BLISS Rating: ★★★
“I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me.” – Old Saying/attributed romantic proverb
There is actually more killing in this series than kissing. And honestly, the kissing that does happen is somewhat intense because the two protagonists are, frankly, hot. I rarely use that word, especially in BLs, since that is supposed to be the default setting. But these guys are the quintessential definition of eroticism. They are bad-ass rogues – damaged, violent, intensely dangerous, ruthless – which makes them sexy, lustful, desirable, and an aphrodisiac. Plus, both are, by any standard and measurement of beauty, on the upper scale and tier. It made them both desirable and dangerous and hence tempting to kiss or angry enough to kill.
The story is frankly irrelevant. No one really watches these series for the story anyway. Besides it is your standard one involving a Mafia-type “family” involving the control and shipment of drugs and weapons. Therefore, someone needs to be sent in undercover by the government to stop an illegal arms deal. Nie Chuan (Orion Chen), a handsome seasoned agent who knows his way around the underworld is just the person to do it. He has a history with Lin Yan (Feng Tian Hao), who is thought to be high-up in its operations. Chuan and Lin Yan have a history – having saved him 3 years ago. Appearing to be a sociopathic killer and apparent heir to the family business, Lin Yan is clandestinely scheming and plotting the overthrow of his uncle who is currently heading the business. Nicknamed “Second Uncle”, he is a ruthless demonic creature responsible for the death of his parents. Lin Yan’s counterpart is equally as ruthless as the Second Uncle is named Black Scorpion (Zhao Zi Ying).
Honestly, I could have written this story in my sleep. There are endless versions of this plot that have been done before. Be forewarned, there is a lot of gratuitous killings in this series and a lot of them are done by A-Ren (Mina) who is the adopted daughter of the Second Uncle. Fiercely loyal to him, she also has an infantile mind and kills on command. Nearly lost in her own sociopathic world, she still maintains a sense of loyalty and love to Lin Yan.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? I adore bad-ass characters and frankly there are none better than Mina as A-Ren, the sociopathic ‘daughter’ of Second Uncle’. I am unreservedly beguiled with individuals who have been so brainwashed and indoctrinated into cult thinking that they lose any tether to a moral reality or a relationship to humanity. She could just as easily slice a person’s throat as she would filet a fish. Life for her has no meaning. And of course, she has no future except serving the family’s whims. Beautiful and ruthless with zero feelings. Mina displayed the characters of A-Ren with a lot of complexities to her. She could seem friendly, even human, but these simply would be her way of gaining access to you to kill you. There was just a sliver of humanity left in her, mainly fostered and nurtured by the only person she seemed to truly have feelings for, and that was Lin Yan. Her humanity and decency do awaken at the end, and she is instrumental in bringing down the Second Uncle when the reality of how despicable of a creature he truly was. She represented a very sad figure and was truly destined to pay the price for her own misfortunes. Second to her in evilness was the Black Scorpion played by Zhao Zi Ying. Always trying to become the ‘leader’, one also sensed that this would be his ultimate downfall as Second Uncle was always one step ahead of him. Continuously in competition with Lin Yan, he had a jealously streak and a revenge motive that was obvious to everyone. One just knew his end would be foreboding. Yet, I could not help but admire him. Always the ‘second fiddle’, everyone played him like one as well, which created even more anger in him because he knew that he would never be head of the Family. He just was not smart or witty enough and he was too much of a lackey. I adored watching Zhao Zi Ying slowly but methodically bring the Black Scorpion down by manipulative deception. He was just too dumb and naïve to see he was being played. These roles are not for the faint of heart and are not envious roles, but for me the most interesting in a series like this. They are the antagonists that counterbalance the protagonists.
Admittedly, when our protagonists are on screen, there is a certain strong chemistry and a rather strong sexual tension between the two. Their love scenes are also quite erotic and enjoyable to watch. Both men are not just handsome but are so in a boy-next-door way that makes them even more desirable. The way they played and bantered about as if they did not want each other was such a weak ruse and we all knew it. Without question, these two are a ‘hot’ couple. I just wish the script would have been better to make their interactions more believable and relevant to who they were.
This series had so many flaws in it. The production value was not very good. Endless flashbacks drove me to distraction. The last episode was nearly all repeats of previous scenes which simply divulges the weakness in the story and script. In addition, the AI use was just awful and pretty amateurish. I know this is a low-budget production but seriously, how about spending a little extra money on some quality AI to make the scenes not look so fake and phony.
To make it even more laughable and thus obtuse, Lin Yan was working for the same governmental agency that Chuan was working for. I figured that out from the very first MOMENT they met. I knew that was all a ruse. For me, that was so obvious that since he was working to take down his uncle, he was working for the government. The only question was why did Chuan not know or at the minimally suspect that maybe he was one of them. His actions were all so obvious to me.
Honestly, the ending made zero sense to me. It was almost laughable. Somehow Lin Yan saved Chuan by pushing him. My question is, “Why did not YOU simply NOT jump with him?!” Honestly, I just did not understand. It made no sense. So, Chuan spends his money and time setting up an orphanage until one day a stranger comes. And who that stranger was, I have no idea. But he has sex with him. Honestly, I just did not care because by this point, I had lost complete interest in the story. The whole story and plot feel completely apart at the very end – it was as if they just did not know how to conclude the story except to have some sort of a happy ending.
This series, like endless others, is so rushed and cheaply concluded. This lunacy with BLs always needing to have a ‘happy ending’ is now the new driving force for both triteness and absolute conformity to cliché standardization. In case one forgot, that family was a Mafia-type organization and were by its very nature – corrupt and evil. Even, sorry to say, Lin Yan. Not every action can be justified as being in the right. And an objective assessment of his involvement would no doubt conclude his actions throughout were immoral at best and illegal at worst, even if he was doing it for the ‘right’ reasons.
We must get over this nonsense that EVERY story must have a happy ending. Life just does not work that way. We do not always get the person of our dreams or desires and sometimes there are consequences to our bad actions. That IS reality. These BLs need and must begin to come down from Pollyanna heaven and understand that sometimes humans do weep for ones we have loved but lost. And not everything in life has a soap-opera finish – nor should it.
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