Finally, the world's oldest and largest LGBTQ+ film
festival, Frameline, returns
to in-person screenings June 16–26, 2022 for its
46th edition after being disrupted for two years by the
Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the in-person
screenings at theaters in San Francisco and Oakland, the
festival will also include a nationwide streaming encore
June 24–30, 2022.
This year's Frameline46
will present 132 films, including 46 feature
narratives, 32
feature documentaries, 3 episodic
programs, and 61 short
films. These films represent 36 countries and regions
around the world. As always, the festival's diverse
selections contain films of all genres and touch on
issues related to every letter in the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
The following are a few samplers in this year's
selection. (You may click on each still image or poster
for the corresponding screening or event's show time and
ticket information.)
Even though the writer-director Riho
Kudo's sensitive and enjoyable
drama "Let Me
Hear It Barefoot" opens with a beautiful
barefoot shot of one of its two protagonists, the
film isn't about being barefoot. It explores the subtle and
ambiguous relationship between two boys, and it
unfolds the ups and downs of their endeavors.
Naomi (Shion
Sasaki) drives a truck to pick up recycled
household items including electronic devices. He is
not getting along well with his debt-ridden father,
so he often retreats to his own little space filled
with small things he salvaged from his recycling
truck.
After he meets the sunny Maki (Tamari
Suwa), they bond quickly and Naomi's dull daily
routines become much more colorful. Maki lives with
his blind grandma Midori (Jun
Fubuki), who adopted Maki a long time ago.
After Midori becomes ill and stays in a hospital,
she gives her savings to Maki and asks him to
travel the world for her and tells her about his
trips. Unable to actually take any trip overseas,
the two boys quickly come up with a scheme to
comfort the ailing lady. Using a cassette voice
recorder from Naomi's collections and a travel
encyclopedia, the two begin to record daily
travelogues on cassettes to tell the imaginary
trips Maki is taking around the world.
Like two true sound effect artists in filmmaking,
the two boys ingeniously create magical sounds with
the items around them. In one scene, Maki asks
Naomi to walk on rice barefoot to get the desired
sound effect, which becomes the film's title. In
between their recording work, the two boys
intimately wrestle and hang out like two best
friends, while restraining the undercurrent desire
for each other.
The director Riho
Kudo's sensitive portrait of the two boys is
mesmerizing and sometimes heartbreaking. She is as
constrained as her characters in her attempt to
avoid falling into the cliché for her
plot. Even though the ending might not be what you
would like it to be, the two arresting characters
will stay with you long after the credits roll.
Coming
to You (너에게
가는 길 | South Korea 2021 | in
Korean | 93 min. | Documentary)
South Korea is one of the most culturally
conservative Asian countries when it comes to
embracing and accepting LGBTQ+ people. The
struggles of queer people and their families can be
very challenging and frustrating. With that social
climate as the backdrop, the
director Byun
Gyu-ri's "Coming
to You" tells the stories about two
loving moms of LGBTQ+ children, Nabi and Vivian. It
documents how they cope with their children's
realization of being in the sexual minority, how
they actively get involved in Korea's PFLAG
organization, and how they offer their
unconditional love and support to their children.
A firefighter for 34 years, Nabi is a single mom
for her teenage child, Hankyeol. Hankyeol
identifies themselves as non-binary and asexual and
undergoes breasts removal procedure. Nabi and
Hankyeol also fight to legally change Hankyeol's
gender from female to male in a queer unfriendly
South Korea legal system. While grasping with the
new reality herself as Hankyeol comes out to her,
Nabi is on Hankyeol's side every step along the
way, provides her heartwarming support, and shares
her experience with other struggling parents in
PFLAG meetings.
The other protagonist of the film is also an
ordinary working mom. A flight attendant for 27
years, Vivian is the mom of her gay son, Yejoon. At
first, Yejoon finds comfort in Toronto, escaping
from his home country's hostile environment toward
gay people. However, after he meets his boyfriend,
he moves back to Korea to be with him. Vivian not
only learns how to embrace her son's sexuality, but
she also becomes a fierce advocate for LGBTQ+ right
and shares her unconditional love with other
families with queer children.
With close access to these people's lives, the film
intertwines the stories of these two families and
offers us a snapshot of the struggles for queer
people in South Korea. Even though the film shows
the long road ahead for the LGBTQ+ acceptance and
doesn't gloss over the harsh reality in South Korea,
it offers plenty of hopeful and inspiring moments,
as well as many sweet and hilarious scenes.
More than two decades ago, Stanley
Kwan's groundbreaking "Lan
Yu" (China 2001) told a Chinese hustler's
love story for the first time. Despite the hard
line censorship on LGBTQ+ media in recent years, in
an era of gay dating apps that are readily
available at one's fingertips, male prostitution
has been flourishing in China. Yet, there is almost
nothing about them portrayed on the big screen,
until now. The China-born and Austria-based
writer-director C.B. Yi's
striking feature directorial
debut "Moneyboys"
unfolds a melancholic story of moneyboys in
China. It features one of the most popular stars in
Taiwan, Kai
Ko (柯震東), and was
premiered in the Un
Certain Regard section at this year's Cannes
Film Festival.
Perhaps only in China, moneyboy (not a legit
English word) or shortened as MB, is a synonym for male
prostitutes. Fei (Kai
Ko) is one of them. Coming from a small
village, Fei begins his new career as a moneyboy in
the city, Yiwu, to support his family back in the
countryside. He learns the ropes from Xiaolai
(J.C. Lin)
and they fall in love with each other. After Fei has a
violent episode with a client, Xiaolai seeks
revenge but only ends up being badly beaten up.
Five years later, Fei loses touch with Xiaolai and
lives in another city, Shenzhen, but has become a pro as a
moneyboy. After his childhood friend Long
(Yufan
Bai) comes to join Fei in the moneyboy
business, they become boyfriends.
Despite Fei sending money back home to the village,
his extended family members despise him for being
gay, and even more so for being a moneyboy. During
a visit back to the village, their hostile attitude
toward Fei is on full display. When Xiaolai
unexpectedly reappears, Fei's emotional compass
falls into complete disarray.
This drama is the first installment of a trilogy
planned by the writer-director C.B. Yi,
a student of the renowned auteur Michael
Haneke. Even though the film's story is about
moneyboys, the underlying theme of sacrifices for
the family is universal, especially in Chinese
culture. It's very common for young people in China
to leave their poor villages for better paying jobs
in metropolises in order to support their families
back home. In Fei's case, that job is being a
hustler.
Appearing in almost every scene of the
film, Kai
Ko gives a superb performance as the
emotionally torn Fei. It's a great comeback role
for him after he was busted for using marijuana a
few years back (yes, smoking marijuana is still
illegal in most countries in the world!).
This film may become another milestone
after "Lan
Yu" that humanizes one of the most
marginalized groups in China—male
prostitution.
