Skip to main content

The Male Gaze: Nocturnal Instincts

Collection of five short films set mostly in the darkness of the night. They delve into heart-pumping escapades varying from the intensely erotic to the ultra-violent to the warm-inside feels. The night has never looked so inviting. Of the 5 films here, I had already seen 2 before and reviewed.

Spiral (Sweden)
Two hours before Karim and Dan are going on a trip to Argentina, Dan leaves their apartment and disappears without any trace. Karim, suspecting that Dan has been gone too long, must dive into the underbelly of nightlife in Malmö in order to find Dan.This film is about obsession, sadism and the weird end of the male gaze. Very odd and weird film.

Floating Melon (China)
Two gay men make passionate love in a flat, aided by drugs. After waking up host finds the other guy presumably dead. The left-alive guy turns to two female friends for help, and a few further events take place, leaving us at the finale with a what-the-fuck? moment of a not-quite-complete-visual of which to make sense. Decent start but the idea wasn't very clear.

Poof (UK)
Aaron, a young farm lad meets older man Mike and they get together after sending some time with each other. This doesn't please his dad at all. Eventually, he abandons Mike because he cannot tell his dad that he is, after all – a poof. This sort of tragedy is acted in any number of towns all over the world, never mind Britain, and makes the film worth viewing for that.

Passée l'aube (Belgium/Poland) [After Dawn]
A Polish man has not completely come to terms with his sexuality. So when his fling from Brussels shows up at his door unannounced, he is terrified that his gayness will be discovered. The guy freaks out and asks the friend to leave. Better sense prevails and at night a night of passion follows which soon turns dangerous. Great performances here.

Night of Love (Israel)
This has been reviewed before. When Yonathan gets dumped by his boyfriend, he needs to find a place to stay for the night and viola, he finds an orgy in progress. There he catches the attention of Saïd, an older Christian, Palestinian, gay man. On his way back on the train, Yonathan catches the gaze of a very dignified, old lady opposite him. His gaze is severe, masculine and very military. She exudes wisdom and understanding. Eventually they both break into a smile, looking at each other. This is a film about kindness, how difference can surmount appearances if people will only meet each other as they are.

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,