"Uncle Uncle" is a drama film directed by Yang Yaokai and starring Tai Bao and Yuan Fuhua, which is adapted from Jiang Shaoqi's book "The Biography of a Man and a Man", which tells the story of two gay old men who have been hiding in the cabinet for many years and hover between love and responsibility after meeting each other.
Although the film is a same-sex theme, the protagonist is not a young man full of hormones, but two old people who are no longer young, their skin has long been loose, and even they have walked on the last part of their lives, but it is between these two old people that the story has happened.
One of the protagonists in the film, Bai, is a taxi driver, although he is nearly 70 years old, but he has not yet retired, he has a happy family in his twilight years, his children are filial piety, his wife is virtuous, and his daily life is to pick up his little granddaughter to and from school, help his family cook, it seems to be the life that an ordinary old man should have. However, the difference is that Bai is actually a gay who sometimes goes to gay-infested public toilets to find a partner, and also meets another protagonist, Hai, in the park next to the public toilet.
Hai, who has retired at the age of 65, is different from Bai, hai has divorced his wife and lives with his son's family, but because of Hai's "identity", his relationship with his son is not harmonious, which also makes Hai feel lonely. After the two met, they naturally discovered each other's identity of the same kind, and then Hai took Bai to the sauna where the male gay often went, and the two had a relationship, the plot director here filmed very restrained, but very warm, we know that these are two bodies that are no longer young, but in this scene we see two hidden secrets, tired people in a long time in disguise in a moment of breathing and hugging each other to warm up.
And leaving the sauna, the two are once again burdened with their respective family life, Bai is still an ordinary person in that trivial family life, and in contrast, Hai's identity is more transparent, although he can't "come out" with his family, but Hai still has friends in the circle, some of these same old comrades are unwilling to live in the cupboard, some are different because of the exposure of comradehood, they all hope to fight for the rights and interests of comrades, and want to establish a gay nursing home.
When Hai and Bai get along more and more, and the feelings between the two deepen, Hai invites Bai to his home, and Bai decides to go to Hai's house after tangling, at this time Bai finally gains the true meaning of freedom relative to the sauna. The days of visiting the market and cooking together were full of warmth, they briefly abandoned the worldly vision, their own responsibilities, and full of vision of a free and beautiful life.
But they have gone through a long life, in the end still have to face the reality, Bo in the daughter's wedding, the wife even know but endure the company, or decided to hide his comradehood, he finally chose to return to the regular family, pushed away the sea, he gave the sea to his cross necklace, this of their gay identity of the explicit and emotional sustenance back to the sea, he denied the relationship, but also rejected his identity.
And the sea, when the sea looks at the video of his friend speaking for the elderly comrade in the film, the son asks him to be quieter, and the little light left in the sea room slowly extinguishes, which may be like the identity of the sea, which can never go under the sun.
This is not a film that will be popular with the public, and some people may even think that this is a film with three views, but I think it is just a rare film. The film uses a gentle and restrained approach to focus the camera on the elderly gay group, who live an ordinary and ordinary life, but underneath this is the silent resistance of gay identity and the hidden tolerance of the elderly group. Even if this is not a very pleasing subject, it is a very meaningful film, which also allows us to understand the survival dilemma of this group.