Taekwondo

As a glass of clear sparkling champagne, this simple yet powerful movie left me lost after I finished watching it. Movie silently takes over you from the beginning. The plain setup of the movie where a bunch of friends meet for spending some casual happy time together at a countryside home. A group of long term buddies who regularly hangout and relax together on holidays.

It is a tale of two young men who became friends during their Taekwondo classes, German and Fernando.

German is a boy with dark hair, sharp features and a fit body. You fall in love with this character instantly. He is gay and he has come over to his Taekwondo training partner upon his invitation, Fernando. Fernando has grown with this bunch of friends and most of them are not aware of his sexual preference. Fernando is a character like a gentle cool breeze on a summer evening. A very humble person who has invited his old childhood friends to his parents lavish big house with all the amenities to relax; from swimming pools to tennis courts.

As expected of a summer time filled among friends. Random conversations between boys who are mostly moving about in house spending time casually in shorts or most of the times in colored underwear or barely anything. Your eyes go gaga on those gorgeous bulges and tight asses director has taken with such perfection for a gay themed movie. With lot of silent moments movie sinks into you and gives you time to feel what is happening between Fernando and German in midst of these random conversations. As a typical gay movie a lot of nude scenes which fit the simple screenplay are available for feasting your eyes.

Fernando and German can't hide their feelings for each other. Yet none of them take a stance to tell another. Air around them speaks louder than the dialogues. Subtle hints are dropped occasionally by both men to let the other know what is their orientation. They keep the relation hidden from other but it is not really hidden to couple of eyes in the group.

There is a strong yet very subtle connection between them. They goggle each other's willies when ever there is an occasion. A silent tale of love and passion stirs and moves through the entire plot But the chemistry and the acting is so natural that you can identify what a true gay guy goes through when he is surrounded by his heterosexual friends. Germán tries to keep it down and lay low but jerks off when he finds Fernando laying in his bed naked first thing when he gets up in the morning.

The movie shows the forward European culture in it's most plain form. The beauty of the movie lies in the fact that all the characters are given equal importance and the intensity of each character is emphasized which is stupendous if pulled without the help of hot steamy sex scenes for which director has done a good job. Though throughout the movie there is no physical thump-thump between the protagonists but this movie brings you at the brink of begging for a kiss between Fernando and German. At last when they finally kiss, it's the most lovable feeling a gay person can derive in this world. Pure, natural expression of love. A passionate kiss which tells how long both waited for this moment to come. Blush Blush.

It's a must watch for any person who has felt annoyed, uncomfortable being around straight friends who are there as friends but some part of you hides this feeling from them what you and partner speak in midst of them.

It was the film "The Blonde One" that led me to "Taekwondo." I was so taken by that film by Marco Berger, that I was eager to see another. Maybe I should have quite while I was ahead.

The Blonde One is a beautifully crafted film, with a strong plot, and superb acting - coupled with excellent direction and camera work.

Taekwondo didn't live up to my expectations at all. The movie is an hour and 48 minutes - but it easily felt like 3 hours. While there is certainly the eye-candy aspect to this film, with some great shots of some great looking guys, the movie seems s-l-o-w and nearly plotless.

Taekwondo is more like looking in on an adolescent vacation. Guys being guys without parental oversight.

There is some sexual ambiguity and tension between what I would call the two main characters - the owner of the house and his friend from Taekwondo. One might (or at least I did) expect that sooner or later SOMEthing will happen between them. But nothing does. Some interested glances here and there. Some almost-touching closeness. But it's always diffused, interrupted by someone walking in, or by a game that suddenly breaks out among the guys.

We watch the guys shower, swim, play tennis or kick a soccer ball around the tennis court. And the guys seem to sleep a lot. Maybe even they are bored by the lack of plot. They play hide-and-seek. And talk about their sexual conquests with the girls, or ruminate over fidelity, still unsure what their relationships with girls are supposed to look like. And now and again they conjecture on whether this or that one is gay.

The director keeps the film somewhat interesting with nice camera perspectives that often focus on a body part - like a crotch or butt. There are glimpses of bare butts and sometimes guys bare it all. But there's not enough story line to string it together, and the movie is ultimately pretty boring.

From the first scene I knew I would enjoy this movie. I loved Call Me By Your Name for how intimate and real the setting felt, which is certainly present in Taekwondo too. The long shots of different details of the house that the movie spends all its time in; the zoom ins on the little, habitual actions the characters take; the non-existent censorship that doesn't necessarily make certain scenes or shots crude, they are purely shown for what they are - they made it feel like I was there. The lack of structure in the storyline and the mundaneness of the characters' conversations and activities added to that feeling too.

However, it felt like this aspect of Taekwondo took over the majority of the movie, so much so that the actual genre that it's supposed to be was barely present. While Taekwondo is supposed to be a gay romance, there is no actual romance until the last minutes or so. What we do get feels like a blink in comparison to the entirety of the movie. I understand that the non-sexual intimacy between Fernando and Germán, the two main love interests, that we see right from the beginning is part of their romance, but it's just too little. Especially considering the fact that many people would come into this movie with the expectation of a gay love story.

I think the movie as it was was lovely and atmospheric, and I don't necessarily think there needed to be more romance, although it would have been nice. But perhaps the producers could have altered how Taekwondo was marketed, so that it didn't appear as a romance movie as much. That said I don't know the details of how marketing went about for Taekwondo because I found out about this movie on someone's watch list.

All in all though, if you like watching men without the toxic masculinity present and in all their glory, and if you simply want a movie to escape into, I'd recommend this. I would suggest to look for other movies however if you're particularly looking for gay romance.

If you want to appreciate male beauty then this is your canvas: the torso, the legs, the chest, the thighs; everything is here. This movie is about the art of capturing male beauty at its finest hue. It is slow-paced to make you absorb the beauty. Moments of silence really gives you the chance to absorb what the camera has captured.

As a film that touches on the male relations subject, I found it refreshing how it approached the theme from a non-stereotypical stance. It is about discovering, and getting comfortable with each other, from a minimal dialogue. It is about being present, there and then. This is what I applaud Marco and Martín for. It wasn't about filling the conversation but it was about giving the audience the chance to grow with the characters by appreciating them by getting to know them.

The men in this work of art are just breathtaking; the perfect dose for those who appreciate Latin men beauty. It is an Argentinean film so you really get what Argentina has to offer in terms its accent and its men: the Arab-looking, the Spanish-looking, the Italian-looking, the Swedish-looking, the Russian-looking. Everything!

In 2014 I thought and wrote of Berger's Hawaii... Berger's use of eroticism is a bit obvious in this. Perhaps because I've seen his moves before, they stand out as a bit contrived.

It seems for Taekwondo the only effort to stretch and evolve has been to up the ante of sexual tension with more men and more (much more) nudity. Again Berger shows us that eroticism is introduced by so much more than sex. Its still an animal notion of combined human attraction, contact and bond. The movie clings to his oft used narrative "will they or wont they" but here it felt reduced to teen angst. I recognized some effort to add questions of machismo, sexuality (as usual) and questions of the bonds of friendship. If you've seen Berger's wonderful "Plan B" or "Sexual Tension" "Absent" or "Hawaii" you've see most of the tricks and many of the shots also used in this movie as well as pacing, shot composition, and narrative exploration before, but in a better movie than this one.