characters, by your surroundings, by their interaction and with their eyes. IT sill doesn't warrant a full length feature film, but thankfully the cinematography of the film is quite beautiful. The quietness and visually arresting setting offer a picture of everyday life and young love in China that is rarely seen onscreen. The story starts with Li, who works with dolphins in an ocean park following a guy and then beats him and his friend mercilessly. We are then shown the story in flashback. We meet Ren Yu, who looks like a Chinese pop star and impersonates him in karaoke to make money. The duo are roommates and lovers. Ren Yu is bisexual and is open to having sex with anyone. As vacation time starts, the duo meet a girl. Three characters are more and more fascinated and drawn to each other, when the one night they try betel nut that brings about sexual revolution and experiment...

Don't let the very cute poster fool you. The direction of this otherwise decent script was really bad. The film could have been something because it has all necessary elements to make it a good gay romantic ilm, but it feels that the makers mid was all over the place. The first 5 minutes of the film which has upcoming scenes intersected to give us an idea of what's coming is so badly done and edited that it gives you a headache at the onset. You are thoroughly confused because you feel three parallel stories are going on, until you realize its only opening credits and the story hasn't even started. A painter has an upcoming exhibition and is looking for an inspiration. He finds one in a young boy Er Meng, who desperately needs money and agrees to be the nude model. The painter finds himself getting more anymore attracted to the young boy, leaving his agent, the girl, bit miffed. She is secretly in love with the painter. She has never confessed her feelings but she is jealou...