Ethan Mao

i thought that this is just one of those low budget gay films with some nudity and weak stories. It was better than I expected.

It is clear that it had a low budget, that is why it didn't have much music in it,(if it had any, I certainly didn't get any impression), and the film visual quality is low. They did not use colored filter in front the lens, either. so it feels more like a TV show, instead of a film that you watch on big screen.

Sometimes, i felt that those people were acting, but not living in real life. It could be due to lack of music, or they were limited inside a house for a long time.

however, the story is not bad. Most gay films in the USA are about white males, this is a very rare film centered around an Asian gay male. When was the last time, so many Asian males all appeared in one film? for that reason alone, i totally support these kind of films.

Saw this at the video store and thought I'd give it a try. Sounded like a good story and the cover looked good. That was it. The characters looked good, and the actor who played "Noel", was the most convincing, though he didn't have any heavy time in the movie. I find it really hard to give a movie a bad rating, but this is one, in a minute number, that gets it my book. As the movie went along I kept wanting it to get better but to no avail. Asthetically, it was good. The sound and lighting was good, but the acting in this film killed it for me. It was like watching a low grade soap opera. I just kept saying, "I can't believe they released this move like this". I paused several times out of sheer unbelief that the acting was that bad. There's so much I want to say but I'll just say this, everything else, for the most part, was good, it was the acting, as a final cut, that really did this film in.

If being multi-layered and multi-directional is a recent trend of the gay and lesbian cinema, Ehan Mao represents it very well; such a mainstream Hollywood format as a crime thriller frames such a specific argument as a struggle of gay Chinese-American boy Ethan Mao (Jun Hee Lee) against his family members. The excellence on the former must help the film to gain larger audience. The excellence on the latter is enhanced by the dynamics of his family members: successful and confident father, controlling step-mother who is a former actress, "good-boy" older step-brother, and gay-ish younger brother. Along with Ethan's lover Remigio (Jerry Hernandez), all characters are portrayed more or less positively--"feeling-better" may not be needed for this film's viewers; it may even reduce the film's intensity and may make the argument unclear.

One flashback sequence is inserted at a very precise moment, seemingly to confuse the audience--when Ethan and Remigio fall asleep while overseeing Ethan's family at night in the real world, a flashback of their waking up in their apartment appears. This makes the spectators wonder, at least for a moment, if what has been going on is Ethan's dream; if intentional, it is too gimmicky and unnecessary.

Quentin Lee is to be congratulated for taking on several controversial issues and blending them into a novel story that works on many levels. While many writers and directors of Indie gay films focus on the downtrodden, bleak, tragic aspect of young gay lads coming to grips with their lives, few have presented stories that emphasize an element of redemption based on courage to change those things that can be changed.

Ethan Mao (Jun Hee Lee) is an 18-year-old Chinese American boy who has been working (gratis) for his father Abe (Raymond Ma) all his life in their Chinese restaurant. One evening at closing time a young man enters the negligently unlocked door and robs Ethan's cash register at gunpoint. Abe enters form the back of the restaurant and kills the robber, much to Ethan's chagrin. This results in an angry confrontation (one of many in an Asian family where the children are supposed to always obey the parents). Ethan is still mourning the loss of his mother and loathes his stepmother Sarah (Julia Nickson-Soul), a would-be actress who married Abe for money, bringing along her own son Josh (Kevin Kleinberg), a bright young man of obvious mixed genetic pool. Ethan also has a younger brother Noel (David Tran) with whom he has a warm and strong bond. Sarah discovers a gay magazine in Ethan's room, shares this with Abe, and Abe throws Ethan out of his home for being gay and shaming his family.

Ethan, bitter, homeless and without money, begins a life a street hustler, accepting his passive sexual role with older johns as a means of income. Serendipitously he meets Remigio (Jerry Hernandez), a fellow hustler and minor drug dealer who understands the life of an orphan's loneliness, and befriends Ethan and offers him shelter and affection. Ethan decides to return to his home on Thanksgiving (knowing that his family always goes out of town on that day) to take his belongings and get some cash. Remigio accompanies him and what begins as a simple entry into Ethan's empty home results in disaster as his family returns for a forgotten gift. Ethan rages against them and decides to hold them hostage until morning when Abe can send Sarah to the bank to retrieve Ethan's mother's necklace - the only memento he has of her. The crux of the story is how this tangled 'family' comes to different levels of understanding under duress and how Ethan (through this dream vs reality incident) arrives at forgiveness and finds love with the ever-supportive Remigio.

The acting is mixed but the cast engages us and allows each character to morph into something better than we expect. Both Jun Hee Lee and Jerry Hernandez bring credibility to their roles and the result is a palpable relationship which touches the viewers' hearts. While there are rough spots in camera work, in script, and in production, this is a strong little Indie film with a lot to say, dealing with positive images and debunking old prejudicial thoughts about sectors of society miscegenating into the fabric that makes our population more tolerant. Grady Harp

I would say this is one of the best gay, Asian love stories ever made, but it isn't. It's just a great film whose lead characters happen to be gay hustlers. As their families have abandoned them, they have to use whatever is at hand to survive. At first, there seems to be no reason for their relationship, and the whole self sacrificing nature of Romeo seem too over the top. Only it soon becomes clear what is really going on. But the great strength of the film is it is about the effect parents violence and coldness affects children, often manifesting itself in dangerous and self destructive ways. At the end, realizing what a beautiful film the director had crafted, I would have to say it is one of the best independent gay American films ever made. But I have always been a sucker for a romance in disguise