This film by Ming-Lang Chen was nominated last year for two Golden Horse Awards, which are Taiwan's equivalent to the Oscars. It even won one of those prizes. The fact that this film was nominated and even won such a prestigious award is indicative of how gay-friendly Taiwan is. In fact, Taiwan is regarded as one of the most progressive and most liberal countries in Asia, certainly in terms of its gay rights, outside of Israel. At last year's Oscars, the 92nd Academy Awards, Taiwan submitted
Dear Ex (2019) for Best International Feature.
Dear Ex was a gay film about a son meeting his father's male lover. For the 66th Academy Awards, Taiwan submitted Ang Lee's
The Wedding Banquet (1993), a gay film about a lavender marriage. Lee, a Taiwanese filmmaker, would win an Oscar for Best Director for
Brokeback Mountain (2005), one of the most successful gay films ever.
However, as liberal as Taiwan is, its first LGBTQ pride parade wasn't until 2003 and it wasn't until May 2019 that same-sex marriage was legalized. Same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States in 2015, so while the country is slightly behind America and still has its issues, it's now relatively on par with the U.S. Yet, what Ming-Ling Chen wants to convey here is that while progress has been made, there is still discrimination and bigotry that people in the LGBTQ community face.
Oscar Chiu who was nominated for one of those Golden Horse Awards stars as Kevin Chang, a civics teacher at a high school. He's very young. He looks as though he's only in his mid 20's. Yet, he's the teacher to a group of high school students. When he's not in class, giving lessons or lectures, he's living a rather openly gay life. He goes to bathhouses or saunas to have random, anonymous sex. He marches in the pride parades. He also lives with his mother who knows he's gay and is accepting of it. The only wrinkle is that he's not out at his job. He hasn't told anyone at his school, particularly his boss, Director Lin, that he's gay. He keeps his work life separate from his personal life.
Things change when Kevin meets an older man with whom he starts dating. He perhaps could keep his private life separate and a bit secret when he was having anonymous hook-ups, but, having a regular boyfriend starts to bring his personal life out from under the shadows and into the light for people in the public to see. This might not necessarily be a problem until a rumor starts to spread around his school and then around town that Kevin either is HIV-positive or that he has outright AIDS. This exposes the stigma that persists, not only from within the LGBTQ community but outside of it as well, including possible job discrimination and job loss. This film, therefore, stands as a stark reminder that despite advances, there's still work to do with regard to discrimination and bigotry against gay men.
Sam Chang co-stars as Jin-Wu Gao, the boyfriend to Kevin. He's an older man, probably in his late 30's or early 40's. He's a businessman who runs his family's business, a factory. He's the reason that the rumor about Kevin having AIDS starts. Gao reveals himself to be HIV-positive, but he doesn't tell Kevin until a while after they've dated and had sex. The dynamic and the fallout from this are interesting things that this film brings up. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the film fully fleshes it out to a satisfying degree.
This comes in particular to the revelation about Gao's ex-wife, played by Golden Horse Award-winner, Winnie Chang. She apparently works or is somehow involved with Gao's business. Even though Gao is having this affair with Kevin of which she's aware, she continues hanging around Gao, as if they're still together, and it's not clear as to why. In a scene that's supposed to provide some insight into her, Ming-Lang Chen doesn't even show her face. We get a scene of Gao's wife and Kevin talking at a restaurant table, but the camera only shows us Kevin, we never get the reverse angle to see the face of Gao's wife. The scene consists of a series of jump-cuts too that felt more jarring when I wanted more of a deeper look into Gao's wife.
It's not even clear if Gao's wife knows that Gao is HIV-positive. This is important for several reasons. Throughout her time in the film, the only thing she really pushes is having a baby and most likely having a baby with Gao. Yet, if she doesn't know that he's HIV-positive, then that's a glaring point of contention that this film ignores. I suppose that it could be argued that by the end of this film, that her perspective or knowledge doesn't really matter, as it's more about Kevin's reactions and feelings. However, Gao's wife being ignorant to his medical status or not was an unresolved sticking point that bothered me. Otherwise, the rest of the film is a rousing indictment against HIV stigmatization.
Wo De Ling Hun Shi Ai Zuo De
Not Rated but contains graphic nudity and sexual situations.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 31 mins.
Streamed on OutfestNow.
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