Taken in without righteous indignation, this early HK gay movie isn't too too bad, since it has some plus points going for it, unlike say, Bishonen, which truly offended me with its cursed and doomed gay characters.
Three gay guys - platonic friends since primary/elementary school - share an apartment and go through the ups and mostly downs of gay life. Two of them are interesting and the last, acted by a relatively unknown actor, I don't even really understand the point of his story.
I like that there's a straight-acting gay guy at least - Lau Ching Wan - even if he does eventually fall for a woman. Grr. At least they made a big deal out of his internal conflict, that he knows he's comfortably gay and yet he's helplessly attracted to this woman. Sometimes (very rarely) love does transcend orientation, as also demonstrated in Chasing Amy.
There's of course a flamer - Eric Kot - who can't land a man because of how un-manly he is. Tsk. But he's also given good scenes, like one in which he confronts his homophobic father and another in which he videotapes a message to his friends.
*spoiler*
He eventually finds out he has HIV and chooses to end his own life, which might be considered offensive, but back in the day, when people (and this is HK, not the US) thought being positive meant a death sentence, many did choose to end their lives. Sad but true. Hence the videotape bit in which he says a touching goodbye to his friends.
As I said, if I suspend my indignation about some parts of the story, this movie really isn't all that bad, and it must've been relatively progressive for its time. Many gay movies just make me want to go all GLAAD on their asses but some just rub me the right way.
Three gay guys - platonic friends since primary/elementary school - share an apartment and go through the ups and mostly downs of gay life. Two of them are interesting and the last, acted by a relatively unknown actor, I don't even really understand the point of his story.
I like that there's a straight-acting gay guy at least - Lau Ching Wan - even if he does eventually fall for a woman. Grr. At least they made a big deal out of his internal conflict, that he knows he's comfortably gay and yet he's helplessly attracted to this woman. Sometimes (very rarely) love does transcend orientation, as also demonstrated in Chasing Amy.
There's of course a flamer - Eric Kot - who can't land a man because of how un-manly he is. Tsk. But he's also given good scenes, like one in which he confronts his homophobic father and another in which he videotapes a message to his friends.
*spoiler*
He eventually finds out he has HIV and chooses to end his own life, which might be considered offensive, but back in the day, when people (and this is HK, not the US) thought being positive meant a death sentence, many did choose to end their lives. Sad but true. Hence the videotape bit in which he says a touching goodbye to his friends.
As I said, if I suspend my indignation about some parts of the story, this movie really isn't all that bad, and it must've been relatively progressive for its time. Many gay movies just make me want to go all GLAAD on their asses but some just rub me the right way.
