The Ambiguous Focus

I just saw this movie on YT and was pleasantly surprised by the high quality of both the story and cinematography. This is not your typical BL movie with fluffy, hilarious, or angsty scenes about teenage love. Right from the start the viewer is pulled into confronting, mature scenes about gay men trying to maintain a relationship after they became a couple.

The male leads, Nan and Zhen, know each other since school, their coming of age story can be seen in the prequel Kinematics Theory (2018). Both males are introverts, one is highly intelligent, highly sensitive, struggling to become a writer, the other is a good looking sporty guy who earns a living for both of them combining an office job with housekeeping. Just like the title of this movie their story is told, and filmed in a cryptic way, with different points of view from both men alternately, using a voice over, and complemented by comments of their friends.

Plot: Nan and Zhen are nearing their 10th anniversary together, Nan is secretly saving money to buy a new apartment for them which makes him vulnerable for a rich guy named Jimmy who likes to bribe and sabotage Nan into a relationship with himself. Suddenly Nan's father must be hospitalized and from that moment on Nan's lot spells disaster, forcing him to make rash promises and decisions that have a huge impact on his partner Zhen, and his own future with Zhen.

Pros: I've read a lot of comments on the sadness of this movie, or the quality of acting, but I don't see it that way. First, the story has an open ending, second the actors were eye candy, their acting above average even natural at times, third, I found the story beautifully told, not overly dramatic... although living in a homophobe world is dramatic enough as shown in the side stories of gay friends who aren't living on cloud nine either. The scope is on relationships, and questions about love. "Do I really love this person, or do I love it that he needs me, and I need him? Do I love him so much that I can withstand other alluring people?"

Cons: Misunderstandings are needed in a script to give a boost to a story, but I hate it, personally. A lot of grief could have been avoided if the characters would speak their minds, not only in voice overs. Further I disliked the passiveness of Zhen's character, but again, that's personal taste.

Verdict: This movie reminded me somehow of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest". It shows people are busy with image building and pleasing others, but in the end it all comes down to our lifetime search for identity and self-invention to make relationships work. Go watch it!

I watched this series with low expectations, I just thought it would be another cliché BL story. It surprisingly turned out to be more than this. Lee-Fong Huang and John Wu deliver an amazing acting, as a couple who discover that in spite of the very deep feelings they have for each other, many other important components are missing from their relationship. External forces gradually drive them to separation, at first as excuses to overcome, and later as means of realizing the deeper lying problems. What the story is about is their struggle to cope with reality and to patch things up with each other but primarily with themselves. No easy task...

The plot is mesmerizing and most viewers will identify themselves with one of the two guys. Mind though, that at a second glance many questions remain unanswered (whether deliberately or accidentally, I cannot tell). The heroes' actions are not always intuitive (not to say erratic), especially from a western society's point of view. There is also a constant underlying depressive ambience throughout all six episodes, which, although aesthetically superb, becomes tiring. In any case one must bear in mind that this is a different culture with different values and priorities.

Watch it at your own risk, certainly not if you are feeling down. It will give you food for thought, but it will either draw you to a swirl of emotions leaving little place for your mind to work, or you will simply get bored from the onset.