GustavoVillaescusaEscude

Please take me back to Molie

Without a doubt, this is one of the most special BLs I have seen in my life, it is a must watch. Instead of focusing on a back a forth love story between an idol and another boy, the director creates a very passionate and mature relationship between Quilang and Chanyang and just throws difficulties along the whole series.

I can say some very positive things about this series, but it has also had some parts that have been disappointing. I will start with the good ones:
- amazing lead actors (Feng Quilang and Chanyang) that made me wonder if they really felt something for each other. The show has especially in the middle a lot of very affectionate and tender shots that completely melted my heart.
- beautiful scenery. A big chunk of the movie happens within the mountains and some of the takes will stay forever in my memory. Chanyang's house in Molie is my dream house and this movie has convinced me to go to the mountains of SouthWestern China (I don't usually travel far for environmental reasons).
- great soundtrack that blends traditional and western music styles. As with almost all dramas, it is overused but most of the times its presence is appreciated.
- Gay actors. Out of the 8 main actors, 3 of them are visibly gay (Feng Quingtian, Han Lu and Brother Guo). It is nice to see the LGBT community represented and not just commercialized by straight people. A shame that the two male leads are not visibly or openly gay (I would become the happiest person on earth if Xiong Yi Wen (Feng Quilang) was actually gay).
- tea, tea and more tea: the third most important character of the series is definitely tea. It is always present and provides a grounding floor of purpose, meaning and ritualism. While I am so grateful of all the tea and rituals that this series brings, I wonder if the main sponsor is a tea or the tea thermos company...

However, there are some topics that slightly spoiled the series:
- Besides the two lead actors Fen Quilang and Chanyang, and Feng Quigtian and Xing Lan (the original company director and Fen Quilang's 3 previous lifes mother), the rest of the acting was mediocre and melodramatic, in line with what you see in other BLs.
- Poorly developped/resolved arcs. The moments of joy, tension and especially the moments of deep sorrow are brushed away within minutes. The show feels very rushed, especiallly in the end, with many things happening and no time to stop on any topic or mourn the death of !!!3 of the support roles.
- Hunter school: really? the dream of Chanyang is to go to an elite military school? are you serious? You were not able to find anything else that would make Chanyang passionate? that was very disappointing...
- Rich people story. Both of them are loaded with money and the story shows it explicitely throughout. There was no reason to make Chanyang loaded. While the tea brings a grounding layer of depth and meaning, portraying the frictionless life of rich people detaches from it. It is a story about hardships and struggle but where many problems are solved by scanning a qr code. The only moment in which we see "something poor" in the more than 10 hours of video is inside the couple that lost their son (that I found confusing and unnecesary).

In any case, I had a blessing watching this series and I will keep happily staring at Fen Quilang and Chanyang in my dreams.
Thanks Zelia.

Read More