The Third Country (Mandarin)

This film would have been much better had it been a nice short film. The plot was nice but it just wasn't detailed enough to warn a full fledged feature film, also given how slow the film is. Granted, the scenery and filming locations are gorgeous, but its a paper thin plot with a tragic end. Thankfully its just about an hour long.

A young boy Lin Qingyu arrives to a small town in mountains. We find that he is trying to avoid facing death of his father. He soon realizes that he left his wallet in the bus. Unexpectedly, he gets hired by A Ren, the local village lad for him to teach small students in his village. A Ren is also a lonely man an every much loved in the village. Two lonely hearts soon get attracted to one another. But Teacher Li eventually ants to move out of the village taking A Ren with him and the latter categorically refuses to leave the village. When the village people find out about this, Lin Qingyu is asked to leave the village, leaving almost no choice for A Ren to choose between love and tradition. Another story which again deals with a tragic ending.

The romance between the two extremely gorgeous men was too hushed. There was no build up or flirtation. Except for an awkward, hey let me message your back and you massage mine, leading to kiss and sex; was just so odd and weird that to when its freezing outside. The village is a small knit community so you understand there reservations against a gay couple but there was no explanation given as to why A Ren's friend was so against Lin. The plot was just not convincing to me as an audience. The only good thing about the film was the gorgeous landscapes which makes you want to travel and explore nature, but besides that nothing really. Romanticizing suicide as the end is not something I vouch for and I would not wanna see that on screens more. The reference to the movie title is to an imaginary place or country where anyone can be themselves and live in love happily (Probably heaven or after life). Strictly ok. The only way to watch this film is in a fast forward mode. (3/10)

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