Skip to main content

Blood-Red Ox (English/Spanish)

A gay psychological thriller on paper must sound good, but this film by the Bolivian filmmaker will most likely go over most people's head. At the onset, you will notice some very beautiful landscape and cinematography and that is consistent throughout the film, but the senseless plot that I tried to make sense of, plenty of times, I just couldn't comprehend. The film tries to capture the essence of classic psychological horror, but ultimately fails to deliver a satisfying ending.

Gay couple Amir and Amat arrive in Bolivia from upstate New York on invitation by Amir's friend Amancaya, a local female activist revered by all. As they drive from the airport to Amancaya's house, they come across an ox that has been hit by a car. The animal is obviously suffering, and so Amancaya shoots it. Soon Amat begins having strange, blood-drenched dreams.He confesses to Amir that he used to have them after his mother committed suicide and they stopped and that he doesn't want to lose Amir. The next day they are taken on a tour of the rain forest by Amancaya's brother Amaru and we spend a very long segment in jungle. Now from here, I am not really sure what happens because I can see multiple interpretations of this. Soon it feels not only Amat, but even Amir is going through visions. After a couple of nights, Amat refuses to recognize Amir. They fight and Amat runs into the woods, naked blood stained. In other events we find that maybe Amancaya's brother also really doesn't exist and is probably a figment of imagination. For some reason, that I did not understand, the film keeps repeating some scenes and some dialogues multiple times in different settings with different people. After a while some new characters starting to show. Was Amat never real? Are Amir and Amancaya's patients of mental illness? I want to think so, but honestly at this point, I am really not sure.

This film never directly answers any questions. In fact, the film is almost impossible to follow and comprehend the chain of events or characters. What's real and what's imagined? Which visions belong to whom? These questions cannot be answered. And this is a huge shame, because the two lead actors playing Amir and Amat are not only freakishly very good looking and ruggedly handsome but are also good actors. Both offer intense performances. In their scenes together they are desperate and frightened. As Amir and Amat, they make for a lovely couple. They do their parts convincingly but the script just leaves the audience so damn confused that even good acting cannot save a film that just doesn't make sense. I can understand and appreciate experimental film making, with some thought provoking elements, using psychology horror to show nature and humans living together using symbolism of all sorts; but I can almost guarantee that even if you watched this film carefully two-three times, you will still not be able to clearly articulate what really the story was. And when you can't tell what's real, whites unreal, what's supernatural or what's imagination, this film should go as one of the most confusing unconventional that will make no sense to almost everyone. (3/10)

PS: Did anyone else notice that every characters name started with an 'A'. I wonder if there was some significance to this too. Oh and the one sex scene between the couple was actually quite hot.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin

One Summer Night (Korean)

I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who

Ultimate masturbation: Shigoki no yama (Japanese) [The Ultimate Masturbation]

I would never know what was the point behind making this film. Was it supposed to be a comedy, cos it wasn't. It wasn't even porn. It was just a silly attempt at making something absolutely senseless and ridiculous. The story, as well as direction is equally shoddy. You could laugh for having seen something so bad, but I wouldn't call that comedy. An old man runs a camp about gay masturbation. The explanation given is that gays masturbate for pleasure unlike straight men, for whom the act is seen as shame or because they can't find a woman. One day a straight man shows up and wants to join the camp for his thesis. After discussion, he is allowed in. Rules include that you can masturbate together, you can masturbate one another, but there is no fellatio or anal sex. Some students of course breaks rule. The teacher then talks about 2 forms of masturbation which gives ultimate pleasure. He shows one without touching and then refuses to talk of the other. Somehow suddenly,