This review may contain spoilers
A great censored BL from Mainland China
It appears that there are some fantastic BL stories from China but due to heavy censorship we only get to see the tamed version of these stories; turning a good BL series in to a bromance. Youths in breeze also suffers from the same treatment.
3 wonderful stories where boy meets boy and you can feel an undercurrent of a relationship growing but it ultimately ends at them being just great friends. But what can you do? You play the hand you are dealt. That being said, this anthology series has done the best with the censored story
The 1st story is about a shape-shifting cat who is on earth for a year. His happy life is disturbed by the brother of his owner who is allergic to cats. Here ensues a game where each one is trying to get the other out of the house but their animosity turns to friendship. This was more of a comedy with the 2 actors getting into shenanginags to one up one another while showcasing the relationship between siblings and a cat and his/her owner. The director did a great job of showing all this within 8 episodes with the only issue being that a few points remain unexplained and is left to our imagination.
The 2nd story is also a fantasy where a character from an unfinished novel enters into the world of the writer. The writer is commissioned to write a tragic story and the character is trying to to get the writer change the story to save his sister from a fatal disease. During the course of convincing the writer, they both begin good friends. Here we see a writer with limited freedom over his own story wherein he is struggling to save the sister of one his own characters resembling the story of his own sister and her fate. Its a story about sibling relationships, helplessness and sacrifices you make for others.
The 3rd story is more grounded in to reality. Its a story about two athletes who used to be friends but due to a misunderstanding, find competing against each other for a chance to participate at a state level competition. Its the same old friends to enemies to freinds stories that we have seen in multiple other dramas. This story deals with the topic of friendship, trust and hard-work.
Each of the stories are unique and presented exquisitely within the limited time they had. Kudos also to all the actors in this anthology series. As with many series with a great story but limited time, this too suffers from a rushed relationship building with no or very limited back stories of the characters. In certain cases, the endings seems a bit ambiguous and you feel you need a few more episodes to get a better understanding.
However these flaws are more of a nitpick and the series meets what it has set out to achieve and that is entertainment.
3 wonderful stories where boy meets boy and you can feel an undercurrent of a relationship growing but it ultimately ends at them being just great friends. But what can you do? You play the hand you are dealt. That being said, this anthology series has done the best with the censored story
The 1st story is about a shape-shifting cat who is on earth for a year. His happy life is disturbed by the brother of his owner who is allergic to cats. Here ensues a game where each one is trying to get the other out of the house but their animosity turns to friendship. This was more of a comedy with the 2 actors getting into shenanginags to one up one another while showcasing the relationship between siblings and a cat and his/her owner. The director did a great job of showing all this within 8 episodes with the only issue being that a few points remain unexplained and is left to our imagination.
The 2nd story is also a fantasy where a character from an unfinished novel enters into the world of the writer. The writer is commissioned to write a tragic story and the character is trying to to get the writer change the story to save his sister from a fatal disease. During the course of convincing the writer, they both begin good friends. Here we see a writer with limited freedom over his own story wherein he is struggling to save the sister of one his own characters resembling the story of his own sister and her fate. Its a story about sibling relationships, helplessness and sacrifices you make for others.
The 3rd story is more grounded in to reality. Its a story about two athletes who used to be friends but due to a misunderstanding, find competing against each other for a chance to participate at a state level competition. Its the same old friends to enemies to freinds stories that we have seen in multiple other dramas. This story deals with the topic of friendship, trust and hard-work.
Each of the stories are unique and presented exquisitely within the limited time they had. Kudos also to all the actors in this anthology series. As with many series with a great story but limited time, this too suffers from a rushed relationship building with no or very limited back stories of the characters. In certain cases, the endings seems a bit ambiguous and you feel you need a few more episodes to get a better understanding.
However these flaws are more of a nitpick and the series meets what it has set out to achieve and that is entertainment.
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