Youths in the Breeze (2020)

Cute bromance with a hint of BL

'Youths In The Breeze' is an anthology of three bromantic tales from Mainland China. Each of the stories takes up eight short episodes and is unrelated to the others.

'The Boy and the Cat' is a fantasy about a boy who comes to stay with his older sister in her apartment and gets drawn into a rivalry with the cat who also lives there. It turns out that the cat has the ability to transform into a human whenever he wants to. He does this only when the sister isn't looking, so only the younger brother becomes aware of this secret power.

A bit of territorial combat ensues between the human version of the cat and the younger brother. This culminates in a final test where the boy and cat agree that whoever ends up the loser will leave the apartment forever -- either the boy will travel outside the country to study abroad or the cat will go with one of his cat friends to some sort of cat kingdom that is never fully explained.

Once the winner of this face-off has been decided and the loser is ready to leave, both the boy and the cat realize that they really don't want to separate, and that they really don't dislike one another either. They each decide to keep living together in the sister's apartment so that they can continue their cozy friendship while keeping her company at the same time.

'People from the Story' is another fantasy tale, this time about the author of an adventure novel where the main character suddenly emerges from the book into real life. Since the author has intended for this character to die at the end of the book the two men get into a disagreement over his ultimate fate. At one point the author goes back with the character into the world of his own novel, and while there he comes to realize the story's painful parallels with his own life and losses.

'Full-time Sworn Enemy' is the one story in the trilogy that doesn't have a fantasy element. Here, two athletes attending a special training camp for elite runners clash repeatedly with one another, but they gradually become closer as the roots of their rivalry become clearer and a past misunderstanding is resolved.

All three of these stories have happy endings, although the one for 'People from the Story' was a little confusing to me for other reasons.

There are familiar BL tropes sprinkled throughout these three tales, giving us occasions to wonder 'Are they or aren't they?' For instance, at one point two main characters both fall to the floor and accidentally end up with one on top of the other, gazing into each other's eyes -- which of course is a traditional sign that their relationship is headed toward romance. There's also a bit of side-by-side sleeping with a wayward leg draped over one's companion.

For me, the best confirmation that more than friendship is intended here is the sneaky appearance in the final episode of the movie poster for 'Brokeback Mountain'. This occurs about two minutes into the episode and could easily be missed, but I don't doubt for even a second that it is there with a specific purpose.

'Youth In The Breeze' doesn't stake out any major new ground but is cute and engaging, and the main cast is quite attractive. It's also nice to see a Mainland bromance that is gently testing the boundaries of the genre.

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Unusual premises in this BL with the BL mostly repressed

A series like this makes me lament the BL censorship in China. It has some rather unusual BL materials, and without the censorship, the BL series from China would be rather fascinating. (Imagine The Untamed without censorship.)

The story with the shape-shifting cat is the cutest. And it's just as well that the BL is more or less censored--some may find it discomfiting to see a human-cat relationship even if the cat is able to change its form. It's cute how the character's dislike for cats changes.

The story of an author and the character he creates also has an interesting premise. It may be a little strange, though that the siblings in the author's story are parallels to the author and his own sister. In a way, it's like the author's relationship (romantic or not) with his own alter ego. Of course, another way to look it is to see that the author has created a character he subconsciously wishes he can be, so it may explain why he would ultimately have a soft spot for the character.

The third story is a more conventional story about two athletes who have known each other from the time they are children but whose relationship have soured due to a misunderstanding. While this story doesn't share the quirkiness of the other two stories, it's a decent addition.

Despite having the BL tamed, this series doesn't simply turn the relationships into bromance. But don't expect the level of ingenuity we see in Word of Honor when it comes to circumventing censorship either. It just leaves things ambiguous or use dramatic conventions to suggest romantic feelings.

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