I downright fall under the spell of certain themes in either movies or series. This series had two of my favorites. Time travel and swashbuckling epic times full of exotic and romantic lore, legends, and traditions. And especially given my naïve Western upbringing, I am heart and soul smitten by Chinese fable and mythology. This series transported me back into time, like with the character, where I too could imagine myself beside them. Perhaps I have always secretly harbored a desire to be a valiant hero from another culture in the past.
All posts by PPBongi
Aichaku The Movie: An Affinity Towards Dreams And Love
Recently, a connection was made quite surreptitiously between The BL Xpress and Cowboys Tokyo, the producer of the recent gay independent film called AICHAKU. Aichaku, in Japanese means, literally ‘attachment’. Specifically, an attachment to an object that is more like a feeling of affinity – what the object means. It takes on an emotional attachment.
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“Infidelity: It’s A Disease” Series Review (Ep.1 to 4)
Colorful, creative, and comical. This is the best way to describe this short BL series from China. It most assuredly will make you smile. This is a series that feels ordinary in the sense that I can see this happening in real life as the story does have an air of plausibility about it.
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“Aichaku” Movie Review
The title of this movie is aptly named. Aichaku literally means in Japanese ‘attachment’. But an attachment to an object that is more like a feeling of affinity- what the object means. It takes on an emotional attachment. And this movie is certainly that. It is a movie filled with a lot of emotional bonds.
“Sashes & Hearts” Series Review (Ep.1 to 13)
I had hoped to enjoy this series. I really did. But the plain truth is, it is awful. It had so much going for it but it ended up being a semi-hot mess. It had its moments to be sure but there were not enough of them to save it from itself. Too bad because the subject matter was one that was unique and interesting. It was about the world of male pageantry. If it had only focused on that, this could have been a really great series. Instead, it went into the sensationalism and sleaziness of the industry. While I do not doubt that some of that does exist, the world of male pageantry would have been quite entertaining in and of itself to see. The world around the pageant became secondary to individual stories of some of the contestants, which for the most part was either dull and boring or titillating. The plots to these sub-stories were insipid and vapid and/or the surrounding characters became caricatures rather than examples of real people.
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“If Memory Has Sound/The Sound of Nostalgia” Movie Review
Wow! This is an astonishing and brilliant film that will leave you breathless and undoubtedly lachrymose. Without doubt, this is also a short film (about 30 minutes), perhaps like no other you have ever seen before. I am not sure how to describe it. To be sure, it is open to all sorts of impressions. Mine of course would be no more correct than anyone else and therefore it would be unfair to superimpose my conclusions on how I saw this rich cinematic tapestry. However, you will get a hint by the words I use throughout this article as to how I saw this apotheosis. Undeniably, this story has been crafted to be open to interpretation.
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“Lost in the Woods” Series Review (Ep.1 to 7)
With a bit of an effort, this series would have been phenomenal and nothing short of a masterpiece. But it honestly did not believe in itself enough to make it memorable. Instead, it relied too heavily on the tried-and-true tropes of the day. Believe it or not, this WAS a good premise. As the expression goes, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
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“Checkered Shirt” Series Review (Ep.1 to 8)
Perhaps not quite a masterpiece, but most assuredly it is a Must-See series. This is an astonishing and discerning BL told in just about an hour and a half. However, it loses much unless you watch it in toto. In that way, you get its complete essence, since each episode is only between 7 to 10 minutes in length.
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“Close to You” Series Review (Ep.1 to 8)
This anthology is like the first warm summer breeze that sweeps over you after a long cold winter. It is refreshing, gentle, and so enveloping that it makes you feel good all over. This anthology is composed of 4 unrelated love stories told so delicately that you might miss the intensity that lies underneath each of their love stories. Overall, these stories are nimbly told with no overused drama, no destructive love triangles, or cheating plots. It is solid stories with excellent acting in each. All four-love tales are different in terms of poignancy and message. Some are meant to be quite powerful while others are presented as examples of slices-of-life contextures. Each saga is composed of two episodes of about 10 minutes in length each, which makes for easy viewing.
“The Boy Next World” Series Review (Ep.1 to 10)
Undoubtedly, this would have worked much better as a fantasy. Instead, they tried to fool us into thinking it is and then wildly twisting the plot into making it fit into our ‘reality’ only to fail miserably on all fronts. This series is a complete mess, regrettably.
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The BL Xpress 