Monday, October 17, 2005
Lan Yu: A review.
First there were the weird and seemingly dirty old men in the cinema. Quite a few of them, apparently early mornings are the times to catch 'em in action at their respective R21 picks where (normal) movie-goers barely trickle in. The lengths I go to just so I get to watch that movie - as fate would have it, I did and at 10.30am on a saturday morning (tickets were sold out the night before when I reached the cinema). Early but definitely not a morning gone to waste, my mind loves the intellectual stimulation even as my body attempts to catch up (J and I walked in five minutes late, in the dark).
Amid depressing undertones, Lan Yu tells a story of two men spanning ten over years although we couldn't really tell if not for specific age references over time. Han dong was the typical (maybe not so typical) successful well-connected businessman who developed a taste for same-sex liaisons with teenage boys (first lan yu, then a certain fling with a teenage athlete) in his promiscuous lifestyle. But lan yu, gave his all despite being told by han dong that their relationship would only last as long as their passion could, and not a day more. Thus began the ninety minutes we were given to observe of a long-drawn relationship that ended in a tragic finale of refused familiarity.
Stanley kwan is adept at painting subtleties on a canvas long unaccepted by the asian society at large. At times, dirty talk in chinese just seemed so strange (yo we are definitely exposed to western erotica too much!) but I reckon it more a matter of getting used to it than anything else. Explicit scenes (plentiful in the original internet novel version) are limited to post-coital conversations or playful gropings, which to me at least, are in much better taste than the first 10 minutes of wong kar-wai's Happy Together. And not to mention also, definitely less demanding on the two straight-in-real-life actors.
Overall, among all the gay-themed movies I've viewed so far, this certainly takes the cake as a must-watch. Lan Yu provides a brilliant insight into single-sex relationships - not all that different? - and explores the issues couples (both homosexual and heterosexual) encounter, surprisingly alike in more ways than we thought. The tensions, the insecurities, the well-meaning surprise-turned-bad are admittedly not anything new.
Who doesn't know the stronger party in a relationship is often inevitably the one who receives more than gives, being in control and leaving the weaker person to suffer in all his capacity to love. Sometimes it is not even a question of reciprocality when time simply runs out on you. So you see, we all really aren't that different. That's probably the inner world stanley kwan wanted us to see for ourselves.
First there were the weird and seemingly dirty old men in the cinema. Quite a few of them, apparently early mornings are the times to catch 'em in action at their respective R21 picks where (normal) movie-goers barely trickle in. The lengths I go to just so I get to watch that movie - as fate would have it, I did and at 10.30am on a saturday morning (tickets were sold out the night before when I reached the cinema). Early but definitely not a morning gone to waste, my mind loves the intellectual stimulation even as my body attempts to catch up (J and I walked in five minutes late, in the dark).
Amid depressing undertones, Lan Yu tells a story of two men spanning ten over years although we couldn't really tell if not for specific age references over time. Han dong was the typical (maybe not so typical) successful well-connected businessman who developed a taste for same-sex liaisons with teenage boys (first lan yu, then a certain fling with a teenage athlete) in his promiscuous lifestyle. But lan yu, gave his all despite being told by han dong that their relationship would only last as long as their passion could, and not a day more. Thus began the ninety minutes we were given to observe of a long-drawn relationship that ended in a tragic finale of refused familiarity.
Stanley kwan is adept at painting subtleties on a canvas long unaccepted by the asian society at large. At times, dirty talk in chinese just seemed so strange (yo we are definitely exposed to western erotica too much!) but I reckon it more a matter of getting used to it than anything else. Explicit scenes (plentiful in the original internet novel version) are limited to post-coital conversations or playful gropings, which to me at least, are in much better taste than the first 10 minutes of wong kar-wai's Happy Together. And not to mention also, definitely less demanding on the two straight-in-real-life actors.
Overall, among all the gay-themed movies I've viewed so far, this certainly takes the cake as a must-watch. Lan Yu provides a brilliant insight into single-sex relationships - not all that different? - and explores the issues couples (both homosexual and heterosexual) encounter, surprisingly alike in more ways than we thought. The tensions, the insecurities, the well-meaning surprise-turned-bad are admittedly not anything new.
Who doesn't know the stronger party in a relationship is often inevitably the one who receives more than gives, being in control and leaving the weaker person to suffer in all his capacity to love. Sometimes it is not even a question of reciprocality when time simply runs out on you. So you see, we all really aren't that different. That's probably the inner world stanley kwan wanted us to see for ourselves.
