The Male Fairy Fox of Liaozhai
I've read in a couple of places the 2016 Chinese movie The Male Fairy Fox of Liaozhai has some BL elements to it, but without it being the central focus of the story. It's based on a Qing dynasty era fairy tale. There's also mention of a sequel on the way soon.
Summary: A mischievous "fairy fox" (a supernatural deity that seems to be a cross between a spirit, a god and a demon) enters the human world disguised as a beautiful young man, with a view to learning more about human behaviour. When he sees a young couple in love being refused marriage by her father, he is immediately intrigued. He follows the young man - a scholar - to his hometown and befriends him, then he manipulates him with alcohol. It's soon evident that the two men are attracted to each other. When the scholar's servant exposes the fox god's true identity, they enlist his help to rescue the fiancee, who has been captured by a local warlord. Danger and violence ensue, with the fairy fox providing supernatural backup whenever he can. Enraged, the warlord hires a famous mage to defeat the fairy fox.
This is a fascinating story on paper, with its ancient Chinese fairy tale elements and the intervention of a sly fox deity keen on learning about love and humanity. Unfortunately it doesn't really translate into a decent movie in this instance. The main reason is that the screenplay is just too confusing. Motives are never really clear, as are the links between one scene and the next - and the reasons for why they are happening. The warlord's motives in particular are hard to decipher. He kidnaps the fiancee to trap the scholar, but why exactly does he need the scholar in the first place? The fight to rescue the fiancee from the warlord makes up the bulk of the movie, so it's probably more useful to just focus on the attempts to rescue her, all the while dreading an appearance of the powerful mage and witnessing the average special effects.
There are some good aspects to the movie, most notably the amazing costumes and set designs. The one excellent plot point involves the fox god's most appalling and mischievous deception against the scholar. It has serious repercussions throughout the rest of the movie for the main characters, and it also strengthens the slim BL component of the screenplay, which has been vibrating at a low hum up to that point. But overall the narrative falls flat and doesn't have much impact or tension.
It's worth checking out, though it's not exactly memorable or well-made. I'll also make sure I'll be watching the sequel when it comes out. It will be interesting to see what they make of the BL aspects of the original movie.
Rating: 9 out of 20
Ending: irrelevant from a BL standpoint
Best scene: when the scholar realises in horror how far the fairy fox has deceived him.
Summary: A mischievous "fairy fox" (a supernatural deity that seems to be a cross between a spirit, a god and a demon) enters the human world disguised as a beautiful young man, with a view to learning more about human behaviour. When he sees a young couple in love being refused marriage by her father, he is immediately intrigued. He follows the young man - a scholar - to his hometown and befriends him, then he manipulates him with alcohol. It's soon evident that the two men are attracted to each other. When the scholar's servant exposes the fox god's true identity, they enlist his help to rescue the fiancee, who has been captured by a local warlord. Danger and violence ensue, with the fairy fox providing supernatural backup whenever he can. Enraged, the warlord hires a famous mage to defeat the fairy fox.
This is a fascinating story on paper, with its ancient Chinese fairy tale elements and the intervention of a sly fox deity keen on learning about love and humanity. Unfortunately it doesn't really translate into a decent movie in this instance. The main reason is that the screenplay is just too confusing. Motives are never really clear, as are the links between one scene and the next - and the reasons for why they are happening. The warlord's motives in particular are hard to decipher. He kidnaps the fiancee to trap the scholar, but why exactly does he need the scholar in the first place? The fight to rescue the fiancee from the warlord makes up the bulk of the movie, so it's probably more useful to just focus on the attempts to rescue her, all the while dreading an appearance of the powerful mage and witnessing the average special effects.
There are some good aspects to the movie, most notably the amazing costumes and set designs. The one excellent plot point involves the fox god's most appalling and mischievous deception against the scholar. It has serious repercussions throughout the rest of the movie for the main characters, and it also strengthens the slim BL component of the screenplay, which has been vibrating at a low hum up to that point. But overall the narrative falls flat and doesn't have much impact or tension.
It's worth checking out, though it's not exactly memorable or well-made. I'll also make sure I'll be watching the sequel when it comes out. It will be interesting to see what they make of the BL aspects of the original movie.
Rating: 9 out of 20
Ending: irrelevant from a BL standpoint
Best scene: when the scholar realises in horror how far the fairy fox has deceived him.
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