Okay. This thing requires a deep analysis but I’m bad with words so I’ll try to be short. Also this is going to be messy. My take is that the boy is the mere symbol of his repressed homosexuality, beaten and bruised, in the closet . Even tho he wants to chase the boy ( his own true self ) away, he never really hurts him, he cares for him. The game of truth or lies is the chain of lies he was feeding himself throughout his life trying to justify/explain his sexuality (fatherless childhood and being harassed at school ( which probably never happened , note the last phone call ; the wife that doesn’t want kids and him not caring about societal opinion, all lies ) Boy constantly asking for wine : In Vino Veritas, he was asking for Truth . Mentions of Andre Gide who was a homosexual while married his cousin who he loved but never consummated the marriage because he wanted to believe that sex and love were separate things . Basically Gide’s life was a struggle between sexual desire (homosexuality) and Protestant austerity ( holy love ). They also never had kids, naturally. Andre Gide had a 15 yo lover when he was 47,thus the mentions of pedophilia. So our main lead must be going through something similar too . He probably does love his wife in some way, but IS a homosexual and he apparently fell for a boy (probably underage ) named Liu Xin , had sex with him, a drunk and unprotected one I suppose ( note the initial lines about condoms and drinking ) the wife found out and filed for divorce, but our hero doesn’t want to because he doesn’t want to lose his social standing and future and is generally a coward and a liar .. So here he is, drinking and going deep into his own self analyzing/explaining/justifying his sexuality/actions . Will he fight for his right to be free and be true to himself, will he accept unconditionally, without blaming anyone ( parents , school ) or any imaginary circumstances , his own sexuality, will he pay the price for being free or he’ll continue living with unloved women and lead a miserable life just because he’s afraid of societal scorn - this is the final question. Bible quotes, Matthew 7:13-14 “ Enter ye in at the strait gate ...” our hero has to decide if he’s going to choose “the narrow gate”, “ the strained” and hard road and be true to himself, lead a gay life basically OR the easy way , “the wide gate and broad road that leads to destruction “, of his own true self in this case . Judging by the final scene that happens after the final credits where he says “ At the very beginning there was no road in this world “ and enters the closet, again, while leaving the doors open , our main lead never came to a final decision what to do with himself .. Sad , deep , real .. great symbolic piece of art I’d say .
I'm so scared to start this drama bc it's written to have ten episodes on here but every site only has 9 episodes...…
The one that is on every site is this one 2010 https://kisskh.at/853-dosokai it really has 9 episodes . Dousoukai 1993 , unfortunately I couldn’t yet find it anywhere eng sub or raw.
It’s sad that the only place they can be themselves is the bloody ring .. I’m sure both feel affection/ attraction towards each other but Wei is too chicken shit and Rong is too prideful . He never lets Wei in , Wei never tries . Sad. At least they have the ring to let their sexual tension out .. That fight was like a cry filled with hopelessness , and I was glad Rong won but feels like for him it was a loss, of any hope ..
Unpopular personal opinion : after rewatching literally 4 times , once a month , I finally got to love this movie , a lot and I think I’ll rewatch it many more times .. it’s so incomprehensible and fast paced that one can rewatch it endlessly and still not get tired of it .. Great natural acting , lots of gaps you can fill in with imagination every time , realistic , even if doesn’t suit your fantasies , no bullshit . So what I initially thought to be a poorly executed movie, did really grow on me . Yes it’s unconventional storytelling so when you watch it first time you’re so focused to comprehend who is who and what’s going on that you fail to understand or enjoy anything .. but it really gets better with every time I watch and even the dialogues and scenes that seemed pointless and unnecessary at first turned out to be meaningful and on spot , every one of them .. so it’s not one time watch movie , not because it’s particularly deep that requires rewatch but because of the unconventional style of it ( and too many minor storylines in which the main trio story literally gets lost ) It’s like reading a book half of the pages of which are missing. So it’s a movie when one needs spoilers to understand it. As to the novel it was adapted from , one thing I got from Wikipedia , besides it being one of Four Great Classical Novels of China , is that it had “40 main and 400+ additional characters “. And the feeling of “too many characters “ in the movie is something that bothers you at first too . But during rewatch you can actually differentiate them and even with minimal screen time every one of them does possess a personality and a possible story , like CC ( his mom still hopes he’d get marry one day for example ), Steven , the “straight” guy with his drinking problem , and little things like that with almost every minor character. Characters in this movie are selfish, immature, irresponsible, majorly flawed, real, all of them and I like it .. I like that they live and die flawed and not magically turn into good guys that do the right thing to pander the audience and be some moral role models. It’s never about us in this movie , it’s about them , the audience is not taken into consideration with this one at all ( especially female one ) which is probably the reason it pissed so many viewers off. So no , I don’t think this movie is garbage or a waste of time . Quite the opposite . As with the original novel ( in China actually exists a whole field of academic study called Redology the lone research topic of which is “ The Dream m of the Red Chamber” ) one needs much more time and patience with this movie . It has fleshed out characters ( Ms. Fong is my queen with his cold practicality) several love stories ( pure, obsessive , destructive, possessive ) , friendship, skinship , etc .. it’s super packed but as I said , it’s not all on display and it’s not chewed thoroughly down for us to simply digest, we need to try harder with this one to enjoy .
Just started watching and the first thought is how sad is that in 22 years apparently nothing changed much in Japanese mentality/society if the situation of Kira kira hikaru 1992 was still actual in 2014 : gay doctor husband, alcoholic wife with mental issues and a young lover , same set up . I wonder if the outcome of this one will be the same or they’ll come up with something new .
It’s one of the movies that you enjoy more the more times you watch it .
Also I just adore all those little details that the director borrowed from his previous movie One summer night 2017 .. the exact green walled room , same tea cups , same 2 pictures on the wall but one of them is crooked in this movie which I find symbolic ..
Characters in this movie are selfish, immature, irresponsible, majorly flawed, real, all of them and I like it .. I like that they live and die flawed and not magically turn into good guys that do the right thing to pander the audience and be some moral role models. It’s never about us in this movie , it’s about them , the audience is not taken into consideration with this one at all ( especially female one ) which is probably the reason it pissed so many viewers off. So no , I don’t think this movie is garbage or a waste of time . Quite the opposite . As with the original novel ( in China actually exists a whole field of academic study called Redology the lone research topic of which is “ The Dream m of the Red Chamber” ) one needs much more time and patience with this movie . It has fleshed out characters ( Ms. Fong is my queen with his cold practicality) several love stories ( pure, obsessive , destructive, possessive ) , friendship, skinship , etc .. it’s super packed but as I said , it’s not all on display and it’s not chewed thoroughly down for us to simply digest, we need to try harder with this one to enjoy .