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The Teacher (Mandarin)

By Golu
The synopsis of the film made it sound quite interesting, but the average direction and screenplay made it eventually a tedious affair to watch. Set around the year before Taiwan legalized gay marriages, the film tries to show the hardships a gay man faces in the community. But somehow, I feel the makers tried to take up too many challenges and portrayed that every possible problem is only happening with our lead protagonist.

Kevin is a young high school teacher who occasionally participates in rallies advocating for same sex marriages. He lives with his mother, who although accepts her son's sexuality, but is very uncomfortable with the idea of him having a boyfriend or gay marriage. Kevin is occasionally mocked by students and is asked by school head to keep his presence in such rallies to a minimum. Kevin happens to meet an older guy Gao. We find out that he was married but his ex-wife is still very much in the picture. Love blossoms and the two move in together. It's only then Gao tells Kevin that he is HIV positive. Kevin freaks out, gets tested and is negative. But soon, an angry student starts a rumor of Kevin having AIDS and suddenly Kevin has to go around proving his innocence to school, parents, his own family etc.

The film started from love story, to sexual discrimination at work place, to closet gays, to HIV to AIDS. Also, given todays time, I was horrified to see discussion around AIDS. I mean, had Kevin freaked out about being positive and that was rumor, it would have made sense. Being a teacher and a frequent supported of gay rights, is he not aware of precautions that positive people take these days? Is he not aware that you will have to be really really stupid to get AIDS in these times? HIV and AIDS being used in the same context really didn't go down well with me. Also, he has barely ben dating Gao for a couple of months before they randomly move in. That seemed pretty sudden to me, without showing us the evolution of their relationship. Some interesting facts about school administration asking him to not be so open about his sexuality was new and something I wasn't aware of. Also, why were students forever making fun of him? How did they know he is gay? Or was he just a bad teacher, who would have been bullied by students regardless. 

I mean, its not a bad film per se, which you may think after all these negatives I have written, but this film could have been so much more had the makers made some informed changes to the script and dealt it with more respect and detailing that subjects like this deserves. (5/10)
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Comments

luigi43 said…
At least some hot bodies !The opening show with the ballet is an homage to a Taiwanese artist dead of AIDS 32 years old . The story , the acting is exactly what we expect from a " western " movie. The ending is just a " restart" . I appreciated this movie actually , not loved. My empathy is just because Taiwan is the only Country in continent Asia with equal marriage ( May 24 2019).
March 25, 2021 at 4:23 PM
Golu said…
I hope rest of the Asian countries and world follow the suit soon.
March 26, 2021 at 9:31 AM
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