![]() When Chang leaves for Taipei, Lai is thrown back on the scrap heap of depression, facing serious homesickness and the ongoing problem of what to do with Ho.Īll this is shown in a fractured but fairly easy to follow way that draws a convincing portrait of Argentina as some kind of upside-down version of Hong Kong where emotions, social norms and relationships are topsy-turvy, with none of the safety nets that exist back home. The interlude doesn’t last long, with Ho getting antsy as soon as he’s better and Lai befriending a young, straight kid from Taiwan, the innocent, idealistic Chang (Chang Chen). Lai has, however, hidden the self-destructive Ho’s passport, in an attempt to keep him around and out of trouble. Movie switches from monochrome to color at this point (some 25 minutes in), with Lai nursing Ho back to health but - in an engagingly funny sequence - refusing to get back into a sexual relationship. Ho, however, still wants to get back with Lai, and eventually Lai takes Ho in when he arrives at his door one night, badly beaten up. They’re then shown arguing on the road as they get lost on the way to the fabled Iguazu Falls - a spectacular, almost mystical location that serves as a destination for spiritual renewal.īut at some unseen point, the pair break up Lai works as a doorman at a tango bar in Buenos Aires, and Ho as a hooker. In a move that’s clearly designed to get the distracting sex element out of the way, the movie starts with a moderately steamy (but in no way explicit) bed scene between the two principals, the serious Lai (Tony Leung Chiu-wai) and more flip Ho (Leslie Cheung), in a grungy apartment. In many respects, that is the pic’s greatest achievement. Though the universe in which the main characters move is exclusively male, the abstract feelings the movie evokes - loss, regret, love, hate, happiness - are transfigured to a universal, sexually neutral level. Major surprise is that what was widely pre-billed as a gay-themed movie is only peripherally concerned with such matters.
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