I hadn’t even heard of this film until I needed something pre-2005 to check off a box in the BL Watch Challenge 2025. Bishonen is a Japanese word that means “handsome boy.” And honestly, my heart was shattered by the story of these beautiful boys: admired, desired, but never truly understood.
To me, Bishonen is, at its core, a film about loneliness, even though it’s wrapped in romance and longing. That loneliness is the emotional thread that ties all the characters together.
Jet is a young gay sex worker whose beauty makes him highly sought after. He’s portrayed as someone who owns every room he walks into — charming, seductive, magnetic. But behind that polished exterior, he carries a deep, aching solitude. The film doesn’t judge him for his work, quite the opposite. It shows him as someone using his body not just to survive financially, but emotionally. What he’s really searching for in Sam is something real , a connection that money and sex can’t buy.
Sam, on the other hand, embodies the loneliness of repression. He leads a double life, hiding his sexuality from his conservative parents and from society. He’s weighed down by family expectations and the pressure he puts on himself. Past heartbreaks have made him hesitant to open up again, and even when he’s with Jet, there’s always a wall between them. His loneliness feels suffocating.
Then there’s KS, who hides his own isolation behind the spotlight of fame and the impossibility of loving openly.
Even as they walk through the crowded streets of Hong Kong, the city is portrayed as cold and indiferente, a place that marginalizes queer desire. The loneliness of those who can’t live their truth, who exist on the fringes even while being desired, mirrors the experience of so many LGBTQIA+ people who are tolerated in certain spaces but never fully accepted.
But Bishonen is also a film about love, even when it’s fleeting or impossible. Real love, the kind that lives deep in your heart, doesn’t just fade with time. Time might quiet it, but it doesn’t erase it. Even a short-lived relationship can leave a lasting emotional imprint.
Love isn’t rational or controllable. It doesn’t care what others think or what society demands. The heart follows its own path, no matter the pressure. And to love — even if it’s not returned, or doesn’t last, or ends in pain — is still a transformative experience.
Jet loves Sam deeply. That love is brief and painful. But it defines Jet. It gives meaning to his journey. And it stays with him, like a permanent memory. To love, in the end, is an act of courage and beauty.
To me, Bishonen is, at its core, a film about loneliness, even though it’s wrapped in romance and longing. That loneliness is the emotional thread that ties all the characters together.
Jet is a young gay sex worker whose beauty makes him highly sought after. He’s portrayed as someone who owns every room he walks into — charming, seductive, magnetic. But behind that polished exterior, he carries a deep, aching solitude. The film doesn’t judge him for his work, quite the opposite. It shows him as someone using his body not just to survive financially, but emotionally. What he’s really searching for in Sam is something real , a connection that money and sex can’t buy.
Sam, on the other hand, embodies the loneliness of repression. He leads a double life, hiding his sexuality from his conservative parents and from society. He’s weighed down by family expectations and the pressure he puts on himself. Past heartbreaks have made him hesitant to open up again, and even when he’s with Jet, there’s always a wall between them. His loneliness feels suffocating.
Then there’s KS, who hides his own isolation behind the spotlight of fame and the impossibility of loving openly.
Even as they walk through the crowded streets of Hong Kong, the city is portrayed as cold and indiferente, a place that marginalizes queer desire. The loneliness of those who can’t live their truth, who exist on the fringes even while being desired, mirrors the experience of so many LGBTQIA+ people who are tolerated in certain spaces but never fully accepted.
But Bishonen is also a film about love, even when it’s fleeting or impossible. Real love, the kind that lives deep in your heart, doesn’t just fade with time. Time might quiet it, but it doesn’t erase it. Even a short-lived relationship can leave a lasting emotional imprint.
Love isn’t rational or controllable. It doesn’t care what others think or what society demands. The heart follows its own path, no matter the pressure. And to love — even if it’s not returned, or doesn’t last, or ends in pain — is still a transformative experience.
Jet loves Sam deeply. That love is brief and painful. But it defines Jet. It gives meaning to his journey. And it stays with him, like a permanent memory. To love, in the end, is an act of courage and beauty.
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