L'enfer d'Ethan

This film tells the story of a closeted Chinese American teenager, who is discovered by his step-mother that he is in possession of a gay magazine. His father throws him out and disowns him, and he has to turn to desperate measures just to survive.

I am impressed by "Ethan Mao" because it is different from other gay films. First, it explores the cultural shackles of being gay in a Chinese family, which is really touching. Secondly, it is almost a gay crime thriller which is very unusual! Third, sex is not needed to sell this film. There is only one kissing scene in the whole film, and that is it! The film is intense and touching, and I cried at the end. I really enjoyed watching "Ethan Mao".

I was a little skeptical about this film before the screening at "The 23rd San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival," because there are so many films have been marketed with buzz words to gain certain crowd of audience. So I am not sure what I would see in a "gay Asian thriller." Well, it turns out, the movie totally exceeded my expectation. It made me laugh, as well as it made me cry.

Eighteen years old Ethan Mao is a hustler because he was kicked out of the house for being gay. He met Remigio on the street and they become good friends. On Thanksgiving Day, they go back to Ethan's house to get his birth mom's necklace while the family is gone. However, Ethan's family returns unexpectedly and the event rolls into a suspensive hostage situation.

It could have been easily a formula movie with cliché dialogue for a setup like that. However, with the direction of Quentin Lee and impressive performance of the casts, the film is very engaging and articulate throughout. It's touching and moving sometimes, with humor and campiness. Quentin Lee didn't make a gay film, nor an Asian film. He made a film about his characters, and Ethan is happened to be gay and Chinese. The more I know about Ethan, the more I sympathize and care about him. I also deeply moved by the friendship and dedication from Remigio toward Ethan. However, the movie never really explained (successfully) why Remigio is so kind to Ethan from day one. Sometimes, the story is not very convincing. For example, why does the necklace has to be placed in a safe deposit box if nobody in the family seem to care about it except Nathan? If I was in a situation like Nathan is, I would try to get away from the house as soon as I can, even that means leaving without the necklace, but Nathan chose otherwise. Fortunately, the film creates a few interesting characters, including Ethan's step mom, who stole so many scenes in the film.

With weakness of the plot, Ethan Mao is a terrific film. Or should I say, a terrific gay Asian film? Nah. Being gay and Asian is not what the movie is about, leave that to Ethan.

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

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.

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.