Ah, shucks! This series started out so promising with fantastic characters. I was hooked and consumed by the story – initially. Who would not be? A rich kid trying to escape from his abusive father. A marginalized young man with ginormous artistic skills. An astonishingly handsome young man with a hearing loss trying to make it in a world cruel to him. And an art teacher operating an art school on a shoestring budget and who turns to alcohol to try to deal with an insane mother. Plus, a grandfather suffering from early stages of dementia. Wow! I am totally in.

The story itself is certainly intriguing. And from China. Stunningly audacious. And one of the few times it actually portrayed homosexuality with surprising openness and candor. A round of applause and kudos for their efforts. In a bit of a schizophrenic twist, however, it goes deep but yet stays superficial. By that I mean that while we do actually get to know the characters, we never see them use what they know about themselves to better themselves. Until the end. Then it all comes together but in such a confusing way. I felt like I missed a big chunk of what happened to them to get to the place that they were finally at.

The story is beautifully portrayed through the eyes of art and love. Qi Lu (Guo Jia Le) comes from a family of artists. He is fervently unhappy and dislikes painting but dares not defy his father. Qi Lu’s father is physically, psychologically, and emotionally abusive towards him, and not in any small way. I have seen my fair share of abusive characters in series, but he is by far one of the worst. He is a disgusting creature and ought to be brought up on charges of child abuse but given his status, and cultural customs, that will never happen. This series frankly is hard to watch for all the abuse that is heaped upon Qi Lu by a so-called pillar of society and a beacon in the art world.

Qi Lu transfers to a school for the sole purpose of interacting with Qin Xiao (Zhang Xuang Yu), whose techniques in painting he greatly admires. Quin Xiao is an exceptional student in art and has a bright future but lacks the upbringing and financial resources to put everything in place. While Qin Xiao tries desperately to thwart the advances of Qi Lu, he simply cannot. The two become closer and as they begin to bond over the tribulations in each other’s lives, the relationship simply grows stronger. Before long, they consider themselves boyfriends.

Qin Xiao found Tan Yin (Xiao Zi Zhuo) on the streets and took him in after being kicked out of his home for being gay. Left to fend for himself and also deaf, Qin Xiao treated him as family and became another set of eyes to watch his aging and ever-increasing forgetful grandfather. While Tan Yin was working at a bar, he meets Liu Ming Yang (Yao Xing Hao). More importantly, Liu Ming Yang rescued him from a certain nefarious situation. These two then form an odd relationship not only because of an age difference but also because Tan Yin bears an uncanny resemblance to Liu Ming Yang’s deceased younger brother.

Zhang Xuang Yu as Qin Xiao is exceptional. Not only is he so photogenic in his looks, he says so much more by his silence than most performers say with their words. As soon as we saw him, we knew his life was difficult. His backstory was irrelevant; he showed us it on his face and in his mannerisms. His acts of kindness to his grandfather and to Tan Yin are simply above and beyond the ordinary. It is simple his nature to do so. As desperately as he tries to negate the advances of Qi Lu and head for what he thinks is the ideal of Chinese society and culture, he remains true to himself. He loves Qi Lu and has loved him almost from the moment he met him. Kudos has to be given to his performance as well as Guo Jia Le as Qi Lu for making their relationship seem special and intimate without having to necessarily go into erotogenic details to show it. Love breezes past them like a gentle wind, and we get to watch them sway in that loving wind. They dance around like they are performing a ballet; all the while developing a stronger and deeper relationship. As the expression goes, Zhang Xuang Yu wears his character’s ‘heart on his sleeve’, and he indeed displays that in such subtle tones but always firmly in control and knows exactly what he is doing. His acting is simply alluring to watch.

There are clearly two distinctive love stories told here. Both intensely deep and fraught with emotional entanglements from family members. Honestly, it presents the uglier side of families and to some degree, it becomes a wonder how any of us can consider ourselves ‘normal’ as we can see our families in every one of these characters’ lives. This series becomes an experiential travelogue of emotions, running the gamut of love to hate.

The relationship between Tan Yin and Liu Ming Yang was so realistic in the beginning. For me, it began to fall apart when Tan Yin got his hearing aid. Now that he could hear and talk ‘normally’, their relationship took on normal issues. When he was deaf, Liu Ming Yang fell in love with him despite his deafness not because of it. That key factor got lost after he received a hearing-aid, and their relationship took on a more mundane tone and direction and hence the nonsense with Liu Ming Yang’s dead brother. Their relationship also seemed at times forced and very staged. Sometimes it felt a bit too staged. I know what they were trying to do but sometimes too little would have been better. I honestly never bought their relationship. While initially it had the air of going somewhere, it became just too thin to be real, deep, or even seriously romantic. For Liu Ming Yang and Tan Yin, the pace of their relationship is slower because of the issues surrounding their age difference and the fact that there is considerable misunderstanding as to who YangYang was in Liu Ming Yang’s life. Again, had there been more direct and open communications between these two, a lot of misunderstanding would not have occurred. There is a bit of a deception on the part of the production company to make the audience feel as if Liu Ming Yang and Yang Yang had some sort of strange relationship. I found that to be a cheap shot and completely unnecessary to the story or its development.

I did not like the ending for Qi Lu and Qin Xiao. I did not understand it at all. I was confused by it. I am not sure how the story got to that point. We do not get to see how their relationship developed. It is just there. Again, it is not that I do not appreciate happy endings; I do. However, this story was twisted like a pretzel into an unrecognizable shape and used every trope and cliché in the playbook to get there.

One can feel the emotions in this series – from all the characters. They should have concentrated on using that as the basis to conclude this series. The story pans out more clearly if you think of it as a LGBTQ apologue rather than a BL because it manifestly identifies the trials and tribulations of gay men trying to develop and form a relationship with another partner of the same sex, ironically, not coming from outside sources but from those closest to you. One’s family.

This is a worthy series to watch. It is well-acted with strong emotional overtones. I think the story let the actors down as they tried to wrap the epilogue up too neatly and too quickly. We did not have time to emotionally see or understand how they got to where they were in the end. They were just there and together.

Nonetheless, it is rare treat from China to see such openness and genuine display of gayness feel so ‘normal’ for a change. That is worth seeing!

Rating- 4.5 out of 5

Streaming on- Gagaoolala/Viki