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Dreaming films, telling stories, opening paths, making history
Many years before December 23, 2003, Crisaldo Pablo decided to embark on an adventure. Its main motivation: "cinema and the Filipino LGBT+ community and, why not, also that of the other side of the border," the recipients responded in chorus at the time. Even today, more than 20 years later, they repeat it.To do this, he gathered a group of friends and some professional actors who said "Yes" in unison. He raised some funds, very few, in truth, from his own pockets, or from donations from people who supported the idea.
He summoned his friends, most of them homosexual, like him, those with whom he shared the same dream: promoting a gay cinema through the filming of artisanal films; He wanted to raise awareness of LGBT+ people among the Filipino population. This is how he outlined his venture.
«There is a very special magic in the artistic object that you achieve with your own hands. It may be imperfect, but that difference makes it unique. That feeling of uniqueness is what a creator feels, whether with a story he wrote or a film he shot," he convinced others with this certainty.
Due to the low budget he could afford, he wrote a script without great needs and expenses. Knowing that he would use an unconventional production method, which would only have scarce production resources, he decided to film in a few locations, only in those real places known to all those involved, and discarded the ideas of large stages or sets built from papier-mâché and other unnecessary artifices.
He planned to film wherever necessary, without asking for the relevant permission. He borrowed a Sony VX from a friend. In a moment of breakdown, he had to rent another digital camera, one of those that you can find today in museums or in the yellowed pages of magazines of the time.
He went out to the streets, to the theaters, to the workshops where actors and actresses are trained. He accidentally stumbled across Amanda Virrey, a young woman who would later appear in the films 'Compound' (2006) and 'Sa kamay ng Diyos' (2005), with Larry Burns, a young man who would never again be in front of a camera, with Bell Clerigo, the actress who in 2009 would appear in the film 'Boylets', with Arnold Reyes, who would later star in the two seasons of 'Papa, What Is Love?' and the film The Commitment (2014), with a homosexual theme.
Likewise, it added experienced actors and actresses, such as Jojo Nones, known for his role in 'Dear Uge' (2016), 'Mga lihim ni Urduja' (2023) and 'Agimat ng agila' (2021); John Lapus, who had already participated in 'Mahal Kita: Final Answer' in 2002, and in 1997 in 'Ang Pulubi At Ang Prinsesa'; Rey Pumaloy, known for his role in 'Buko pandan' (2002), 'Sa iyong mga haplos' (2001) and 'Muling umawit angtuvo' (1995).
As protagonists it would have Andoy Ranay, a professional actor who was already known for his films 'Markova: Comfort Gay' (2000), and 'Soft Hearts', with which he debuted in 1998, and Paolo Gabriel, an unknown who would never return be under the direction of a filmmaker.
Since then, he began holding summer camps-workshops for young people on presentation and acting on social networks and independent films and production management for independent projects.
Wait to make profits from sales and distribution of the resulting product? Do you wish that the film would go down in the annals of the history of Philippine cinematography as one of the most watched by the public? Do you aspire to present the film at film festivals both inside and outside the borders of your country? Quite a dream, the same one that every filmmaker has, especially when they embark on the path of artistic creation for the first time.
With 'Doubt' (Doubt, in Tagalog), his debut film, filmed in 2003, Crisaldo Pablo was not only making films. I was making history. He was filming the first feature film shot digitally in the Philippines. With a raw and independent approach, he was making guerrilla cinema. I was making the LGBT+ community visible in a homophobic and conservative society.
In this brave film from an independent team, the pioneering filmmaker of Philippine guerrilla cinema addresses for the first time in his extensive filmography themes such as homosexuality, promiscuity and infidelity in a homosexual relationship, while telling a story about a driven film director for an idea to film a film, against all odds, and create a significant statement that resonates deeply within a heteronormative and patriarchal society.
'Doubt' is recognized as the first full-length digital film ever filmed in the Philippines. The comments of Cris Pablo and some of the actors who appear in the "making of" of the DVD demonstrate how much dedication to a vision represented in this small and essential film.
With an autobiographical approach, for the first time in one of his films, his main character was called Cris. Then would come Jet Alcantara's Cris from 'Bathhouse' and Cris Vicente from 'Moreno', played by the director himself. Curiously, in the 2009 film 'Showboyz', the main character is named Krys, and is played by Filipino actor Kristoffer King.
It was also the first time that Crisaldo Pablo had to fight battles against censorship, challenging, confronting and defeating the Philippine government's Film Board, when the film was originally given an X rating, which would have prohibited it from being shown in theaters. Finally, it was able to receive the desired R-18 rating. He had to do similar actions before the release of his later films 'Bathhouse' (2005) and 'Moreno' (2007).
In this faux-autobiographical docu-drama with healthy doses of interpersonal kitsch, a group of friends and acquaintances discuss the relationship of the film's central couple, in response to the frequently repeated and absorbing question: "What do you think of Cris and Eric?
Everyone is worried and reflects on the fate of the relationship while watching the existing romance between the two young protagonists collapse.
Cris (Andoy Ranay) is a documentary filmmaker with a recognized body of work and a large community of friends and admirers. A gay man in his thirties with a voracious sexual appetite, he has never had a serious relationship and, throughout his fifteen-year sexual career, he claims to have had sexual relations with more than 4,000 men. But after falling in love with Eric (Paolo Gabriel), a twenty-something tabloid television news reporter, Cris has given up meaningless sex for the pleasures of monogamy, much to the surprise of his wide circle of gay friends.
For his part, Eric sees a space for a more open relationship (of course, they don't talk about this) and is baffled by Cris's jealousy.
Much of the story unfolds by showing simultaneous television talk shows, one about Cris's life and the other about Erick's adventures.
The friends automatically go from joy at the change in Cris's life to distrust of Erick's fidelity. Doubt arises and Cris confronts Erick for staying away from home too long, a factor that makes the experienced Erick feel outraged by Cris' constant jealousy.
Complicating matters is the appearance of Ben (Warren de Leon), a former lover of Cris, who makes one last attempt to rekindle the fires of past passion before marrying a girlfriend, but young Cris rejects his advances.
All of the above gives rise to his friends observing from a distance, while they speculate about what is happening between Cris and Eric.
Although the film moves away from the open emotionalism of the couple involved, what 'Doubt' lacks in intensity seen in other films that explore homosexual relationships, such as 'Cheun gwong tsa sit (Happy Together', 1997), by Wong Kar-Wai, Pablo's film almost makes up for it with its free look at the vital gay community of Manila, the Philippine capital.
'Doubt' goes for the intimacy of a home movie rather than the sleaze of porn, with cleverly manipulated beachfront nudity thrown in for good measure.
In fact, when Cris, driven by jealousy, frustration and despair at seeing the relationship crumble, attempts to commit suicide, the viewer suffers an apparent hallucination in the form of a media mockery of egocentrism: an elegant talk show in garish candy-colored colors where a group of magical guests in sequined outfits are interviewed as they try to answer the question on everyone's lips: "What do you think of Eric and Cris?"
The astute viewer will be able to find in the DVD extras the director expressing that his script was based on his own relationship experiences and those of his friends. Likewise, he declares that if he had stuck more closely to them, he could have made a better film. Instead, it adopts a soap opera style of storytelling from the start, with increasingly tense emotional crises, overacted by its largely inexperienced and unprofessional cast; rapid changes in emotional direction; a tangle of plot threads, not all of which go anywhere, and some very strange directorial decisions about how to try to make sense of it all in the end, and each successive emotional crescendo is followed by a cut to black.
Towards the ends, Pablo's response is to establish a television talk show format in which the hosts and Cris and Eric's friends discuss the couple's relationship.
Despite these failures, 'Doubt' has many positive qualities. The flashback sequences are filmed in black and white in a grainy, semi-focused manner that allows the theme of sensuality to be presented in a surprisingly subtle way. Taking into account that the film is shot with a digital camera, the flow is fluid and the feeling is one of immediacy and spontaneity.
Andoy Ranay draws a compelling three-dimensional character we can identify with: a man approaching the age of being "undesirable" in the gay world of the Philippines.
The rest of the cast, although not very skilled in their performances, offers a committed work, achieving as a whole a somewhat rough but ultimately honest and creative film about the public and private pain of homosexual relationships.
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From Chinese BL fiction to the colors of Southeast Asia
The plot begins when An's world is shaken after Jin, his adoptive brother and platonic love, returns to Thailand from the United States, after several years geographically and sentimentally distanced.In this way, those who, between laughter and games, and without having any blood relationship, had grown up within the same family, meet again. But they are not children anymore. They are two university students. The reunion gives rise to the fact that, while both discover that some powerful and intense feelings unite them beyond being "brothers", An immerses himself in a journey in which he realizes a shocking truth from his past.
We are talking about 'Secret Love', a BL genre miniseries, directed by Content, the Chinese-Thai adaptation of the Asian giant's novel danmei, by J.W. "Secret Planet Series".
Produced by Bebravehud and distributed internationally by executive producers Wang Yuren and Wu Ben, 'Secret Love' leaves the viewer with a carnival of events, secrets, crimes, manipulations, intrigues, betrayals, revelations, adoptions, childhood traumas, reconciliations and love affairs
It is a short miniseries of the BL genre presented by QuStory, with 81 episodes of 2 minutes each.
Among the points to highlight, it is necessary to keep in mind the schedule for which it was conceived. 'Secret Love' was not created for primetime requirements, but to be shown on Saturday and Sunday evenings in China, Hong Kong and Thailand by HONGKONG QUKAN Network Technology CO., Limited.
It is a short miniseries of the BL genre presented by QuStory, with 81 episodes of 2 minutes each.
Among the points to highlight, it is necessary to keep in mind the schedule for which it was conceived. 'Secret Love' was not created for primetime requirements, but to be shown on Saturday and Sunday evenings in China, Hong Kong and Thailand by HONGKONG QUKAN Network Technology CO., Limited.
The fact explains several characteristics that today are understood from a more systematic perspective: the colors, the lightness of the plot, the construction of charismatic and attractive characters, the secret and forbidden romance for various reasons and the titanic strategies of the father of one of the two boys. for obstructing it.
It should be taken into account that, for years, we have consumed the products of the countries involved in the project that release BL series frequently, with different target audiences and, therefore, records of particular audiences. ELIMINATE
That a poor boy is adopted by a rich family after surviving an accident, at age eleven, in which his parents died; that in the future the same person who welcomed him into their home may be unfairly accused of causing his orphanhood; That someone he trusts is the real culprit of the murder, and ends up in love with his adoptive brother, may seem implausible; but in the vision of its creators it is nothing more than a functional resource that is inserted into an imaginative and traditionally light dramaturgical conception.
While Gu Hao Wei (Thitipol Nimsakul), the company's CEO and friend of An's deceased parents, and his wife (a role assumed by actress Ganitharin Pacharapakdeechode), have upset more than one viewer with their actions, the first for his homophobia and practice of domestic violence against Jin, and the second for carrying several blames, a point in favor is the overthrow of his negative attitudes due to the growing love between the young orphan and his own son, as well as the loss of control of the company when it passed into the hands of the adopted boy.
For his part, Uncle Q (Chakkritt Wangpattanasirikul) is a dark and negative character, who tries to manipulate An for his own benefit.
The fact that it is a short drama does not represent a serious problem for me: I watch the 20 weekly episodes, in a subtitled edition, one following the previous one.
On the other hand, the sum of all the episodes broadcast between Saturday and Sunday add up, in their entirety, to the approximately 40 minutes that the BL series that we frequently enjoy have. In total, the 81 episodes would represent four episodes in a series of this format.
We also have Turbo Chanokchon Boonmanawong among the cast, an actor known for playing Camp in the story 'Friends Forever', from the BL series 'My Universe', and Anda in 'Love Stage!!', who plays in this one. occasion to Lan; and Tee Vitsarut Suwinijjit, popular among genre lovers after starring in 'Restart(ed)', now adding the role of Tong to his resume.
The flashbacks that lead the viewer to understand An's past, the gloomy settings and, at times, the soundtrack of 'Secret Love', underline the dark elements of the story.
Despite some timorous performances (to be developed in the immediate future by the two protagonists), and the lack of depth in the story, the latter being a typical feature of short plots and low-budget productions, both in music and in dialogues, the viewer will also find a beautiful story of love and reconciliation, especially with oneself for hiding an atrocious family secret for years. All of these elements immerse us in engaging entertainment, and debuting stars Tle Matimun Sreeboonrueang, as Jin, and FirstOne Wannakorn Reungrat, as An, are especially charming.
Casting directors take note: Tle and FirstOne, in their respective first roles in their young careers, are two actors to be reckoned with, capable of conveying subtle shades of inner turmoil, of discomfort at finding themselves in love with someone of the same gender, then of his time on the 'TV Show DMD Friendship the Reality', Domundi's artist training program.
They both need a little more acting skills, confidence in front of the cameras. I have no doubt they will win in this regard.
The protagonists of 'Secret Love' had already participated in the 'TV Show SosatSeoulsay', precisely in episode 237, a television program that follows the protagonists and actors of Thai dramas.
In the script, which adapts the Chinese BL novel of the same name, the ingenuity of Wang Tinglian and Ding Wuen must be highlighted, by taking the original work and transferring its setting to Thailand, where the centers move between lavish mansions, companies and the university, with its pertinent allusions to studies, to obtaining the family company as an inheritance and to the search for success at any price, no matter if through crime.
And, if we talk about society, the series explores in a sensible way (and with high doses of sensitivity) certain topics such as male homosexuality, the emancipation of children from their parents, the breaking of taboos, self-acceptance and friendship.
The miniseries, with Chinese narrative inspiration and a warm mix of Thai essences, manages to satisfy the public thanks to the combination of melodramatic elements in an agile, light and attractive story.
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Can love change people into better versions of themselves?
Boy meets girl, or girl meets girl, or boy meets boy. Boy and girl, or girl and girl, or boy and boy fall in love, overcome some bumps in the road and in the end they are happily ever after. This is, with variations, the structure of most of the portraits of love that films and television series have left us.Although it is evident that the vision of the relationships that world cinematography has, starting with Hollywood, is, to say the least, quite limited, cinema and television have contributed decisively – just like music, novels or advertising – to shaping our expectations about life as a couple. It also leads to frustration when, as often happens, the actual experience does not correspond to those expectations.
Much has been written about the role of television series in consolidating the myths of romantic love. Experts on the subject have identified up to ten myths: that of the better half (which assumes that we all have a predestined soul mate and we will only be happy with that person), that of exclusivity (the belief that we cannot love more than one person at a time), that of free will (which ignores that there are social, biological and cultural factors that influence our choice of partner), that of fidelity (which maintains that all our romantic and erotic desires must be satisfied by a only person), that of eternal passion (which leads us to think that the enthusiasm and ardor of the beginnings of a relationship can be maintained after months or years of living together), that of marriage (according to which, true love necessarily leads to a stable and lasting), that of love that conquers everything (the idea that love always prevails and there is no problem, inside or outside the couple, that it cannot solve), that of jealousy as a sign of true love (very deep-rooted, helps to normalize possessiveness), and the power of love to change people.
And I'm not referring to when we ask for changes that affect the personality of one of the members of the couple by asking them to stop being him or her, which can generate conflicts, when we demand permutations using the pretext that they have to do it "for love".
No. I point out that the way we build our personality, our hobbies and our way of thinking is also influenced by socialization, and depending on our life history there are some people who influence us more or less. In many cases, the person we choose to walk the path of life as a couple makes us evolve to become better individuals.
This is the force behind the Japanese series 'Doku Koi Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru', from directors Maiko Ouchi, Masataka Hayashi, Tatsuya Aoki.
Based on the manga of the same name by Keisuke Makino, the series, in the romantic comedy, thriller and legal genre, follows two young people: one of them is Shiba Ryoma (Shogo Hama), a 27-year-old elite lawyer with social anxiety turned into a the youngest partner of an important law firm. Regarded as the cold and ruthless "Ice King of Law", he is valued as legal advisor to numerous important clients, and Haruto (Katsumi Hyodo), a mysterious genius con artist, talented at disguising himself as another person.
Wearing a high-end suit, Ryoma is a perfect man who never makes mistakes and holds a position as a key member of the corporate legal affairs team of a large law firm, dealing with legal disputes such as mergers, acquisitions, and inter-company resolution. His hard heart has never shown interest in anything other than his job, but one day, at a bar where the president of his advisory board takes him, he meets Haruto, a con mastermind with captivating eyes, and a connection develops snapshot.
From that moment on, both begin to live together under the same roof, since Ryoma needs the work of an assistant to help him investigate the legal processes to present in court. Both join forces to solve complex cases, using unethical methods, while developing feelings for each other.
From that moment on, both begin to live together under the same roof, since Ryoma needs the work of an assistant to help him investigate the legal processes to present in court. The two join forces to solve complex cases, using unethical methods, while developing feelings for each other.
However, as the saying goes, "If you take the poison, it will reach the plate", and Haruto's "poison" gradually seeps into Ryoma's cold and firm heart...!
Produced by TBS Drama Stream and Netflix Japan, and scripted by Kawasaki Izumi, the series describes how two completely opposite people become secret boyfriends and solve legal problems in an exciting way.
If I admire something in Japanese BL series, it is their ability to delve into the psychological complexity of people. In this case, above other considerations, 'Doku Koi Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru' presents us with two very different young people with no initial ties to each other, and the sentimental and emotional repercussions that they will have to assume when one enters life of the other. None of them will be the same again.
Both will be marked not only by their involvement in the resolution of important disputes in a court of law. And in this look inside a shared existence is how the series delves into the depth of love between two human beings so different from each other, and how their lives will change from that moment on. The interpretations live up to the demanding level of this need to show how far love can go, and to what extent it has the power to transform people, for the better.
In his first leading role in a romantic drama, Katsumi Hyodo wins audiences over as her motherless character begins to love Ryoma's sensitivity and clumsiness. His love for Ryoma, his dedication to helping him solve important and complicated legal cases, will open the doors not only to the lawyer's house. When she meets Ryoma and realizes that he is in love with him, he stops being that man who gets into trouble by being part of a gang of scammers, and fully lives that love, opens his heart and tells her story, which is also linked to that of young people and adolescents who, like him, do not have a home and have been despised by society and even excluded from their family.
Despite this being the first time he plays a lawyer in a love story where he falls in love with someone of the same sex, Shogo Hama shows talent by building a strongly tsundere character, inexperienced in love, frustrated by his inability to express the feelings he gradually develops for Haruto. Win with high marks in this new challenge as an actor.
Ryoma, his character, is a fascinating young man who takes the viewer from coldness to warmth. The lawyer is strong, determined, determined and with a strong personality that projects an image of absolute control in his life, especially before his clients and his opponents in court. However, he carries the frustration of having been betrayed by his senior and having lost, for this reason, a trial that he had won.
The construction of this character allowed Shogo Hama to display a performance full of subtleties, in which Ryoma's external coldness contrasts with the moments of introspection and the decisions he makes since Haruto enters his life.
Over time, one comes to modify the other's behavior for the better, as they fight to resolve legal cases.
What will Ryoma do when his bosses find out that his assistant is a known scammer? Will love be stronger than his dreams of being a defender of the law? What will happen when Ryoma finds out that Haruto is the son of his worst enemy? Will Haruto's love warm Ryoma's cold heart? Will Haruto leave his past behind for love?
The toxic and romantic chemistry between Shogo Hama and Katsumi Hyodo, which almost transpires across the screen from the moment they meet, is one of the keys to the success of this unconventional series between an elite lawyer and a con artist, a few years younger.
These types of stories are preferred by the Japanese viewer, so having one of those plots set in the BL universe feels like a dream.
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Many times love is there, in front of you. All you have to do is open your eyes and see it
At times told with subtlety, other times with symbolism, 'Phupha | Nanfah' tells us a story of an interrupted love and reconciliation of two best friends in love, who due to misunderstandings and lack of communication will not dare to confess their feelings.Directed by Choi Sittichai ('21 Days Theory') in 2022, the story tells a story based on real events, collected in a novel of the same name written by Thanyathorn Siwanukroh, and adapted by screenwriter Eakarong Coompromboon.
The beautiful soundtrack, composed by Sompob Pokepoom (Boy), is performed by the actors who play the main characters. These manage to convey to the viewer that tension between friendship and the love of a couple that is not always easy to manage.
With good production values, beautiful photography, vibrant cinematography, precise artistic direction in creating a heartbreaking and nostalgic atmosphere, a successful placement of flashbacks to mark the two timelines in which the story is told: past and present, and the electrifying chemistry of the two main actors, ''Phupha | Nanfah' tells the difficulties that occur when one of the lovers believes that love is not possible and chooses to put distance between them.
The story focuses on Nanfah/"Nan" and Phupha/"Phu", two young university students who, in addition to being single, physically attractive, enigmatic personality, dreams, professional goals and adventures, share a dormitory and have built a solid friendship.
The two promised each other that they would never leave each other's side, but Phu has developed feelings that go beyond those of one friend for another, and assuming that Nan does not reciprocate his love because he is in love with a fellow student, decides to break the promise, lie to his friend about his whereabouts and walk away from him.
Divided into two episodes, each focused on one of the protagonists, the miniseries tells the love story from their respective perspectives. The first, titled 'Phupha', introduces us to a heartbreaking but romantic story.
Through a fascinating emotional arc told in just over thirty minutes, we discover that in the present, Phu runs a coffee plantation with his uncle. Through a photograph in its frame that breaks the glass when it falls to the floor, as a symbol of their broken relationship, this character remembers his university years and his friendly relationship with Nan.
In this way, we travel to the past to observe an emotionally charged story, with heartbreaking confrontations, and powerful performances by Wattikorn Permsubhirun (Kiak) as Nan, and Kittikun Tansuhas (Kun) as Phu.
The viewer can appreciate how, despite their times not coinciding due to studying different careers, although they do study at the same faculty, both young people seek to enjoy moments in each other's company.
Their close relationship causes others to speculate about the nature of it, but both will deny having romantic feelings. Gigi (Heidi Amanda Jensen) interested in winning Nan's love, is one of those interested in discovering the essence of the bond that unites the two boys. On the other hand, Deena (Marima Suphatra Kliangprom) has set her eyes on Phu and hopes to get closer to him to win him over.
The relationship between the two protagonists becomes much more strained when Nan asks a reluctant Phu to help him learn the rudiments of the dance so he can participate in a competition. Seeing in this a possibility to strengthen the relationship with his platonic love, Phu finally agrees to be his rehearsal partner and attend professional classes together.
Through misunderstandings, and lack of communication, Phu perceives that Nan's interest in participating in the contest with her friend Deena is because she is in love with her, and this suspicion will generate jealousy, anger, arguments and new tensions.
Through his actions and a gripping inner monologue, the viewer easily comes to understand that Phu doesn't just see Nan as a friend. The episode satisfactorily shows a boy in love and tormented by realizing that his infatuation is not reciprocated, while Nan, unintentionally, breaks his heart, when in truth she also wants to share time with the boy with whom she has built a great friendship.
The audience will live, along with Phu, his intense journey of ups and downs, anguish and heartbreak, as well as incomprehension on the part of Nan as she cannot understand Phu's reactions to her actions.
Both actors are magnificent, one conveying his secret infatuation, jealousy, desperation, and rage resulting from unrequited love. It seems as if Phu's love for Nan flows like the grain of wood. Meanwhile, the other convincingly conveys the nostalgia, melancholy and pain of not being able to hug and laugh with his friend, the impossibility of putting his nose close to his friend's neck to smell the aroma of the freshly sprayed perfume, of capturing it with his hands to preventing him from getting out of bed and forcing him to lie down next to him again, the anguish of not knowing..., the suffering of waiting for the longed-for reunion and the long-awaited reconciliation.
The distressing tension between the two grows even more when Nan introduces Phu to Deena so they can meet, so the troubled lover assumes that Nan is looking to match him with someone else since she has no romantic interest in him. Later, Phu watches from a distance as Nan and Gigi talk and hug. Although Nan has no feelings for Gigi, Phu misinterprets Nan's action, so he decides to break his promise and walk away from him, but not before lying to her about where he is heading and the reason why, according to him, he unexpectedly must leave for Australia.
The second episode, 'Nanfah', which presents us with two young people who are no longer friends, because contrary to their promise, each one has taken different paths, masterfully portrays the suffocating anguish of a friend in search of the other, a friend in need of reconciliation and reunion.
Between them there is an abyss of silence and incomprehension. In the present, Nan still does not know the real reasons why Phu broke the promise and is no longer part of her life, so she tries to bridge the distance that separates them through constant messages through a computer screen or mobile. But his words and tears are met with only silence in response.
In his memory, he travels to the past, to the exact moment he discovers Phu's absence, just on the day of both of their college graduations. He remembers that Phu had promised to confess something important to him after finishing the formal act, a confession never expressed due to his departure.
In this way, the dramatized story tells how, through conversations held with the janitor of the building where the two young people sleep, Nan will suddenly understand the reason why Phu has abandoned him. This truth takes shape in his mind, and will prompt him to travel every year, for a decade, to the Australian city of Melbourne where he believes he will be able to find Phu.
That is, during his pilgrimage, Nan has discovered that Phu has secretly loved him for years, and that misunderstandings and lack of communication between the two are the cause of the separation. Therefore, at this time, Nan is not just looking for a friend. He is aware that he also loves Phu and wants him to return to his life.
On this journey of desperate search, Nan will find an ally in Khunkhao (Seagames Teerapat Angkanit), a young man of Thai origin born in Australia, who will develop unrequited feelings for Nan.
With an open ending, 'Phupha | Nanfah' leaves tensions and undefined relationships to be taken up in a series filmed in 2023 by Kongkiat Khomsiri, known, in addition to his work in horror and action films, as one of the directors of 'KinnPorsche' , and written by Thanyathorn Siwanukroh, who is also the screenwriter of the adaptation.
Kuk and Kiat once again shine as Phu and Nan, respectively, while the character of Khunkhao, with an unexpected turn that will pleasantly surprised everyone, and Deena and Gigi, return to provide diversity and color to the remake.
Like 'Phupha | Nanfah', its prequel is an ode to love and true and sincere friendship.
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Drama Special Season 15: The History of Us
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Rewrite history and historical truth
The trick of rewriting history and leaving what is not appropriate in the landfill is old: the United States lost the war in Vietnam, but years later it had its 'Rambo', capable of single-handedly winning another vengeful invasion and thus giving comfort to the nostalgic.Another example of rewriting history was pouring rivers of ink in the American newspapers of the time to blame Cuba and Spain for the blowing up of the North American battleship Maine, on February 15, 1898, with the aim of suing and pressuring the North American government to that he decided to intervene militarily in Cuba and rob the Cubans of their independence and sovereignty.
In fact, the Maine had arrived at the Havana port on January 25 of that year, with the excuse of making a "friendly visit", although, given the tension that existed between the United States and Spain, it was evident that the presence of the ship It was nothing more than one more in the chain of pressures that the North American government had been exerting on the Spanish government in what clearly constituted preparation for intervention, with annexationist and expansionist objectives, in the war that the Cubans were waging against the regime Hispanic colonial.
Let us also not forget how Western historians, especially German, British and American, began to rewrite history to detract from the Red Army and the Soviet Union in the defeat of fascism, and overvalue the intervention of the Western allies, which, although important, was not transcendental for the final victory against Hitler's Germany.
In truth, this war was won from fascism thanks, mostly, to the military and human effort of the U.S.S.R. and its people, who put twenty-eight million victims in the balance of death. However, this objective data is based, among many other reasons, on the fact that more than 70% of Nazi losses occurred on the Eastern Front and that it was the Soviet army that brought the German machine to its knees.
When the Allies landed in Normandy, back in June 1944, the Soviets were already advancing unstoppably towards the heart of the German Reich after defeating the Germans in the Battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and the Kursk Arch, decisive in ensuring a radical turn in the evolution of World War II. Even without Western intervention, Berlin would have fallen anyway and the Soviets would have even liberated Paris or Rome.
In the effort to manipulate history, Western historians forget that Winston Churchill himself, who at that time was the Prime Minister of Great Britain, wrote that "it was precisely the Russian Red Army that took the guts out of the war machine." Hitlerian", or the statement of Dwight Eisenhower, Commander in Chief of North American troops in Europe and future President of the United States, who was forced to publicly declare that "the great deeds of the Soviet Army during the war against Germany They aroused the admiration of the whole world.
I think about the above while watching 'Special: Drama Special Season 15: The Officer Discusses', written by Sudocrean Im Eui Jung ('Love According to Law', 2022).
Based on real events, this excellent work of the historical, dramatic and family genre, tells us, in terms of a relationship of friendship, murders and palace intrigues, how the Crown Prince Yi San (Nam Da Reum), summons the historians of Joseon to eliminate from the annals collected in the "Diary of the Royal Secretariat" the events related to the death of his father, Crown Prince Sado, who was murdered by his own father, King Yeongjo (played by actor Jo Han Chul), who was the twenty-first king of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (reigned October 16, 1724 – April 22, 1776), and by Lady Hyegyeong.
Aware that history can be manipulated if one has the means and capabilities to do so and, above all, if one who writes it in a real and objective manner is silenced, in order to ascend to the throne and consolidate his reign, Yi San, who reigned with the name of Jeongjo of Joseon (October 28, 1752 - August 18, 1800), and was the twenty-second ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea (1776-1800), he did not hesitate to assassinate anyone who opposed him in his efforts to try to clear the name of his father, who was considered incapable and weak.
History remembers that on the day Jeongjo finally assumed the throne, after the death of his grandfather, he looked at everyone present in the royal hall and said: "I am the son of the late Crown Prince Sado...". These words were considered a warning to those complicit in his father's death.
During the stage prior to his coronation, characterized by the chaos generated by the murder of his father on the orders of his own grandfather, King Yeongjo, who made the decision influenced by politicians opposed to the crown prince, Yi San demanded that the kingdom's historians Comply with your order.
However, Nam Yeo Gang (Tang Jun Sang), a young historian who in his childhood was sent to the Palace to keep the future king company, and with whom he develops a strong friendship since childhood, refuses to obey him and will seek to prevent the crown prince carry out his unhistorical plans.
When Yi San assures that by eliminating what happened from the annals he intends to refound the nation so that a new State can emerge, the historian Nam responds: "By erasing History, in what way will your Joseon be new?" This is the work of historians: in short, to study, describe, analyze, capture the past in writing, and protect the historical truth.
I would like to finally highlight the performances of the children Lee Chun Moo as Crown Prince Yi San [Young] and Choi Ye Chan as Nam Yeo Gang [Young].
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The time travel makes the film unique among other recent Taiwanese LGBT productions
Who has not ever dreamed of taking a walk through the gladiator era in the Roman Colosseum or playing chess with Napoleon Bonaparte? As long as mobile phones do not incorporate the function of taking leaps through History – something impossible and unusual, at least for the moment –, there is always the option of dreaming thanks to cinema.For as long as we have been aware of it, the passage of time and its nature have fascinated humanity. Particularly in cinema, time travel and temporal paradoxes have proven to be a resource that, well used, has given rise to truly fascinating films, from well-established classics like 'Back to the Future' to recent gems like 'The Time of Huan Nan', a romantic Taiwanese LGBT+ adventure directed by Leading Lee ('Anywhere, Somewhere, Nowhere', 2014).
Starring Hsia Teng Hung, Wang Yu Ping, Edison Song and Chu Meng Hsuan, the film evokes other notable Taiwanese films, while exploring LGBT+ relationships, family relationships, parents' refusal to accept their children's homosexuality and the market traditional Huan Nan, with a history of 55 years, located in the Monga delta, bathed by the Tamsui River and the Xindian River, in the Mongka district of Taipei.
Inspired by true events, field research and production took more than three years and the film is a strong collaborative project with various departments of the Taipei City government. It was filmed on location in the district and cast many local market vendors.
Although the supreme objective of the film is to represent this historic place where thousands of inhabitants of the island capital converge daily, 'The Time of Huan Nan' is more than the sum of its parts and is a moving work.
Epic, intimate, and with intense colors, 'The Time of Huan Nan' reminded me of 'Les 7 Vies de Léa', a French series released by Netflix in 2022, and which also takes us back 30 years to 1991, but in This case involves teenagers. Something like this happens in the Taiwanese film, although not as complicated.
The film revolves around Chen Yao Hua (Hsia Teng Hung), a daring high school student who in the year 2022, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, works in the historic market at the family butcher stall. While filming with his cell phone his father, Chen Bao Ding, who in the middle of a depression dances on the roof of the market with a sword, Chen is suddenly transported 31 years ago, to 1991, when his father was young.
The film shows that from this roof you can see the best panoramic night views of all of Taipei.
Mistaken for Liu Yong Hui, a missing high school student (which is why he will be called by that name from then on), Chen Yao Hua unexpectedly enters the circle of three inseparable friends: the young version of his own father (Edison Song), An Jiang Chang (Chu Meng Hsuan), her father's lover, and Yu Kang Ming (Wang Yu Ping), the only female member of the close-knit group of friends and who plays an important role in bonding the four gang members
From the first moments, Chen Yao Hua, who has traveled back in time to trace his father's history and discover why he suffers from depression, falls in love with Yu Kang Ming, but neither of them know how to deal with the other's attraction, and, in turn, discovers that his father is homosexual and has a secret relationship with Chang An Jian.
In this way, in this vibrant and vigorous scene converted into another character, these three homoeroticly filmed handsome men, and the charming girl, take the oath as the "Four Young Brothers of Huan Nan" They hang out at the market and flirt with each other while exploring life's possibilities.
Well filmed and with an outstanding rhythm, the film tells us how the four characters jump between 1991 and 2022, while they experience the changes in their lives and how their passions, desires and regrets develop over just over three decades; and how they can make changes to redeem the losses and pain they endured all that time.
All this against the backdrop of a time that is not tolerant for LGBT+ people in Taiwan, and in which the lives of the four friends will eventually be destroyed.
Full of warmth, sensuality and love, in this sense, 'The Time of Huan Nan' joins the list of Taiwanese films that explore homosexual relationships from martial law to today, as is the case with 'Your Name Engraved Herein', by Kuang-Hui Liu (2020), or 'Girlfriend Boyfriend', by Yang Ye Che (2012).
Likewise, like this last film, or 'Eternal Summer', by director Leste Chen (2006), 'The Time of Huan Nan' presents the dynamics of a love triangle between a heterosexual woman and two homosexual men.
Likewise, 'The Time of Huan Nan' evokes other Taiwanese films, while in its final stages it makes visual references to 'The River', by Tsai Ming-liang, while the dynamic between the four protagonists is reminiscent of 'Mongka', the film by 2010 year by filmmaker Doze Niu, including queer subtext. In this way, these two productions share the environment, taking as their setting that historic district of the Taiwanese capital, considered the oldest neighborhood in the city.
Likewise, the intimate bath that Chen Yao Hua gives to Chen Bao Ding reminds me of the bath, in which perhaps strangely because they are father and son the homoerotic aspect is more than hinted at, the one given by Ah Jie (Roy Chiu) to Zheng Yuan (Spark Chen), in 'Dear Ex', the film directed by Taiwanese Mag Hsu.
However, the time travel narrative makes 'The Time of Huan Nan' unique among other recent Taiwanese LGBT films, and its stylistic flair makes it superior to recent hits like 'Marry My Dead Body'.
This won't be the only bathing scene. This will not be the only intimate and homoerotic moment: the three men will enjoy themselves in a public bathroom, and in it the two young lovers will clean their bodies with soap and water under the curious gaze of Chen Ya Hua. Because yes, in 'The Time of Huan Nan' there will be no sex scenes, not even a shy kiss, but there are many dazzling close-ups of beautiful male faces, torsos and buttocks, and intimate close-ups and sexy players behind a ball in a rugby match
Beyond the good editing, the beautiful photography and an exciting and stimulating story full of convincing performances in which the four protagonists carry the weight of the film, with a powerful mix of charisma and excellent chemistry between them, 'The Time of Huan Nan' also seems like a movie that couldn't have been filmed anywhere in Asia except Taiwan.
The most obvious sign of this is its direct representation of LGBT+ characters and themes. While other Asian countries make films of this genre and theme, they are generally not for general consumption.
In just three months since its premiere on July 13, 2024 at the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), 'The Time of Huan Nan' has become a very popular film. This perhaps reflects Taiwan's continuing reputation as the most tolerant place towards LGBT people in East Asia. Although the advances or setbacks in terms of the rights of LGBT+ people may be conditioned by who are the politicians who govern at the level of the entire Island as well as in each district, and impediments that threaten the lives of homosexuals, such as that a gay couple can adopt a child and the impossibility of having property rights and hereditary rights, the widespread success of this film validates and further increases Taiwanese tolerance towards people from that community.
Even the performances of the secondary characters, such as Chen Yao-hua and Chang An-jian's parents, are good, despite their small roles.
The flaws of 'The Time of Huan Nan' are mainly narrative. Chen Yao Hua is perhaps too indifferent to the many new discoveries about his father. Likewise, the film may not stick to its premise, with the time travel plot losing steam towards the end once Chen Yao Hua returns to the present, and is now seen to have been missing for thirty years.
It is dark and complicated to say the least. Especially when he has to worry about an unfolding tragedy: Chang An Jian's disappearance thirty years ago, so he must return to the past once again. But this is not a world in which the future traveler can alter events while traveling through time.
On the other hand, already in the endings, an overly didactic and explanatory section is introduced about the Huan Nan market and the Mongka district, which breaks with the tone and dynamics of the film.
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I see a thread of light at the end of the road
Through the intercultural relationship of Jie Cheng (Ivan), a well-behaved Taiwanese student, and Eric, a rebellious American exchange student, Californian filmmaker Steven Liang explores adolescence and acceptance in the society of Taiwan.Despite his mother's objections, Jie Cheng, who lives under constant pressure from her, meets Eric and together they embark on a journey along the most dangerous road in Taiwan.
Their trip is cut short when Eric reveals that he must return home after graduation, forcing Jie Cheng to confront his darkest demons.
Beautiful, sensitive and charming, 'Coming Home' has been screened at 30 international film festivals, following its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Having been selected to participate in the Beijing Queer Film Festival, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Outfest, San Diego Asian Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival (New York), Boston Asian American Film Festival, Boston LGBT Film Festival, CineSLAM: Vermont's LGBT Film Festival, Festival de Cannes: Short Film Corner, InDPanda Film Festival (Hong Kong), International Student Film Festival PÍSEK (Czech Republic), KASHISH: Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, Marais Film Festival (Paris, France), Peace & Love Film Festival (Örebro, Sweden), Pride of the Ocean Film Festival, Q! Film Festival: Indonesia's LGBT Film Festival, Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Taiwan Queer Film Festival, Bilbao International LGTB Film & Performing Arts Festival (Spain), Kansai Queer Film Festival (Osaka, Japan) and Asians on Film Film Festival (Los Angeles) ), speaks clearly about this film co-produced by Taiwan and the United States.
The film made history as the first gay-themed project funded by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and was distributed by Outplay Films.
Written by Timothy Chang and Steven Liang himself, the film stars Yu-Ting Hsu as Jie Cheng, Benjamin Turman as Eric and Bi Lan Li as the mother.
Interested in telling stories about the resilience of those living on the margins, Steven Liang, an award-winning director and House Ballroom scene photographer, addresses themes of homosexuality and transsexuality, as demonstrated in 'The Extra Mile' (2013), A Better Life (2014), Afuera (2017), Emma and the Butt (2017), Falling for Angels (2017), and Transplant (2018), Coming of Age, among other productions.
Screened in New York as part of the 2015 Asian American International Film Festival, the film, written by Timothy Chang and Steven Liang himself, stars Yu-Ting Hsu as Jie Cheng, Benjamin Turman as Eric and Bi Lan Li as the mother .
The story is populated with thousands of small details, which enrich the look, and a grayer color that carries with it questions that the viewer must answer, if he can.
The song "I Need Your Love", performed by Grace, plays magnificently with the story, and creates a unique and fascinating atmosphere that allows the plot to perfectly connect with the viewer.
The story does not leave anyone who approaches it indifferent, and we all wait for the boys to have a happy ending, and the mother to finally accept her son's sexuality.
The photography and direction are commendable. The plot is beautiful, and although it may seem that all is lost, I see a thread of light at the end of the road.
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Club Friday Hot Love Issue: Domestic Incident
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This review may contain spoilers
Miniseries to see with eyes and, above all, with a very open mind (Third review)
Establishing a new love bond goes beyond the good relationship or chemistry with the new partner. Children represent a challenge and new approaches, and there are borders that foster parents should not cross..., but what if love arises between the adolescent child and his or her stepfather or stepmother? Is it wrong for a mother's boyfriend to have consensual sexual relations with her son? What will happen when the secret is discovered? 'Club Friday Season 16: Domestic Incident', the Thai miniseries directed by Ma-Deaw Chookiat Sakveerakul, raises these and other questions.Written by Sorawit Muangkaew ('Slam Dance', 2017), Thanamas Dhalerngsuk ('Triage', 2022), Park Thamsarun Khusunthia ('Addicted Heroin', 2024), and Kay Trinnarich Nonghin ('A Secretly Love, 2024), and the same director, the four episodes of this melodrama, lasting about 45 minutes, explore complex and controversial topics such as the non-pedophile relationship between a woman's boyfriend and her son, one of legal age while the other is a teenager; the mother-son relationship and infidelity, with an LGBTQ+ twist.
With the message: "the person who makes you feel at your worst could be the one you love the most and trust the most", concludes the first episode of a miniseries that revolves around a single mother who maintains a very close bond with Guy , his only son, his closest companion.
Rin (Yuyee Alissa Intusmith - 'Chum Taang Kao Chum Thong', 1997), an enterprising and talented woman, unintentionally finds love in Mr. Gott (Lift Supoj Janjareonborn ('Jenny', 1996), an admirer who is interested in a business partnership with Guy's mother's company, a character played by Aon Kasama Khamtanit.
Gott seems to be a good man who tries to win the affection of both mother and her son, as is Rin's wish. However, while Rin and Gott begin a courtship, Gott and Guy cannot help but fall in love, while sharing games of soccer and other distractions between stepfather and stepson.
With an insatiable curiosity about the world, explore his sexuality and experience love, which he believes he has found in Kem, his friend and soccer teammate (Tae Chayapat Kongsub - 'Y-Destiny' (2021), the life of Guy, a teenager Quite typical, he will take a dangerous and abrupt turn when he starts sleeping with him mother's boyfriend.
With a plot adjusted for entertainment purposes only, with no intention of offending anyone, promoting immoral sexual values or creating a pessimistic disposition of a gender or group of people, 'Club Friday Season 16: Domestic Incident' addresses another complex and fully global debate such as incest, typified in numerous penal codes around the world with the "carnal act or other erotic sexual act with a descendant or ascendant, adoptive or adoptive, or with a brother or sister."
However, while in some countries there is debate about its decriminalization, other legal instruments do not classify incest as a crime, considering it as a moral and not a legal problem, considering it as part of individual freedom, the right to free development of personality. and personal autonomy, while they do consider a circumstance of punitive aggravation of the crimes of sexual assault and sexual abuse, violence or intimidation and without the consent of one of the parties, or if the consent of the minor was obtained through deception, seduction and corruption of minors, not present in this Thai audiovisual.
Director and screenwriter Ma-Deaw Chookiat Sakveerakul, known for directing 'The Passenger of Li', '13 Beloved', 'Dew the Movie' (2019), 'Triage' (2022), 'Manner of Death' (2021), Among other films and series, he once again demonstrates that he knows how to describe people adrift, fragile beings in permanent confusion who believe they know what they want and defend what they want.
While the marriage benefits both Gott and Rin, as they could apply for joint bank loans, while the merger of the two companies would serve to better position them in the global market, Gott and Guy will blur all the codes and one will abandon himself to the complex and contradictory desires of the other. However, Ma-Deaw never judges anyone and the telluric force of her direction embraces the complexities of sexual desire with immense tact and aplomb.
This is not a pedophile relationship. The adolescent boy has a say. He counts and decides. Ask, demand and get. Especially sex. A lot, all the time. Maybe too much, if that were possible. He is the one who starts flirting with his mother's boyfriend, testing, enjoying. He's smart and he's lost. With an absent father and a mother, although worried and loving, very busy with her business and rebuilding her love life. It doesn't have many references. To which we must add the disturbing power of a sexy man who has just entered her life, while suffering from a heartbreak.
The premise is interesting. Very entertaining and intelligent. Provocatively frivolous and playful. The beginning is good. An unprejudiced and uninhibited narrative.
I hope that what follows, once the situation is raised, is not a tiring and tedious loop, a repetitive and obvious drama, in which the focus is closing and almost everything is reduced to the sexual exploration of the boy and his boyfriend. mother, while both betray Rin.
Anyway, I would like 'Club Friday Season 16: Domestic Incident' to explore well the loss of innocence, the difficult and painful access to maturity, the mother-son relationship and the couple's relationship, and not remain as a The boy needs more affection and attention than his mother can offer him, so he believes it is possible to find them through sex, using his youthful body and physical attractiveness as currency, especially when it involves a man who could be his stepfather.
'Club Friday Season 16: Domestic Incident' explores well the loss of innocence, the difficult and painful access to maturity, the mother-son relationship and the relationship as a couple.
The miniseries is much more than a boy in full exploration of his sexuality with his stepfather, while both betray Rin. It is much more than the story of a young boy in need of more affection and attention than his mother can offer him, and who She believes it is possible to find them through sex, using her youthful body and attractive physique as currency, especially when it involves a man who soon becomes her stepfather.
It is not the first time that this issue appears on the screen. Films such as 'Soshite, baton wa watasareta' ('And So the Baton Is Passed' – 2021), by Japanese director Tetsu Maeda, the Liechtensteinian 'Eugénie' aka 'Eugenie de Sade' (1973), by Jesús Franco, 'Beau- père' (1981), by the Frenchman Bertrand Blier, 'Russkaya Lolita', (2002), by the Russian Armen Oganezov and script by the director himself and Vladimir Nabokov, the American 'The Diary of a Teenage Girl' (2015), by Marielle Heller , the Italian 'La seduzione' (1973), by Fernando Di Leo, among other films, have addressed a similar topic.
After playing Kluea in 'This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans' (2024), it is impressive how Aon Kasama Khamtanit plays him first leading role, in which her ease, self-confidence, honesty and heartfelt transmitting capacity, picked up on the fly, are evident. by the audience; plus the nuanced performances of Yuyee Alissa Intusmith and Lift Supoj Janjareonborn, actress and actor with more than three decades of artistic experience each.
'Club Friday Season 16: Domestic Incident' is daring, dazzling and different, more in touch with the awakening of a young man to his sexuality and the chaos that it provides, that power that gives a young body learning everything/expert in nothing who simply tries sex with his mother's boyfriend, as an experience of the life he is discovering.
The audiovisual combines narrative, visual appeal and high-quality acting, mainly through the protagonist trio, but with greater focus on the sexual relationship established between the teenager and his mother's husband. A couple that combines a teenager of precocious maturity and an adult who, with his striking traits of immaturity, narcissism and dependence, with an excessive penchant for keeping in touch with young people, among them his secretary, a much younger woman in love with her boss, but not reciprocated, seems to indicate having Peter Pan syndrome.
Acidic, stark and liberated. Direct, raw and open. On the positive side, its freshness, its setting, its characters and its shameless liberal bravery. Against them is their permissiveness and realistic licenses.
Without hesitation, the Thai filmmaker presents us with the thoughts and actions of the male couple in a brilliant, tenacious way, with lively, sweet and transgressive language, we see ourselves in their fears and desires, we explain those loose words, we are recipients of all that philosophy of the short life of the adolescent and that of the adult who has tried on other occasions to experiment with sex with men, precisely, with other young people, but has not been able to achieve it because he considers himself heterosexual, and yet, before Guy he gives in. He does not seek the carnal. He has fallen in love. Therein lies the intelligence of the script, in the way it presents its dilemmas, in its voices, in the direct connection of these two characters with the viewer.
The only thing I don't understand is the director's intention, already at the end, to place Gott having sex with other young people, after having rejected this type of proposals at the beginning, when he was already married and had a sexual relationship with Guy. In the end, he is a man in love with a boy who does not dare to publicly assume his sexuality.
This is a type of audiovisual that, although its creators do not judge or take sides at any time, and are only interested in showing realities that can exist within any family, in the epilogue they issue reflections to the audience. After the secret relationship between her son and her husband is discovered by Rim, it is up to the two male figures to choose, and given the love for her mother and the love for the man he loves, Guy chooses Gott, and the latter, between future of his company that would be assured of maintaining the relationship with Rin, and the love for Guy, Gott chooses Guy.
But since the program has to assume a position towards society, with the intention of giving a moral lesson that marriage is sacred, the miniseries loses its horizon, and that is exactly where it fails, since it places Gott having sex with other young people, despite having rejected proposals like these at the beginning. They position Gott, towards the end, as an evil man capable of betraying everything and everyone in his path, including himself, and as someone incapable of publicly assuming his sexuality, ending his romance with Guy, which will allow mother and son reestablish their fractured maternal-filial bond.
Great music, with a rhythmic rhythm, for a crazy story, fresh, vital and personal that goes beyond conventionalism and flourishes; happy family made up of mother and son, a mother who tries to rebuild her love life with a practically unknown man, a teenager with a broken heart, who loses control when he discovers the pleasure of flesh in contact with another human being; newly found pleasurable enjoyment that will focus your steps towards that evolution where emotions become confused and feelings interrupt a path not lacking in danger and drama.
In other words, 'Club Friday Season 16: Domestic Incident' shows what is not allowed with bravery of taste that does not offend, and perfectly captures that discovery of sexuality in a teenager and the dangers of maintaining a secret relationship with an older person, with a considerable age difference, who on top of this is his stepfather.
Ma-Deaw Chookiat Sakveerakul presents us with a bold, non-conformist and refreshing story that speaks with strength, clarity, directly to the screen and to a compulsive viewer who finds it difficult to welcome and follow this teenager and his avid world without being startled, silenced and fascinated by the naturalness and frankness of exposition that does not hide, that does not flee and that speaks emphatically of the mental mess of two heads, that of the adolescent and the adult, whose bodies go at a mile an hour requesting passage.
It surprises, alters and stuns, a marvel of narration exposed, shameless and insolent, that does not leave indifferent; Whether you understand it or not, whether you like it more or less, whether it shocks you or suggests it, it is clear that the miniseries has captured your thoughts while the frames roll; Get to know it, don't judge it, and remember what it is to feel absolute happiness followed by the most miserable misfortune, that ferris wheel without control or brake that decides without thinking about the consequences and that wants to devour the world even though it, sooner rather than later, devours it. to those involved in the plot, because no one will escape pain and suffering when the secret is revealed.
The best: the freshness of the script, the acting ability of its protagonists, and the courage to address a sensitive but real topic that can occur within any family, and is generally ignored in audiovisuals.
The worst: the betrayal of a mother, the infidelity to his girlfriend-wife, and the intimate relationship that it exposes, can bother a certain audience with a not so open mind.
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In his third short film, the director and screenwriter Zhang Yun He presents us as the main axis of the plot He Luo (Lei Hao Xiang), a young man who after suffering an accident finds himself trapped in oblivion, which we perceive from the first shots, by showing us his presence in the office of a psychiatrist who subjects him to hypnosis and prescribes the use of drugs.
With his face lost in confusion, we see him in agony in his new lifestyle and hopes to find a way to confront his condition and escape the darkness in an experimental medical treatment.
In this way, he suffers from recurring dreams, in which the face of Chen Jing Nian (Tian Jun Zhang) is always present, but he does not remember why.
Mired in amnesia, he agrees to be Su Jiayi's (Wang Youfang) boyfriend to deceive Shen Lusheng (Chen Qingqi), who had rejected the girl's confession of love.
Su Jiayi accidentally discovers the secret that He Luo had always wanted to protect and is killed by He Luo.
For his part, Shen Lusheng, who hoped to use Doctor Jiang Han (played by Su Jinyuan) to help He Luo recover his memory, could not imagine that the doctor would use the drugs on Chen Jing Nian to complete his experiment on psychiatric patients.
However, through contact with Shen Lu Sheng, He Luo finally discovers that he was Chen Jing Nian, who had lost his memory and original appearance after the accident, and manages to remember all the previous events, which occurred three years earlier, narrated in the short film 'Find You in the Crowd', from 2017.
The viewer will be able to enjoy the film's soundtrack, with music composed by Yang Heng and lyrics by Zhang Yun He, released on NetEase Cloud Music, including the singles "Lost Old Dreams", "The Lonely Whale" and "Farewell", The latter song performed by singer Chen Qingqi, among other songs.
The short film has been well received by specialized critics and the public, obtaining different recognitions both in China and in the international Festival circuit, including the Best Student Short Film Award at the 2019 Los Angeles Film Awards, the Award for Best Audiovisual Work at the Top Short Film Festival, and the Award for Best Foreign Short Film at the Hollywood International Moving Image Film Festival, 2019.
For his part, Chen Qingqi, the actor who plays Shen Lusheng, wins the award for best new actor, known as the "Yunya Award", at the first Duyun Film and Television Festival in Qiannan Autonomous Prefecture in the province from Guizhou, People's Republic of China, on September 17, 2019.
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Zhang Yun He is one of the world-renowned Chinese film directors who have portrayed homosexuality in their films, series and short films. His work joins others, such as 'River Knows Fish Heart', 'East Palace, West Palace', 'Spring Fever', 'For Love, We Can', 'Looking for Rohmer', 'Wu Yan – Speechless', ' Shanghai Panic', 'Kinematic Theory', 'The Raccoon', 'The Ambiguous Focus', which also address gender issues and sexual diversity in that Asian country.
'Find You in the Crowd', whose original title is 'Seeing Deers When the Trees Are Deep' (樹深時見鹿), revolves around Shen Lu Sheng, a senior college student, who is unable to recognize who is in love with a boy, his friend, the junior student Chen Jing Nian, who did have the courage to express her love for him.
This infatuation is the cause of the harassment that Shen Lu Sheng suffers from his schoolmates, which adds to the hostility that for family reasons he had already been a victim of since childhood. All this has caused him to have low self-esteem.
The film tells us about feelings, the passage of time and the protagonist's regrets for not confessing his feelings. 'Find You in the Crowd' speaks of a very everyday intrinsic truth in the lives of many homosexuals in the world, who remain silent, live repressed and do not accept their true nature. Many will be able to see themselves reflected in the character and the story told.
When Shen Lu Sheng is faced with the feelings he awakens in Chen Jing Nian, he hesitates to acknowledge his love and does not dare to face his own feelings honestly.
Starring Chen Wei (Chen Hao) and Tian Jun Zhang, in the roles of Shen Lu Sheng and Chen Jin Gian, respectively, the film is based on an original script written by Yan Xingjun and Zhang Yun He himself.
Also known as 'Shu Shen Shi Jian Lu', the film begins when the two friends meet again after some time, and discover that their feelings for each other are still intact.
From here on, the precise and frequent flashbacks will take us to know the intimate relationship between Shen Lu Sheng and Chen Jin Gian from when they were children to the present.
Filmed in Shanghai in 2017, the creators make good use of the monologue to expose Chen Jin Gian's feelings. In this way, the character guides the viewer on an introspective journey, revealing the feelings he hides and the desire to be able to confess his love to his best friend and the person he is in love with. Along the way, the protagonist discovers himself and questions himself for not having been sincere.
Equally notable is the cinematography, the color palette and the music, which as a whole reflect the tone of the film and expose the moods of the characters.
The ending is neither happy nor sad, as it is an open ending, as the story continues in 'Find You in the Crowd 2'.
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A jewel of the Pinku Eiga aesthetic with stories of hidden obsessions and explicit desire
Hisayasu Satô, known as one of the four demons of the Pinku Eiga (ピンク映画, literally "pink film"), a subgenre of Japanese exploitation cinema, with notable impact in the 1960s and until the end of the 20th century for its erotic themes and marginal settings, is a filmmaker known for making incredibly sordid films about ultraviolence, isolation, loneliness, existentialism, obsession, alienation, perversion, voyeurism and perverse and explicit sexual content.Recognized worldwide for films such as 'Hunters' Sense of Touch', 'Splatter: Naked Blood', 'Lolita Vibrator Torture', 'Train: Dirty Behavior de Molester' and 'Brain Sex', among others, 'Bondage Ectasy' (陶酔遊戯), from 1989, is one of his best films, but not as personal as 'Muscle'.
Famous for his "sledgehammer" cinematographic style and his "guerrilla shooting technique", he filmed countless films under the Pinku Eiga aesthetic, emerging as a response to the strict regulations of the film industry and as a bold exploration of sexuality and social taboos.
Although often associated with eroticism and nudity, the Pinku Eiga films go far beyond the superficial, offering a provocative look at human psychology and the complexities of Japanese society at the time, a kind of response to cinema traditional, by introducing subversive and political elements, which managed to establish a connection with the French New Wave through directors such as Masao Adachi, responsible for 'A gushing prayer' (1971), who was a collaborator of Nagisa Oshima.
The Pinku Eiga films frequently featured marginalized characters and extreme situations, offering a raw, unvarnished view of Japanese society at the time. This directness and cinematic audacity resonated both in that country and abroad, turning his works into a cultural phenomenon with a lasting legacy.
With low budgets, another of the characteristics of this subgenre, Hisayasu Satô's films were filmed in times of social and political turbulence, and they challenged conventional norms and became a form of expression for filmmakers who sought to break creative barriers and explore new narrative territories.
Scripted by Yumeno Shiro, 'Bondage Ectasy', a Pinku Eiga film with a gay theme, is characterized by its bold use of color, visual composition and symbolism, using the image in a provocative way to convey subversive messages and explore themes such as desire, repression, obsession and alienation.
Themes of loneliness, power and existentialism are mixed with the typical pinku themes of sex and violence in a way that only Hisayasu Satô could achieve.
The film follows an anonymous man, played by Shotaro Sawada, a young man who sees his sexual life altered after the physical and mental torture and humiliation he receives from his boss and co-workers in an office.
But this will not be the only reason for her unhappiness: her boyfriend, played by Osamu Fukuda, does not have much time to dedicate to him due to his absence both for work reasons and because he is always accompanied by his lover, a young woman, played by actress Setsuhiko Kobayashi. The three soon find themselves involved in a kind of love triangle based on sadomasochism.
After receiving a beating from his boss and having an unexpected sexual encounter with his absent boyfriend and former fencing partner, something reawakens in our young office worker. While reading Metamorphoses by Franz Kafka, the main character has recurring dreams of turning into an insect in a dream sequence and sees her boyfriend and their mutual lover as they really are. On the other hand, he observes various sexual acts of captive men with the presence of sadomasochism.
Coupled with an unsatisfying sexual event with the woman with whom he lives the love triangle, we don't have to look far to find meaning in his world of dreams and fantasies.
The exploitation that forms obsession is a manifestation that is present in the deepest internal fantasies of our protagonist.
Turned into an insect, the character also realizes that he can control those who ingest him while occupying his new body. While all of this may seem complicated and strange, Satô is able to weave the story in a way that distinguishes the film not only from his preceding work, but from the Pinku Eiga aesthetic as a whole.
The synopsis will make many believe that it is simply a pink movie with a touch of Kafka's novel. However, Satô seems to be more interested in the work of someone like De Sade.
The sleaze in 'Bondage Ecstasy' is evident from the first to the last scenes of the film. Graphic and rough sex, sadomasochism and voyeurism are present in virtually every frame of the film and create an often uncomfortable viewing experience.
While the film does not rely on effects at all, the effects present, properly adjusted to the tone and purpose of the feature film, are also very well done and much better than one would expect considering its low budget.
Another technical section to highlight is the music. The soundtrack never takes center stage, but rather reflects the tone of the film.
'Bondage Ecstasy' manages to generate reactions of disgust in some viewers, and admiration in many others. However, no one can deny the power of the film and Satô's legacy. This film is essential for all Pinku Eiga fans and for anyone interested in seeing how sexual exploitation and cinema belonging to this aesthetic can touch the sky.
Despite being filmed on video, like most of Satô's film work, the cinematography and direction demonstrate the maturity and consolidation of the Japanese director. This is evident during the segments in which the protagonist is an insect.
Towards the end of the film, 'Bondage Ecstasy' takes a turn and what initially feels claustrophobic opens up as the viewer literally becomes a fly on the wall as they see the lives of Sawada's acquaintances, those people who torture him and humiliate.
It is incredible how from a grainy VHS quality film with an extreme emphasis on aesthetics over characters and plot there is so much luminosity. Sato's work in photographing male bodies is magnificent, in an erotic way, without feeling disgusting, everything is vaguely uncomfortable but above all intimate and exciting. The Japanese filmmaker films the best combination of philosophy and softcore porn that I can imagine and at least have seen.
Each sexual gesture is strangely erotic, full of transgression, violent and pleasurable, establishing a hierarchy between a boss and his subordinate, who like to enjoy the pleasures and dangers of sadomasochism.
On the other hand, the chemistry between the two main actors goes beyond the physical sphere, but is emotional, psychological and fully satisfying.
The film portrays sexual domination that metamorphoses (becomes an insect) into the condition of society (specifically workers) and capitalism in Japan.
However, the viewer cannot classify 'Bondage Ecstasy' as a mere sexual film. The segments where Sawada's character transforms into an insect are powerful in a strange way. A man trampled by the members of the society of which he is a part has the opportunity to witness how the people who have humiliated, tormented and tortured him physically and mentally live, to discover that they are not very different from him and also struggle with your own personal hell.
From this new position, the character played by Sawada can take revenge by controlling them for brief moments. In this way, the protagonist receives a new vision of his life and, in a way, gains power.
While this power initially appears to be a positive thing, it soon begins to erode his soul until he comes to the conclusion that he is no better than his tormentors.
The film, which culminates in a graphic scene of violence, leaves the viewer with a disturbing feeling that is difficult to overcome. 'Bondage Ecstasy' is haunting, depressing and at the same time beautiful, and the emotions it evokes in the viewer never seem artificial.
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With a script by Erika Seki, a prolific writer of films and television series, the feature film tells how the relationship between Hokuto, a generous and kind-hearted young man who dreams of traveling the world as a professional cameraman, and Shinichiro, the doctor of his hospitalized girlfriend, an old high school classmate, also a lover of photography and with whom he became estranged after an accident that caused the friendship between the two to be broken.
Meeting his old friend again will awaken dormant passions in both of them.
The audience is faced with a very sad film, but uplifting in its own way. Hokuto is worried about the pain of Tatsumi, who clearly loves his friend, but Hokuto can't do anything about it.
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Mixing romance, fantasy and yaoi, 'Legend of Long Yang', as it is also known, presents Ji Yu as the central axis of the plot, a young prince who is preparing to take the reins of a kingdom enveloped in war conflicts with neighboring nations and internal struggles for power.
Directed by Fei Yu and scripted by Yi Hua Yao, the film takes us to the meeting, ten years before the narrated historical present, between Ji Yu and Long Yang, a commoner who, knowing that the heir to the throne does not wish to murder a group of peasants accused of treason, steals his bow and tries to flee.
When Long Yang is caught by the guards, Ji Yu forgives him upon discovering the boy's motivations for stopping the prince from committing a crime. Moved and impressed by the young boy's actions, Ji Yu gives him a token so he can exchange it for money, but Long Yang decides to keep it as a souvenir of the day of his meeting with the future sovereign.
In the present, Long Yang has been serving as a guard in the royal palace for five years without Ji Yu knowing of his presence. One day, when the prince returns from a battle, he is attacked by assassins and Long Yang is mortally wounded while trying to protect him. Just before he loses consciousness, he watches as an enemy archer fires an arrow at Ji Yu, possibly killing him as well.
However, upon waking up, Long Yang discovers that he has traveled back in time and now, a year behind the tragic events, he has the opportunity to change the future. Then, he reveals his identity to Ji Yu, who recognizes him thanks to the token he gave to the boy.
The growing emotional and physical connection between the prince and his newly appointed personal guard will allow them to develop deep feelings, causing love to blossom between the two.
The actors Dou Qi Chen, who we know for his role in the Taiwanese film 'The Rooftop' (2013), and Eric Wang (Wang Hao Yu), known for his participation in the series 'Dream Detective' (2021) and the films 'Robot iGirl' (2016) and 'Battlefield Love' (2012), play the leading roles: Ji Yu and Long Yan, respectively. Along with them we see Wang Peng as General Shen Yi, Jin Zhao as the King, Mu Yan as the Queen Mother, Xin Wei as Ming Yu, Bao Yi Ran as Ji Yu (young) and Shen Han Yang as Long Yang (young).
The then debutant director, known for later directing the films 'The Three Body Problem' and 'Where to Go', as well as for writing the script for this last feature film, effectively uses many of the codes of action and Wuxia cinema with spectacular fight scenes with very visual choreographies, where there is no shortage of chases and suspense.
Although it covers various contents (political intrigues, power struggles, jealousy, ambitions, time travel), the film simply addresses a love story.
Most scenes take place in closed, dimly lit environments, such as the throne room, the royal quarters, or the torture room and dungeons of the imperial palace.
The always necessary female figure as a sign of evil does not take long to appear, this time assumed by the character of Princess Chang Qin, played by actress Hou Meng (Hu Po in 'Mutant Tiger', 2022, and Priest Chun in ' The Monkey King 3'.
We find the typical intelligent and ambitious woman, who uses her beauty and her status as the prince's fiancée to manipulate others, including the kings and other members of the imperial court, and obtain the benefits she desires, including becoming queen after marry the future king, so she will see in Long Yang a potential enemy who could ruin her plans.
The sinister character also appears who fulfills the orders of this beautiful woman and participates in her web of crimes and manipulations to please his mistress. This is the case of Min Er, Chang Qin's maid, a role assumed by actress Zhang Ding Ding, known for her role as Mei Li Er in 'Mr. Express & Miss Concubine', from 2017, among others.
The princess's maid is not only responsible for spreading rumors about the romance of the prince and his bodyguard, but will also accuse the latter of being a traitor and devise a plan to separate him from Ji Yu.
Fei Yu manages to make visible in his film the long history of Chinese dynastic homosexuality, and reformulates the romantic love between the nobleman and his subject of the same sex to place it on a plane of greater equality and dedication, since both characters are willing to give their lives or his throne by being in each other's arms.
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Film version of 'In a Relationship'
After airing the 17 episodes of 'In a Relationship', between June 10 and July 24, 2022, its 17 episodes (the first fifteen of approximately three to five minutes each, and the last two, lasting between twelve and fourteen minutes), are taken, with the same title, to a film version in an 87-minute format.This is the result.
Review:
With the speed of survival we have insisted on forgetting the pandemic, focused on the new challenges that life imposes, day by day.
And there is the art to bear witness to how Covid-19 changed the world as we knew it until then, and among these changes stands out the way in which human beings manage to communicate and establish diverse relationships, including romantic ones, amid limitations of not being able to interact face to face with others.
'In a Relationship', the romantic series with an LGBTIQ+ theme, directed and produced by Napat Worakitpunya, allows us to appreciate the emergence of a love relationship between two teenagers, against the backdrop of social networks and the period of incidence of the pandemic in our lives.
This is one of the BL series produced by Jinloe Media Work, the studio that has also made 'Hit Bite Love' (2023), 'What the Duck' (2018) and its sequel 'What the Duck 2: Final Call' (2019 ).
Starring Nine Trin Summasub, as Tono, and Pea Pearanut Athicomnanta, in the role of Boss, the 2022 Thai drama takes us into characters whose existences are affected by the circumstances of a pandemic that disrupts everything in its path. However, in an indistinct manner, but at the same time in close union, each of them manages to recognize in the sad event the possibility of loving each other, growing as people, the power of forgiveness and second chances.
With a script by Chim Sedthawut Inboon, Tono, a teenager with a growing reputation among online video game players, is presented as the central axis of the plot. One day, while he is live streaming and recording one of his videos, a user he later identifies as Boss criticizes his gaming skills in a chat room. Annoyed, Tono confronts him and they both agree to participate in a video game competition to see who is the best.
After losing the game, Tono must fulfill the winner's three demands: The last request is that Tono become her boyfriend! Reluctant to comply with this demand, Tono will be forced to listen to the constant flirting of the person who claims to have been in love with him for some time.
Will Boss manage to change his social media status to "in a relationship"? Will love arise between these two teenagers? Will they manage to nurture a loving bond beyond any screen? Will they be aware that the true essence of a relationship lies in the mutual understanding, support and love that is built day by day, surpassing virtual scenarios?
The truth is that this is how Boss and Tono begin a relationship, friendly first, romantic later, thanks to cultivating meaningful conversations every day, like those of any teenager of our days, building memories and strengthening emotional bonds.
Boss is a well-defined character. For some time now he has been aware of his sexual identity, and he finds himself caught between the desire to be honest with himself and with the boy he loves, as he fears suffering a new love rejection for having his face marked by youthful acne. That is why he has communicated through a filter and hides his true identity from Tono.
But despite this dark side, the character created by Pea Pearanut Athicomnanta turns out to be more than the simple playboy he can seem every time he flirts. He understands when Tono needs space and backs away, but he still shows his love and sends constant signals of support to the teenager in difficult times, such as during Tono's illness, or when he is upset because his friend Jade has decided not to play with him.
Knowing and loving Tono will make him grow as a person and trust in himself.
For his part, Tono is a boy without major conflicts in his life. Busy with video games and virtual classes due to the pandemic, he has only suffered from his parents' divorce. His character goes through several very different moments throughout the series. She experiences intense feelings when Boss confesses his love for her, and emotional stress when she suspects that the young man she loves has been playing with her feelings.
Tono shows maturity when he forgives Boss and by encouraging him to be himself and grow as a person. Through her relationship with Boss, Tono will discover not only her sexual identity, but also her true feelings and first love.
At first, I find his performance a little uncomfortable, but as the episodes progress, we can see an actor who takes on the role of a typical teenager of our days, giving it his own interpretation and meaning, as he focuses on his goal and fight for what he wants.
Isolated from everything and everyone, even his family members, who are never shown on screen nor are there any references to them, Tono navigates between doubts and insecurities, while trying to understand his own feelings. Can a boy fall in love with another boy?
Although sometimes a certain lack of rhythm is felt in the progression, the best moments of 'In a Relationship' are reserved for the final episodes, when the story gains in maturity and complexity by deepening the plot in the themes addressed, managing to enrich the dynamics of the love relationship and add a fascinating growing tension between the characters.
Intimately and emotionally, 'In a Relationship' addresses universal themes such as the search for authenticity, discovery, personal acceptance, second chances, identity, friendship and love, with a refreshing and sensitive narrative. Along the way, both young people discover much more about themselves and what love and friendship really mean.
The two boys will begin a journey that will change their lives forever. During it, Boss and Tono develop an unexpected and deep connection as they share their personal stories, fears, preferences and dreams.
The music of TheMoonwillalwaysbewithme, Foam and Boxx Music Team helps capture the beauty of first love and self-discovery in adolescence, with totally recognizable boys, but at the same time with the pain of lying.
With evocative cinematography limited by the pandemic scenario, the series immerses us in a crucial moment in the lives of its protagonists where emotions are on the surface.
The series explores many of the challenges that we can encounter every day on social networks and messaging applications, such as the possibility of someone lying or hiding their true identity because they feel ashamed of their own life or body, the prospect of closing distances with people who are far from us; the way to understand, approach and expose our personal life and our relationships, or suffer from the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) syndrome caused by dependence on social networks.
Likewise, 'In a Relationship' portrays other of the daily challenges faced by people on social networks, who may feel that they are constantly in contact, but the quality and depth of their conversations may decrease. Or what is related to the emotional tone, which is often misinterpreted in texts and messages, which can generate unnecessary conflicts, due to the lack of eye contact and body language, essential for effective communication.
That is the reason why Tono frequently demands the need to complement digital communication through real, in-person connection. That is, being able to see yourself outside of virtual spaces, to be able to openly communicate your feelings, concerns, doubts and insecurities... in short, give free rein to love.
For this reason, I applaud that final scene in which the empty chairs that have always been occupied by our two protagonists prevail, because finally both, after the dangers of the pandemic have disappeared, have met outside the screens of their digital devices.
The review of the series published in MDL can be found at: https://kisskh.at/731171-in-a-relationship/reviews
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This review may contain spoilers
A film that tells us about unrequited love
Jhih Wei and Yi De are two best friends who dream of always being close to each other. While the first studies at the university, the second plans to follow in his footsteps and enter the same house of higher education the following year to become his junior.One weekend night, Jhih Wei sleeps in Yi De's bed. The next morning, as Yi De prepares to go out to meet his girlfriend, Jhih Wei thinks that he would really like not to go home yet. .
And everything could be as young people dream, but a secret comes between the two: Jhih Wei is in love with his friend who is not only heterosexual, but also has a girlfriend named Yu Wen (Andrey Fong) whom he loves madly. , causing him to choose to hide his feelings.
Starring Mike Lee as Jhih Wei and Li-Hsin Chien as Yi De, 'Not Going Home Yet' (晚歸), also known as 'WAn Gui, Wan Kuei' (晚归), is a drama romantic Taiwanese LGBT+ theme that tells us about unrequited love.
Here the trick is played by our heads... In love, Jhih Wei's brain instinctively looks for any sign of reciprocity in the other person to keep the flame alive... and he is able to see authentic declarations of love where there is only companionship, kindness and politeness, such as giving you a body massage, asking you to give you the towel you forgot to take with you to the bathroom, or inviting you to spend a night out in your company.
Produced, edited, written and directed by Alan Chen, the film, which is only 15 minutes long, exposes Jhih Wei's suffering over his unrequited crush. Sharing time and doing things with Yi De is making Jhih Wei suffer. Have you finally accepted the situation that your friend is straight and he is gay and nothing will ever happen between the two? Have you understood that it makes no sense to continue feeding and fantasizing about that impossible love?
Alan Chen also manages with his work as a set designer to convey to the viewer the sadness and pessimism that surrounds the main protagonist towards the end of the short film. After Jhih Wei accepts his friend's invitation to go to dinner at a restaurant after meeting his girlfriend, Jhih Wei will reject the dinner when he finds out that Yu Wen will join them, and alone, on his scooter, he will travel the streets. streets of Taipei on the way home. Belle Cheng, the director of photography, delivers beautiful interior and exterior images, both day and night.
The film does not reveal to us if Jhih Wei wants to maintain the friendship or, as happens with breakups, he needs some time to manage to be able to see Yi De as a friend again.
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