I waited a long time to get to see this film. As an East Asian immigrant who moved to West Europe in search for a better gay right, I thought this film would have something that would resonate with me. Having watched it now, I'm left unconvinced.
It's not a very sophisticated product overall to start with. The editing, effects etc., while I can see what the director would have intended, nevertheless all feel slightly contrived and rough around the edge. Actings could have been also better. Especially Yiu-Sing Lam playing Lim fails to deliver the deep emotions and his untrained voice gets stuck when he should speak with outburst and force.
But the biggest issue for me was the flawed main character.
Flaws Lim has plenty. He is insecure, clingy, pessimistic, temperamental and constantly puts his trust on wrong people. He constantly complains and blames people around him that they are not by his side (unconditionally). But the fact of life is you should be ready to be helpful to others if you want them be helpful to you too. Lim never puts himself in others' shoes.
Now, a character doesn't have to be perfect of course. Films are full of flawed characters, and without them there would be no dramas. But we normally want to see these flawed character grow and learn something through the journey of the film. Or perhaps we ourselves get to learn something about ourselves through the flawed character as a mirror. Or yet perhaps, we could laugh and enjoy watching the flawed character as a satire.
Lim doesn't change or learn much by the end of the film. The melodramatic and pretty generic presentation forces the viewers to sympathize with his frustration and isolation, but I really couldn't facing the character who doesn't do anything to earn the sympathy, neither from other characters nor from the audience.
In the end, what I got from the film were just cute faces, some hot sex scenes and the cloud of melancholia.
Overall, it's a 'meh' from me.
It's not a very sophisticated product overall to start with. The editing, effects etc., while I can see what the director would have intended, nevertheless all feel slightly contrived and rough around the edge. Actings could have been also better. Especially Yiu-Sing Lam playing Lim fails to deliver the deep emotions and his untrained voice gets stuck when he should speak with outburst and force.
But the biggest issue for me was the flawed main character.
Flaws Lim has plenty. He is insecure, clingy, pessimistic, temperamental and constantly puts his trust on wrong people. He constantly complains and blames people around him that they are not by his side (unconditionally). But the fact of life is you should be ready to be helpful to others if you want them be helpful to you too. Lim never puts himself in others' shoes.
Now, a character doesn't have to be perfect of course. Films are full of flawed characters, and without them there would be no dramas. But we normally want to see these flawed character grow and learn something through the journey of the film. Or perhaps we ourselves get to learn something about ourselves through the flawed character as a mirror. Or yet perhaps, we could laugh and enjoy watching the flawed character as a satire.
Lim doesn't change or learn much by the end of the film. The melodramatic and pretty generic presentation forces the viewers to sympathize with his frustration and isolation, but I really couldn't facing the character who doesn't do anything to earn the sympathy, neither from other characters nor from the audience.
In the end, what I got from the film were just cute faces, some hot sex scenes and the cloud of melancholia.
Overall, it's a 'meh' from me.
