A little rain inside me, a little pain inside me. A little dose of mellowness to compromise the life, in a precise amount.

-Self-Quote-

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Bangkok Love Story





Lets skip the lousy plot, first. Lets skip the lame action, second. Lets talk about the gay thing, third.

This movie - oh, you must have already watched it long before I wrote this, so lets skip that 'don't give me the spoiler' or 'you are so ancient-history' things - reminds me a lot about eternal summer. Everything resembles, and creates the same stereotype. The same tone, the same cinematography, same lousy plot - they're all so typical. I mean, I havent even once in my life seen a not-so-stereotypical-gay-movie. Well, there might be some - I havent watched Milk or Save Me, or oh-you-name-it, but it's all sad. Sad and sad. It's like pointing implicitly that being gay is doomed to be sad and tragic, forever. Is that so? You tell me.

I like the opening narrative -you can read it at my previous post. I like the story the narrator tried to set: A killer who's also gay, living in a situation where poverty hit him so hard, with a sick mother and brother. He's not pretty at all - thin and gloomy, and since most of the time he's shirtless, you cant really tell his fashion taste. Yes, that guy, Cloud, is very different from our picture about flamboyant things. That gays don't always look fabs even when they want to. Cloud's life was already hard, but the plot wasnt that good that it didnt capture all of this hardship. There were still a few room to explore, but the director managed not to give a damn about it.

He captured Shi (cute! see the pictures above! it's him), and later Shi, not him, fell in love with Cloud. For a reason I dont even know why. But that's the truth, isn't it? To fall in love without even a reason. He was married, and the marriage was only a cover story. Shi's first boyfriend even couldnt make him out of the closet. Cloud did. He even left everything behind, just to be with Cloud; even when Cloud's rejecting him, denying him and himself. He stayed. He stayed till the end. That's love. You dont run away from that. You dont hide from that.

I know, maybe some of you would then start thinking that it's only movie; in reality, it would be so dumb to do what Shi had done. Yeah, go ahead, and tell me that I am a dreamer. Whatever. Because I know, it'll be a hell lot easier when we stop believing such things. It'll be less painful and less dumb when we do things with no-string-attached. Shi might not exist, and I might be getting carried away. But I wanna be that kind of a man like Shi. Not just some cry-baby who walks away because the man of his dream isn't the same as the man who is standing right in front of him.

Still, it's lousy. The movie is lousy. Although I like how the director's trying to capture the beauty of Thailand, although Shi is said to be not the typically Thai boy, and although there're so many paradox living in the movie. No, not because Shi became blind, or Cloud died. No, not that.

It's how Shi became blind, and how Cloud died. It's not elegant. It's very annoying. It's very cheap. Or picisan, in Bahasa. You could have him died, and blind, but not in that way.

One thing I really learn from this movie, PLEASE DO SAFE SEX.
Love is not the same as fuc*ing him without using any safe things.
Love is not the same as you letting him fuc* you without any safe things.




2 punches:

Anonymous said...

Ummm, aku belum pernah nonton Bangkok Love Story, Ed. But I agree with the last point

menjadimanusia said...

Hmmm this is a very nice writing... one of the best you've ever done... dan memang mengingatkan kalau kita seringkali lebih memilih tidak percaya karna dengan percaya... kita menghadapi lebih banyak rasa sakit...

Cheers