Monday, May 31, 2021

 

Frameline45

As we gradually recover from the pandemic, the oldest and largest LGBTQ film festival in the world, Frameline also comes back in a hybrid format. Instead of the usual 10-day duration, this year's festival boldly expands into a 17-day celebration of queer cinema from Thursday, June 10 to Sunday, June 27 2021. Taking advantage of showing films both online and at in-person events, this year's festival also goes nationwide and is slated to be the most attended festival in Frameline's 45-year history.

Frameline 45

Frameline45 showcases 25 feature narratives, 19 feature documentaries, 2 episodic programs, and 88 short films representing 30 countries and regions around the world. 11 panel discussion and conversation events will also be held during the festival.

While most films will be streaming online nationwide June 17-27, Frameline45 also includes a variety of in-person screenings:

Asian representation has been inadequate in previous Frameline lineups. I am pleased to see this year's festival has a focus on Taiwan queer cinema. There are three feature narratives and five shorts from Taiwan that will be shown at the festival, including a special retrospective screening of one of my favorites from Frameline37: "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" (明天記得愛上我 | Taiwan 2013 | in Mandarin | 104 min.).

Here are my reviews (or capsule reviews if they are under hold-review status) of a few films at this year's festival.

  • As We Like It (揭大歡喜 | Taiwan 2021 | in Mandarin | 107 min.)
  • Metamorphosis (Philippines 2019 | in Tagalog | 98 min.)
  • Summertime (USA 2020 | 95 min.)
  • A Sexplanation (USA 2021 | 76 min. | Documentary)
  • Dear Tenant (親愛的房客 | Taiwan 2020 | in Mandarin/Min Nan | 106 min.)
  • Swan Song (USA 2021 | 105 min.)
  • Charlatan (Šarlatán | Czech Republic/Ireland/Slovakia/Poland 2021 | in Czech/German | 118 min.)

  • As We Like It (揭大歡喜 | Taiwan 2021 | in Mandarin | 107 min.)

    As We Like It at Frameline45 Set in Taipei's popular tourist spot Ximenting (西门町) in a near future, inspired by Shakespeare's play, played by an all-female cast, and directed by Chen Hung-i and Muni Wei, the lighthearted genre and gender-bending comedy "As We Like It" is a mixed bag of sci-fi, manga, video game, animation, and even some over the top drama.

    Rosalind (Kuo Hsueh-Fu) comes back to Ximenting from overseas with her cousin Celia (Camille Chalons) to search for her missing father. To befriend a young man Orlando (Aggie Hsieh), Rosalind disguises herself as a man and calls herself Roosevelt. If you are confused already, you will have to endure your head spin when you watch the love story unfold between this attractive couple—one is a woman pretending to be a man, and the other is a man played by a woman. Is their relationship gay, lesbian, or neither?

    The film uses an all-female cast to make a counterpoint that all the characters were played by men in Shakespeare's time. It's both interesting and thought-provoking. But it's a little distracting when the makeup for a few characters look like drawings on puppets.

    Even though the film's chaotic plot and busy visuals are hard to follow, the intriguing style and the charming cast are enjoyable to watch.

  • Metamorphosis (Philippines 2019 | in Tagalog | 98 min.)

    Metamorphosis at Frameline45 There is a recent trend to display one's preferred pronoun. Some may feel this simple gesture is redundant, but for others it's an important political statement in solidarity with people like Adam, the protagonist in Jose Enrique Tiglao's impressive feature directorial debut "Metamorphosis."

    14-year-old Adam (Gold Azeron) is often bullied at school and never shies away from a fist fight to stand up for himself. After a 24-year-old Angel (Iana Bernardez) comes to Adam's class as a new transfer student, they soon become friends. During a seductive encounter (would have been illegal in the US or many other countries), Angel finds out Adam's secret: he was born with both male and female genitals.

    Adam's physical condition has never been an issue at home with his loving parents, even though his dad Edgar (Ricky Davao) is a devoted pastor. But when Adam starts menstruating during an outing, his world turns upside down. With the consultation of a young doctor Abraham (Germaine De Leon), Edgar pushes Adam for a surgery to become a girl without asking how Adam feels about his own self-identity.

    The film has a good heart and a positive tone in telling Adam's coping of being different from most people. Gold Azeron gives a terrific performance to convey the complexity and the struggle in a teenager's mind.

    But the director Jose Enrique Tiglao seems to be less subtle about deploying metaphors. He changes the film's aspect ratio to wide screen toward the end of the film to reflect the relief of Adam's burden. In case the audience still doesn't get it, he lets Adam release a butterfly into the wild compared to how he used to bury them before their own metamorphoses.

    Nevertheless, it's Adam's journey to happiness and life-affirming freedom that leaves a lasting impression. Perhaps you will pause to think about Adam the next time you see someone putting their preferred pronoun in their email signature.

  • Summertime (USA 2020 | 95 min.)

    Summertime at Frameline45 Words can be powerful and poetry can be exuberant. If you have any doubt about it, the director Carlos López Estrada's energetic tribute to the city of angels "Summertime" will eradicate it.

    Filled with rapturous energy and eloquent poetry written and performed by more than two dozen young artists, this film is a non-stop upbeat drumroll for the voices of the marginalized and underserved youth in the gentrified Los Angeles.

  • A Sexplanation (USA 2021 | 81 min. | Documentary)

    A Sexplanation at Frameline45 Sex, a subject that many people are afraid of talking about in public yet are obsessed with in private. But what is sex? Why is it such a taboo in America? What should we do to embrace our sexuality? Alex Liu, the charismatic director of this amusing, entertaining, and educational documentary "A Sexplanation," wants to find answers to these questions. It's a journey that we all should be taking for ourselves, and this superb documentation should be an essential viewing for all high school students as part of their much-needed comprehensive sex education.

    With candid and often hilarious conversations with his loving parents, a wide range of experts, researchers, psychologists, even a politician, and a priest, Alex Liu dives deep into the subject of sex, and eloquently articulates the relationship between the deficient sex education and the soaring consumption of pornography, and challenges us to overcome our own stigma attached to sex.

    As if he is taking all the bullets for us, Alex Liu, a gay man based in San Francisco, steps in front of the camera and asks questions that we all want but may feel awkward or afraid to ask. Even more remarkably, he again and again asks more pointed, intelligent, and provocative questions that show his extended knowledge and research on the subject.

    Not only will be you entertained by this film, but you will also be educated and inspired by it. The film aims to make you feel more comfortable about your own sexuality, and most likely you will when the credit begins to roll.

  • Dear Tenant (親愛的房客 | Taiwan 2020 | in Mandarin/Min Nan | 106 min.)

    Dear Tenant at Frameline45 Love can be expressed in so many ways. In Chinese culture, love is not often said, but rather conveyed by nurture and care in everyday lives. The director Cheng Yu-Chieh's melancholic drama "Dear Tenant" beautifully captures that intense love from a grieving gay man in a story that is both heartwarming and heartbreaking.

    To the outsiders, the soft-spoken piano teacher Lin Jianyi (Mo Tzu-yi) is a tenant in his deceased lover Li-Wei's (Yao Chun-Yao) apartment. But at home, he has been the breadwinner and caregiver to Li-Wei's 9-year-old son Yo-yu (Bai Run-yin) and Li-wei's diabetic mother Mrs. Chou (Chen Shu-Fang) for five years. It's understandable that Jianyi's devotion to Yo-Yu and Mrs. Chou is because he loved his late boyfriend Li-wei. But at the beginning of the film, when Mrs. Chou spills out harsh words toward Jianyi, the film hints that Jianyi might have something to do with her son's death.

    When Mrs. Chou's other son Li-gang (Jay Shih) comes home and discusses the inheritance of the apartment, it doesn't sit well with Mrs. Chou. She arranges for Jianyi's adoption of Yo-yu and becomes closer to Jianyi, even though the mysterious past is still under wraps.

    When Mrs. Chou's health gets worse and dies, Li-gang rushes back and is furious about the adoption and the apartment's ownership. He accuses Jianyi of murdering his mother, and leads an insulting policing investigation which tears the family apart. Yet, Jianyi's love toward his late lover and Yo-yu is unshaken despite the turmoil.

    Although Taiwan has legalized same-sex marriage, the discriminating and bigoted attitude toward gay relationships still lingers in the fabric of the society. The film somberly puts that reality on display and crafts sympathetic characters like Jianyi and Yo-yu. We are heart-broken by their stories, while we are deeply touched by their love toward each other.

    Mo Tzu-yi's delicate performance won him the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor last year. Co-star Bai Run-yin almost shines as the 9-year-old Yo-yu, even though his character almost never smiles in the film. For such a young child to shoulder so much heavy burden in the mind is unbearable to watch.

    There is a long road ahead toward equality and justice, and love is needed every step of the way.

  • Swan Song (USA 2021 | 105 min.)

    Swan Song at Frameline45 With heartfelt sincerity and fine subtlety, German indie legend Udo Kier masterfully played an elderly hairdresser "Mister Pat" in the director Todd Stephens's melancholic drama "Swan Song."

    Once a glamorous drag queen and talented hairdresser, Pat now passes his time in a nursing home by compulsively folding napkins. When he gets a request from an estranged old client to do her hair for her funeral, he embarks on a journey that travels down his fading memory lane.

  • Charlatan

    Charlatan at Frameline45 Based on the true story of the famous herbal healer Jan Mikolášek, the director Agnieszka Holland's biopic "Charlatan" (Šarlatán | Czech Republic/Ireland/Slovakia/Poland 2021 | in Czech/German | 118 min.) portrays Jan's extraordinary work and life under various regimes and his gay romance with his assistant.

    Frequently flashing back to Jan's younger years, this talkative film covers from his starting to learn the healing skill to his trial under the Czech Communist government. But unlike the director's previous films such as "Europa Europa" (1990), the storytelling isn't as engaging as it should be for such a fascinating life.

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Link for this review. Posted by Tony An @ 9:30 AM
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