A chance encounter, the love desire of two elderly comrades in the deep cabinet began to sprout, is it to follow the heart, abandon the family and business, two people who love each other together? Or continue to bury this feeling deeply?
Inner desire and social tradition are constantly competing in the hearts of two elderly comrades, how should they choose?
【01】
The film "Uncle Uncle" is a new work by director Yang Yaokai, which beat the 52 Hong Kong films competed together and won the "Best Film Award" at the 26th Hong Kong Film Critics Circle Awards. And strongly selected for the Berlin Film Festival, Busan Film Festival, won this year's Golden Horse Awards "Best Feature Film" and other nine awards nominations.
The film was inspired by the social survey of the Department of Sociology of the University of Hong Kong, "The Biography of Men and Men: Oral History of Older Gay Men in Hong Kong". In the film, the director focuses on the love story of two married elderly male comrades in their later years, telling the real life of "comrades in their twilight years and endless desires".
Seventy-year-old taxi driver Abo and sixty-five-year-old Ah Hai are gay men who have been hiding in the cupboard for many years.
What makes them proud is the family they have worked hard to build, and the children and grandchildren are on their knees, and in the eyes of others, they are the model of the traditional happy family of the previous generation of Hong Kong people who are diligent and upward.
The two old men, Ah Bai and Ah Hai, who have entered their twilight years, never thought that they would be able to meet each other in the last part of their lives.
However, the collision of emotions and desires has caused the two elderly people to fall into the shackles of traditional moral pressure and family responsibility.
All along, in today's mainstream society, gay movies are different in the minds of the public, and in Chinese films, gay themes are even fewer.
In the same genre, unlike the youthful exuberance of young comrades, with youthful restlessness and righteousness, "Uncle Uncle" is a bold film that pushes the camera to a more marginal group - married elderly homosexuals.
Under such a label, every word is a lightning point that can trigger controversy. But under this bold issue, the film "Uncle Uncle" is not preachy.
As film scholar Lu Haoping said: "This film focuses on the men in the deep cabinet of the twilight years, not only intimately and gently gazing at the lonely souls trapped in the traditional system, but also being able to sincerely face the difficult problem of 'family value'." ”
In other words, two old men performed the most delicate and moving romance film of the year. The lives of Abo and Ahai are awkward, painful and unspeakable, and they are like beasts of lust, fighting in hidden depths.
【02】
In terms of narrative style, the overall style of the film "Uncle Uncle" is biased towards the realism of life. The director places the background of the story in a Chinese-style family, adding a heavier shackle and shackle to the already difficult topic.
The overall tone of the film is plain and natural, with a strong pyrotechnic atmosphere of ordinary Hong Kong citizens' life, but the inner world of the characters has experienced a painful process of thousands of twists and turns, under the mask of simple life is the forbearance of old age life, and the silent resistance of comradehood.
The interweaving of emotion and lust is an indispensable part of the story in the film, and what prompted Abo and Ahai to meet for the first time was not social media, nor was it a matchmaking between the two by the do-gooders, but based on a primitive desire and impulse.
After two meetings, Abo and Ah Hai had a relationship in the sauna where gay men often visit.
As a common place for gay lust interaction, the sauna has a special significance in the movie "Uncle Uncle".
From a plot point of view, it not only explains the environment in which the story takes place, but also significantly changes in the relationship between the characters here. The relationship between Abo and Ahai is like the key sign marked with the number "57, 59", closely related and sublimated.
Several of the film's erotic scenes unfold generously and counter-objectively challenge the audience's gaze.
On the bed in the sauna, the two cowered and panicked like street rats exposed to the sun, cheap sky blue plastic mattresses, dirt in the cracks of the tiles, and rust on the surface of the shower, echoing the two men's decadent bodies.
In people's traditional understanding, "sauna" means wet, narrow, dark, ambiguous, reflecting the "invisible" living environment of gay feelings.
"In the last century, due to secular pressure and traditional ideas, most gay men will choose to marry and have children. Public toilets, parks at night, saunas, are places where they hide their families from their lonely time. Sociologist Li Yinhe wrote in her book Gay Subculture.
The Ah Bai and Ah Hai in the movie are exactly like this, cautious, but they can't resist the fervent desire that comes out of their hearts.
【03】
Purely narrating a short period of "unrequited love" is obviously not the deep purpose of the movie "Uncle Uncle", in the film, the tension between lust and the families of Abo and Ahai is equally interesting.
In addition to the beauty of the film narrative and the sincere and moving style, what is even more valuable is that the film "Uncle Uncle" is both factual and faithfully reflects the complex relationship between gay men and traditional family values in Chinese society.
In the movie, Ah Bo and Ah Hai are complex and multi-faceted beings in their respective families, and they both use and even consolidate and promote in the family, and they also yearn to break free.
Coincidentally, love, family, and desire are the main motifs of the movie "Uncle Uncle", and perhaps love and desire cannot be separated from the influence of the family.
Through film portrayal, the director strives to present the complex situation faced by the elderly comrades in Hong Kong, who are gradually separated from the mainstream society. At the same time, the film delicately explores the embodiment of the film's motif in society with powerful brushstrokes, which is thought-provoking.
When the love and desire of the older generation of homosexuals conflict with real life, how do they choose and choose? When they miss their youth in a harsher society, miss the courage to rebel, and miss the opportunity to explore themselves, how should they deal with themselves?
In the film, Abo decides to cheat on his wife and go to live in Ah Hai's house for a few days. In those days, they finally gained real freedom relative to the sauna.
Visit the vegetable market together, stir-fry and eat together, at that moment, put aside all worldly eyes, and the shackles of the family, unload all the burdens, and seriously appreciate your own life. They are like light and shadow in the dust.
At the end of the film, Abo and Ah Hai sit on the beach, and Ah Hai says, "After taking the cross, you can find each other after death." Ah Hai spoke like a fairy tale that had nothing to do with each other.
He looked at the sea, if nothing happened, it seemed that the clouds were light and the wind was light, but in fact, he was waiting for the response of the person he wanted.
In the final scene of the film, Abel returns the cross to Ahai, and the story ends abruptly after Abel walks into the church.
Can love and lust be strong enough to dispel the haze of tradition? We don't know.
The prosperity is all about. Although "Uncle Uncle" is only a short film, it condenses the Hong Kong of an era, compresses the reasonable desires of a group for thousands of years, presents the stories of living elderly homosexuals on one screen, and links the scars of an era.
They are destined to be the tragedy of the times, but this love has an unimaginable dimension.
Text/Wing Enchen
The illustrations are derived from the network
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