Hard to Give Up (2016)

Story is OK. The actor who played the painter veered between detachment (for his 'girlfriend') and affection (for the boy). The attention he paid towards the boy as the plot unfolded would indicate beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was in love. Which makes the ending monologue spoken by the painter rather confusing and leaves the viewer guessing whether he loved the boy or he did not? Why the sudden u-turn? I don't understand Mandarin and maybe the subtitles was badly translated, but he said something like "We are not lovers". So what exactly did he mean by that and how did it add to the conclusion? I would have preferred the movie ending either with the two becoming lovers or becoming friends. Yes, life can be simple. It's only in movies when things become unnecessarily muddled.

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