June is Pride Month, the month that was established to promote LGBT rights and celebrate that same community. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in 1969, which most agree was the start of the gay rights movement in the United States. There are various events happening in New York City, the home of Stonewall, to commemorate the anniversary. Some of those events include film screenings. The golden anniversary has made me want to spotlight queer films or television programs that have recently been released within the past year. Prior to Pride Month 2019, there have been several titles for which I've already written reviews that are notable. They include
Pose on FX,
Alex Strangelove,
TransMilitary,
Evening Shadows,
We Are Thr3e,
Sorry Angel,
Special,
Booksmart and
Rocketman.
In preparation for Pride Month though, I recently watched four films that were all about gay Asians. When it comes to films about queer people from the east, Ang Lee's
The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Wong Kar-wai's
Happy Together (1997) still stand as two of the best in that regard. I've also enjoyed the works of Ray Yeung, including
Cut Sleeve Boys (2007) and
Front Cover (2016). These four, which were all made available online this year, all represent an interesting range of stories about gay people and their families. Each is about a gay person reckoning his identity to either his parent or his child. It felt like I should connect them and analyze the differences or variations.
To check out the other three gay Asian films that I'm linking together, check out the reviews for
All in My Family by Hao Wu from China,
The Third Party by Jason Paul Laxamana from the Phillippines and
Dear Ex by Kidding Hsu & Mag Hsu from Taiwan.
Tanuj Bhramar had this film premiere and play in India back in 2016. It's essentially a road trip film. A man decides to drive his young teenage son on what turns out to be a two-day journey from their home to boarding school or what's called a hostel. In terms of tone and even cinematography, Bhramar's film is similar to
Evening Shadows, but
Evening Shadows did have slightly more interesting camera shots.
Evening Shadows was about the relationship between a mother and child and it was about a child having to tell his parent that he's gay. Here, things are slightly reversed.
Arvind Swamy stars as Nitin Swaminathan, a man with a secret that he has to share with his son. He gets up from bed in his home. His wife is already awake and making breakfast. He has to get ready to drive his son to hostel. Everything seems normal. All the while, he seems a bit nervous. The car ride with his son at first feels a little awkward. He obviously can't muster the words or the courage to tell his son his secret.
Himanshu Sharma co-stars as Shivam Swaminathan, the aforementioned son to Nitin. He's the typical teenage boy, probably only 13 or 14. He's into video games and sports. He's into the sport of cricket in particular. He'd rather stare at his phone though than have a conversation with his father. He'd also rather hang out with a reality TV star whom they meet at a café during the road trip. When he does learn his dad's secret, it's revealed that Shivam is quite homophobic, thinking that his father has an illness that needs to be cured.
Aman Uppal also co-stars as Aditya Taneja, the reality TV star whom Shivam is a fan. He's hitchhiking across India by himself. He tags along with Nitin and Shivam on the road trip unaware of what's going on. He makes for a good middle-man between the father and son. In various ways, he helps to bridge the gap between them. He feels the homphobia but also helps to ease it.
The question becomes how far will Shivam's homophobia take him before he accepts his dad or not. This film doesn't generate the kind of dramatics and even conflicts of
Evening Shadows. The parent and child here aren't as confrontational as the parent and child in
Evening Shadows. It doesn't have the two yelling and screaming at each other, but there was more dialogue between them. The father and son here don't have that kind of dialogue. Given the age of the child, it's more about the father just being there in moments of need.
Rated TV-14.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 23 mins.
Available on Netflix.
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