Qingse ditu

Without reading anything about it I chanced on this hoping for something erotic. That was far from what actually unveiled. A long haired Chinese is in search for love and makes a biography of his search and what a boring dread it is.

By far this is the worst movie I have seen on a film festival, nothing happens and nothing is interesting in the least bit, some mentions poetic, I see just this boring long haired dude going on about his life and how his search is difficult. It's too personal to be interesting I think.

The only thing that kept me from walking out is that I at that time insisted on sitting every movie to the end.

I just picked this up from Chinatown today. Well, since i came out, being an asian in a western world, i have an interest in seeing gay Asian movies and collect them as the same time. There seems to be far and few in between or perhaps movies in Australia is not as diverse as life here. The movie started very slow, and i thought in the begining the slow frame actually disinterested me somewhat, but the more i see it the more i like the movie. I guess this movie will not be everybody taste, rightly so i dont think the director has that in his vision. It is a very Asian movie, I mean that in a good way, and very symbolic. The movie feels like a beautiful poem, very poignant full of metaphors about life in general and in particularly gay. Perhaps that is why i like this movie so much because my passion is writing poetry. I love the moving sound-track, giving me inspiration to compose a poem on the spot. i guess the first quarter is kind of lost to me.It was a bit painfully slow (This movie reminded me of "kitchen" another fine Asian movie). It is only started to pick up when the main character's lives were weaved together. i do love the movie on the whole and would recommended this for the intellect.

Cute foreign film, with excellent subtitles. Lots of subplots, which kind of took away from the main plot(s). There are so many issues being covered, I wasn't quite sure which one WAS the main plot. Lots of freeze frame and slow motion, so this would have been a tighter story if they dropped some of the sub plots and, and about an hour of footage. Currently showing on the FilmRise Channel, and every six minutes, they stop for two commercials, which added to the frustration. Fine acting by our three leads --Cheri Ho(Mimi), Victor Ma (Larry), and Bernardo Chow (Wei Ming). This was the first or second role for all of them. Wei Ming is a film-maker, researching the approaching installment of Disney at Hong Kong. Larry has an "encounter" with Wei Ming, and is Mimi's neighbor. They all meet in a moment of awkwardness, but soon become friends. SO many topics being covered in here -- coming out, parental health issues, guilt from child hood actions, depression, open relationships vs. monogamy, Disnification of China, travels in Macau and Belgrade, and many more. I think the story would have been more solid if they had cut out about an hour, as well as about half of the "issues" they try to cover. Good story if you stick with it. Written AND directed by Evans Chan, who has been making films since the early 1990s, some of it documentary work. Fun to watch if you have the patience. Looks like this is now available on Region 1 DVD from WaterBearer Films.

A ruthless editor would have done the film far more justice as it was really much longer than was needed to get the story across. Not wanting to give anything away, I have to say that the angle on Nazi gold (this comes up halfway through the film) seems totally out of context to the exploration of a part of the Hong Kong homosexual lifestyle. Although the story tries to put justification to it, I'm really not convinced - but then, maybe I just didn't get it. The acting left a lot to be desired, but they were apparently amateurs and so hence the result. It was particularly embarrassing when Cheri Ho delivered a long monologue that would have been difficult for the most seasoned actor to play. The director was really asking too much from the talent. There were rare clever comical moments that raised some laughter and appreciation from the audience, and I was impressed with what can be achieved using a DV Camera, so my hat off to the cinematographer.