Skip to main content

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)
Labels:

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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

By Golu
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...
5 comments
Read more

Sei no Gekiyaku (Japanese) [Dangerous Drugs of Sex]

By Golu
Every person has their own unique way of dealing with loss. This film is as much a psychological thriller as it is a soft porn BDSM portrayal of two young men that makes the film overall horrifying as well as humane. It is really hard to describe the genre of this film in one word. Its important not that the film has some really disturbing scenes so if you go into seeing this film, please proceed with caution. Although any sexual non-consensual activity is not ok, this film has its won strange way of showing that suicide is not the only solution to all life's problems. Makoto is a regular office goer, who just finds out that his girlfriend is probably cheating on him. ON top of it, his parents sudden death coming back from a trip that he forced them to take, he gets completely dejected and decides to commit suicide. Unknown to him, he is saved by mysterious man Yoda Ryoji, and he wakes up finding himself tied up in leather and belts in a very BDSM setting. This mysterious saver soo...
3 comments
Read more

One Summer Night (Korean)

By Golu
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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more