Skip to main content

Bathhouse (Filipino)

Every single gay man is familiar with Bathhouses. They may or may not have visited one, but they know of it. The bathhouse - a place where gay men can go to relax, kick off their shoes (and clothes) and enjoy each other's company. The idea of this film is to take you into this world of towel clad men, back room sex and the search for that ever elusive perfect boyfriend (don't ask why anyone would think of getting a boyfriend here).

We are introduced to a famous Bathhouse and its patrons. Genesis owns and runs the club and makes sure only the good looking guys become members. Every year, one person is also chosen to be "the guy" who gets to enjoy everything for free. This guy is the hunky Kris, who everyone wants to sleep with and he gets to choose or reject. We then meet a young college boy Rico who is just discovering his sexuality and ends up joining the club when he is invited by Kris who sees him on a bus one day. Rico is clear that he wants only monogamy and falls for Kris. Kris enjoys this for a short while but soon enough he wants to go around sleeping with as many men as possible. Rico manages to find another suitor, who is supposedly straight and has a girlfriend and makes an arrangement with Rico, but when Rico sees him with other men, he realizes that monogamy may not really be possible. Eventually Rico starts coming out of his shelter , and as Kris is getting older, not as many men are interested in him anymore. He gives his special position to Rico to take over as he decides to retire from the bathhouse life.

The film is totally random and is hot in a very guerrilla style. In between many shots, we see intercepts and images of some real life people met through newspaper ads or parks or telephone (all in the times of pre internet dating). The script needs major overhauling. I understand Rico wants a monogamous relationship and since this is pre internet era, but why would any sane person think that bathhouse is a place where he would find love. Sure, he is young and native but the thought is a bit odd. Although having said this, a gay couple friend of mine who have been together for over 20 years in a monogamous relationship actually met in a bathhouse, but they in no way were regular visitors. They just ended up being there on the same day and was more like destiny. Also, where is Rico and others getting money from to visit a bathhouse everyday. These things are not cheap. I guess the idea of the film is to show that you do not know where life's journey will take you. In this case, it is upto Rico to decide whether his chance meeting with Kris was good or bad. Bad because he is the one who broke his heart, but good because it ended up helping Rico grow up and become a man. The film is very ordinary, basic and nothing really to talk about. Either from an eye candy or direction perspective. There are many other better films to watch. (4/10)

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,