February in Media

[haitangkitty]

Films

I didn't watch many films this month. I've been mostly watching tv series and reading fanfic on my free time. This month's films have been 2 kinky straight romance + 2 lesbian romances.

The Secretary (2002)



Secretary masochist x boss dom. This was less scandalous than I thought but the main leads had great chemistry. The psychological side of BDSM was also explored, the main character uses it as a replacement for self-harm and gradually througout the relationship she becomes more independent. The ending was too rom com style for me and imo it broke the tone of the film.

Love and Leashes (2022)

This is a South-Korean BDSM romance I found from Netflix. I heard it's a realistic portrayal of BDSM and the film does go through the roles and rules. We finally have femme domme representation! The play sessions were sometimes too short and the erotic side of this film wasn't very strong although it's a depiction of BDSM, it was more of a funny weird thing. But the film kept me interested and it had its fun moments.
 

Light, Light, Light (2023)

Finnish film set in the 80's, Chernobyl has just exploded and two teenage girls meet a a little town. I loved the nostalgic vibes and 80's soundtrack on this film. Unfortunately it's told from the past tense through memories and time skips, which made the film less emotionally intense. Sometimes the scenes were more like from a music video. It was a beautiful but sad film.

Duck Butter (2018)

I don't know how to feel about this film. During my watching experience I was fully invested in the story, as it is very time-intense depicting 24hours. How the two women become more involved with each other and with each other's traumas is interesting. Something that starts out as a spontaneous adventure ends up being a codependent nightmare. Sergio's character was super interesting. The film's grittiness reminded me of the HBO show Girls, although it wasn't as sarcastic in tone. What put me off how many poop jokes were during the film and in the end there's actual shit involved in one scene. It sure isn't a beautiful film, but very chaotic.
 

 

Tv-series

I finished 3 series I started last month:

Pit Babe (BL)
The first omegaverse show! The first part of this story was more focused on car racing, which isn't my thing. The omegaverse stuff became more important to the plot in the second half. The ending was full of twists and turns, it was super dramatic. I still think it should have been an omegaxalpha story instead of alphaxalpha, but this is a great start and hopefully there will be more omegaverse stories.


Chaser Game W (GL)
My favorite show I've watched this year. Lovers to enemies to lovers again, which I loved. I also enjoyed the female-centric workplace and great outfits. My only problem was that it was too short: the ending would have been a little less rushed if it had been 2-3 more episodes. Overall, a great story !

Love Senior (GL)
So much lesbian drama with engineering students! The main couple have both three different girls going after them and that's what causes the major drama in this story. I found the episodes a little bit too long and the drama was sometimes slacking. But the lead pair is absolutely beautiful and have great chemistry. I didn't like the coma and amnesia trope in the ending but I'm glad it was a happy ending eventually.

New series I finished:

Happy Shiny People (doc)
Continuing my cult documentary obsession. This one is about Christian cult-like movement that the reality show star family Duggars are part of. It's about abuse, exploitation and sexual assault that is rampant in the Church. The ex-members and family members share how the cult prepares, especially women, for the perfect victim mindset. The cult also encourages homeschooling and has a mission to send those homeschooled Christians to government positions. It's terrifying how much political power these kind of people have in the US!

Blueming  (BL)

My first South-Korean BL. This was a pretty short show. I noticed how different in direction style it is to Thai BL's, which have lot of dialogue and close-ups. This BL focused in a film school, which I love since I've been thinking about applying to one. It has one of my favorite tropes of someone who considers themselves an outsider has a popular person fall in love with them. This was somehow very realistic in tone. 

Books

The Imperial Uncle
It's been a while since I've read a new danmei. I was looking for something short to see how to execute a romance in around 400 pages. This one is a political drama told from a first-person narrative. The main character is a hopeless romantic and the romance in this danmei is very... delicate? Romantic in an old-fashioned way. The main character Prince Huai is part of a political conspiration and the story is much about nostalgia and finding your place in the world, which I loved. 

+ I'm halfway through Little Life, which I'll hopefully finish next month