the barefootbaklesa reviews: Virgin Snow [Hatsuyuki No Koi]

Watched this movie again the other day, just wanna share this one more time...




The Barefoot Baklesa Movie Review: Virgin Snow [Hatsuyuki no koi]
Direction: Han Sang-hee
Story and Screenplay: Han Sang-hee and Ban Kazuhiko
Release Date: November 2007

How long are you willing to wait for the one you love? How long can you keep a promise to the one you love? How long can you hold on to the hope that you and your love will find your way to each other again? In the cinematic style that I have come to expect of the Japanese slash Korean wave of films that I have seen these past few years, Virgin Snow presents a unique and well proportioned blend of plot elements that make up a romantic love story that defines the blossoming of a youthful love in places where the old and the new keep their fragile balance cradling the precious hope that love brings with it. [I have learned that there’s an alternative translation to the title in English, The First Snow of Love; more poetic, I think…]

The film begins when Kim Min [played by Korean actor Lee Joon-ki or Lee Jun-ki or Lee Jun-gi if you’re particular about spelling and phonemics] moves to Japan from Korea to follow his father who is a potter and ceramics artist by trade. While going around the city of Kyoto in his bike, Kim Min gets into an accident with a monk also riding a bike. He finds his way to a shrine, and at the ritual purification area [the way I see it, some sort of well or fountain where you wash up before you come into a sacred place], he meets a girl named Nanae [played by Japanese actress Miyasaki Aoi] who helps him tend to that scratch he got on his elbow. Nanae realizes that Min is not Japanese and guides him around the temple complex.

They come upon an Omikoji tree which peaks Min’s curiosity. He learns that an Omikoji tree is part of a fortune-telling tradition with the Japanese. You take your fortune, which you get in the form of a sheet of paper, and you tie it to the Omikoji tree if it reads bad luck; and if it says good luck, you keep it. Nanae tells Min that his fortune says lucky so he keeps it.
Right from the start, you see that these ancient practices are still alive and well in a place as modern and fast-changing as Japan. I mean, from the monk in a bicycle and a peaceful shrine where time seems to have stood still in the midst of the city, the writer could have chosen to place these characters elsewhere to have met for the first time; but this is where that factor of the ancient ways in a modern world comes into play.

You’re going to love Min as he struggles at being the new Korean guy at school, and you’re going to love him more when he tries to win the heart of Nanae [who also studies at the same high school] which starts out with rather disastrous results.
Indulge this blow-by-blow, if you please: On his way out from his first day at his new school, Min runs after Nanae and catches her by the bridge. Unfortunately, his bike accidentally knocks-off her painting case from her hands and it falls into the stream below. Kim jumps over the bridge to get it but fails to realize that the stream is quite shallow and ends up a bit hurt. And as he victoriously raises the painting case in the air, its contents all drop into the water.



But before I reveal too much [which I often tend to do when I do these movie review posts], allow me to just skip a few things so I don’t get too excited with all the sweet things he does and turn an eye towards objectivity.
Not long ago, I saw this Japanese animated film called Millennium Actress; and the film had quite a premise that said “love is a burden, and often a curse” [non-verbatim, but that’s pretty much the point]. And I realized how this governs the many love stories I have seen of recent vintage from the Japanese. It’s an observation rooted to certain philosophical musings that have been brought to my attention by my friend who studies Japanese philosophy. And as much as I want to veer away from being too profound with such a simple love story, you tend to realize that it is far from simple.
As the story rolls along, Min and Nanae’s love seems to have been built around these ancient practices like the Omikoji tree and the memory books, as well as superstitious urban legends passed on about lovers destined to part if they go to certain places, down to the charm/talisman that Nanae gives Min at the festival, and the promise to meet at a certain place in Korea by the first snowfall to seal their love with that magic or luck that goes with it.



And as their joy is cut abruptly by their untimely separation, Min’s promise to Nanae that he will learn to make fine porcelain for Nanae to paint on seems to have been lost. For when Min returns from Korea to visit his ailing grandmother, he finds out that Nanae has moved out of their home and is nowhere to be found. The seasons would change for these lovers lost to each other more than once until they find one another again. But as season’s change, so do some hearts; and the love they bear lost to the pain the heart feels.
Still, the journey of their love seems far from over. And by journey, you’re literally taken from Japan to Korea and back, but you’re also given this sense of completion –if you could call it that- when Min realizes that all he had to do was keep his simple promise.
If you see the way this movie ends, you’re going to want to watch it all over again and come up with the realization that the wait was all worth it, that some promises are worth keeping, and that if you hold on to your hope, your love will find you where you’ve always waited for him at the first fall of snow.

Okuribito [Departures], the Barefoot Baklesa Review

This being the first movie review I have for 2011, the Barefoot Baklesa has found it quite fitting that he should discuss "Departures" [the irony there is so obvious it will hit you an Alanis Morisette cover].

Winner for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars, "Okuribito" or Departures was Japan's entry that won over a hundred or so other entries. Of course, my personal bet, Thailand's "The Love of Siam" never even made it to the top four as well as that Filipino entry -the title of which escapes me.

"Okuribito" [Departures] is a cinematic journey of a man whose dreams never came to fruition and how he was thrust upon a path that the fates somehow made him destined to take. Now, some of you might actually go, "Oh, choice that's supposed to be life-altering turns out to be the hand of fate -that's soooo Asian cliche", but I guess one has to have a certain understanding of the current zeitgeist of Japanese cinema to have an appreciation for them; and "Departures" seems to be a good movie to start with.

Kobayashi Daigo, a cello player finally lands a spot in an orchestra only to have his career as a professional musician cut short when the orchestra owner decides to disband them. Out of options, he decides to sell his newly acquired top of the line cello and asks his wife, Mika, to move to the house his late mother left him in the country hoping to start anew.

Daigo and Mika start their new life in the country just as fall gives way to winter -kind of fitting if you ask me. Looking for work, Daigo chances upon a newspaper ad for a job description that says "helping out journeys". Assuming that it was for a travel agency, Daigo applies for the job at the NK company only to realize that NK stood for NouKan which translates to "Encoffining". Just like that, the hand of fate deals him a misprint that should have said "to help with peaceful departures", he finds himself taking the job with the Boss' persuasion to give it a shot because fate might have led him there.

Now, I am about to go on here like I usually do, so be prepared:

As you watch the movie, you are drawn into this world of silent ritual that defines the act of "Encoffining". It did not seem in any way romanticized but the importance given it by the imagery presented in the film did not feel like a demonstration video or documentary but they give the act of the Encoffiner the credit and dignity it deserves. For the stigma that goes with working with the dead is the same in this culture as it is theirs [We've heard many a joke cracked about the embalmer that bathes in formalin and looks like the living dead in this country].


The job of the Encoffiner is to cleanse, dress, and put make-up on the deceased before they are encased in the coffin for cremation. They take great care in ensuring that the dignity of the dead are kept intact by not allowing the skin to show as they are cleansed and dressed in traditional robes for their final journey; a job originally done by the family of the deceased, the Encoffiner appeared as an alternative to doing it themselves in their moment of grief. And like many things done with ceremonial respect in Japan, this is one to pay attention to.

The act, or call it art of Encoffining itself throughout the film tells its own story as it is woven with Daigo's own troubles of having to deal with the stigma of being labelled "filthy", hitting close to home when his own wife leaves him after discovering the true nature of his work which he had kept from the start, feeling like he must pay for missing his mother's own funeral by experiencing funerals over and over, and bearing the baggage of having been abandoned by his father when he was a boy. Thinking about it now, Daigo seems like a game board peace that stepped on a game square that said "back to square one" midway. With the Boss Encoffiner as sensei [teacher/master] is this enigmatic character that works with the dead, he teaches Daigo a different view of death and life with his own gritty humor that the living should eat well and that the living really do have to eat off the dead. Morbid, I know...yet you gotta watch him to understand.

And if music does fuel a part of the soul, the music in this film stirs mine to such effect that as the seasons sweep to their cinematic pace, I felt some out of body experience as I just let myself take everything the movie throws my way. The movie has ways of making you shed your pre-conceptions about it. For as there is this Zen philosophical statement looming over it, it is never presented in a brutal in-your-face-lecturing-you manner but in small revelations that make you go "Aaaahhhhh..."

The thing I take from this movie as the final credits roll, is that in our immortal soul's journey, we must acquire happiness in their forms tangible and intangible, cling to them, and must give them more weight and value no matter how small or brief they may be. For in our departure, grief is inevitable, but there are many other things to celebrate in this existence and the next.


thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

A Frozen Flower [the barefoot baklesa review]

Is love reduced to nothing more than just really settling for what is there before you as would princes and princesses in a fairy tale? Are we as human beings foolishly conditioned to love what is before us in fear of receiving no other love? Or are we mere slaves to our passions that it clouds our very reason, much to our own demise?

These were but the first few questions left for me to ponder after having seen ‘Ssanghwajeom’ [A Frozen Flower]; a Korean period drama that director Yoo Ha describes as “a love story between men”. No, this isn’t about two Korean cowboys “eating pudding” as the South Park character of Cartmann put it when describing gay movies -I've read from The Man of the Rose that ‘Ssanghwajeom’ [A Frozen Flower] is Korea’s answer to Brokeback Mountain but since I don’t really find the gay cowboy movie remotely entertaining, let’s leave it at that.

‘Ssanghwajeom’ [A Frozen Flower] borrows its title from a song taken from the Goryeo Period of Korean history which poeticized the sexual relationships between men and women. Set during that same era, it tells of a late dynasty Goryeo King [Joo Jin-Moo] who has to contend with the virtual imperial rule of the Yuan Dynasty of China over his kingdom. With his sovereignty under threat for having produced no male heir, the king turns to his chief royal bodyguard, Hong Lim [played by the ever handsome Jo In-sung], to impregnate the Queen [Song Ji-Hyo].

The sexual entanglement ensues to much chaotic result; for the King himself has his own affair with Hong Lim [Jo In-Sung] and would trust no one but him to impregnate the Queen [Song Ji-Hyo], who is nothing more than a trophy wife he has no attachment nor attraction to.

At first, Hong Lim [Jo In-Sung] is hesitant to touch the Queen. She herself, after experiencing years of unaffection and being neglected by the King would soon find herself liberated and enslaved after the veil of sexual intercourse for duty and country is lifted and sex for carnal passion bares its visage, as well as Hong Lim [Jo In-Sung] who has not known any other love but the King’s.

On closer inspection, Hong Lim [Jo In-Sung] may have entered into an affair with the King as a result of his consequences of servitude and loyalty. Becoming the King’s lover and chief bodyguard after being reared by the King himself while still a teenage Prince, and him an adolescent boy-in-training, seems more or less the victim of circumstance here.

Guilt is brushed aside for unbridled passion as the Queen [Song Ji-Hyo] and Hong Lim [Jo In-Sung] continue their secret trysts much to the unraveling of the King’s [Joo Jin-Moo] jealousy. Finding it a bit too much, the film is replete with such explicit sexual scenes between the two that it would not be long until the secret lovers are caught enflagrante delicto by the King himself and a tragic and violent end of Shakespearean proportions comes upon the characters. [Trust me when I say heads will roll, for that will be an understatement when you see one type of ‘head‘ that will roll]

Give or take the complex dynamic of Hong Lim’s [Jo In-Sung] love for both of them, he chooses to turn his head towards the King that perished by his hand meeting his eyes as he took his dying breath with the King’s sword pierced in his heart. The last thing he would see in this world would be the dead frozen eyes of his King.

Was this in any form, his statement of remorse, for having hurt the man who showed him the first kind of love he had ever known? That if he had stood by the King’s love, however one-sided and consequential it was, they would not meet this bloody end? Did he realize, after all this, who he truly loved?

Even I am confused…

But stirring the mist in my crazy head let me just muddle out a few ideas… Hong Lim’s [Jo In-sung] rampage seems to me nothing more than a lover’s quarrel gone wrong. Such a bloody and violent display to show the King that all of it was of the King’s doing and that if he had not pushed him too far, they would not be caught in all this -call it- drama. Then of course, like some of those in pretentious denial about themselves, one could argue that the chief bodyguard is ‘bisexual’ and the King would just have to live with sharing him with the queen.

In the spirit of symbolism expected of Asiatic movies, the filmmakers seem to have chosen a vision or longing of true happiness in a painting made by the King himself. It is of a dream of his about him and his chief bodyguard off on a hunt -the promise of which filled his heart with joy. This very painting was ripped apart by Hong Lim’s sword in his violent rage when he went after the King. And by some cinematic choice, after their tragic deaths, this image of the happy hunt is presented to us: the King and Hong Lim riding on horseback with bows on hand ready to strike. The smile on their faces display no care of the world that had bound them once before -something that strikes me as a last minute predictable attempt at the promise of being reincarnated with the one you love or too much heaven in the head.

I can say this much for the other elements of the film: the production values were quite excellent. The production design was very detailed yet fairly streamlined, the musical score kept at the appropriate pace, and the editing is as expected considering some action scenes. Except for the rather lengthy displays of sex scenes, it was a movie that stimulates the senses without doing it too much.

Well, I can’t really say if I’m impressed with Jo In-Sung’s acting on this one. Much as I love the guy, the performance seemed mechanical and studied. While Joo Jin-Moo as the King displayed such gentle nuances that displayed his hidden sexuality above the royal refinement. And Song Ji-Hyo’s Queen is the acting centerpiece of the film worthy of praise.

As I type the last few sentences of this review, A Frozen Flower seems to be leaving more questions than it can answer. Some people can take the plainly obvious unraveling while some can dig deeper into it. Either way, it is one not to be missed.


thus spake the Barefoot Baklesa

The Barefoot Baklesa Reviews: Friendship

I'm re-posting this review...I'm feeling a little sentimental these past few days; and the unusually cold wind that's been blowing during the late afternoon these few days isn't helping either. I decided to watch this film again, it does stir the heart a bit...



Do you remember the time when you were in high school? When, for the most part, as much as you were on the verge of burgeoning maturity, you would easily cast it away for some happy time with your friends? Too often you walk around with this sense of invulnerability that goes with youth; bearing your then unscathed heart and your unbound dreams. This is where the Thai film FRIENDSHIP takes me back to. [It’s been a bit timely to have seen it lately considering it has been ten years since I graduated from high school]

FRIENDSHIP is the story of a teenage boy named Singha and the love he had for a girl named Mituna; the new girl, who transferred at the start of their senior year in high school. Singha, played by Mario Maurer [who shot to instant fame after his debut as a teenager coming to terms with his homosexuality in the film The Love of Siam -click on the link to read my review], was as typical as a teenage boy could be: a bit of a smart-aleck who hangs out with a boisterous set of friends, sexually curious, and often flirtatious with the girls. While Mituna, played by a lovely Thai actress named Apinya Sakuljaroensuk [there’s something about this girl that reminds me of a crush I had back in high school], was a girl that kept to herself and did not say much. It would have been a perfect boy meets girl scenario but instead Singha picks on Mituna due to her chosen silence, and as each act of teasing moves into the next, Singha pushes the envelope further until Mituna can’t take it anymore and could do nothing else but hit Singha in the face which somehow snaps him into a realization that he may have gone too far this time.

I love the way the film portrays that haze of infatuation often acted out as something else before a guy realizes that he actually likes the girl but the damage is done. I don’t know if it’s my love for Mario Maurer or the way his character is written [or maybe a combination of both], that can’t make me hate him and what he did. I mean, the first time we see Singha is when he helps out this lady with a cane at the bus stop who got knocked over by a passing commuter rushing for the bus. He then hands her a marigold which he has in his shirt pocket before he leaves to ride the next bus. He’s not that bad a guy; he just gets it wrong sometimes. Moving on…

It’s not until Singha secretly follows Mituna around that he realizes how mean he has been to her; he follows her to a social welfare facility and learns that her mother is deaf and mute. The apology that follows is a montage of a boy that has fallen in love with the girl who fought back. I’m not that versed with Thai pop culture so I have no idea if the song in the montage, which had this two-decades-ago-cheesy-quality to it, was actually a vintage tune; but it works.



Now, the movie itself is full of those teen situations of underage drinking, getting wasted on weed for the first time, misadventures into haunted houses, the generic out-of-town trip [thank god, no one broke into a song and dance by the beach, or rather the pool on this one like those really horrible Filipino movies], and the dynamics of the relationships with the people they share these with. After all, don’t they say that the friends one makes in school are the friends you have for life? I think the movie does well in establishing these within the plot elements in the sentimentality of it all. [I don’t want to focus too much on the other characters and how they figure in to the storyline in this review because they are best appreciated when seen]

I guess when you’re young and in love, there’s so much energy you can spare. For when things got a little better between them, the boy finds a way to understand her and to be understood. Just like what Singha said about words not being enough, he finds a way to learn how to do sign language. Now, it takes a certain kind of filmmaker to understand the difference between acceptable and revolting sentimentality. The sign language thing would not have worked if some generic Filipino director took a shot at it, I think. There is a pace that the film takes which makes it rather lighthearted and feeling like you were reminiscing on a lazy Sunday afternoon even if there’s a visually established flashback in the plot.

And as the end of senior year fast approaches with teenagers wanting to squeeze in so much before it does, a tragedy comes upon them. Lam, one of their friends, gets stabbed by a former schoolmate who joins up a gang that is hunted down by the police. Lam transferred in the same time as Mituna and was responsible in making Singha realize his true feelings for Mituna.
You know that feeling when things are happening all at once and you don’t seem to have the chance to slow it down and you have no chance but to bear with it? It’s excruciating to watch Singha and Mituna’s lives take the direction that will start to bring them apart. Singha’s father, a police officer, gets assigned to another district and they have to move out; while Mituna’s absentee father decides to sell the house they are living in and tells them to live in the country convinced that it will be better for Mituna’s mother. But both of them have no idea that this was happening to the other.



I don’t know what a “friendship book” is exactly, but the way I understand it from the movie is that it’s some form of scrapbook or memento that your friends pass around to write stuff on. Singha hands Mituna his pages for her to write on. Mituna promises to return it on the day they release the final exam results.

This reminds me of something my friend Sandro told me about last Friday; that we are where we are because God has a perfectly good reason for letting it be so. Watching it unfold before my eyes, I felt as if God was a little too harsh on Singha and Mituna. By mere moments they would miss each other; one turning left, the other tuning right. In the place where they promised to meet, in the places where each thought the other would be, and in the place where a desperate hearts clings to the hope of seeing one’s love, would they learn that they were not to see each other that day.
Singha would spend years carrying this love for Mituna wondering why she did not at least keep her promise. Even during their class reunion, Singha was kind of hoping to at least see her there and be happy for her if she had a family of her own. One day, while doing work with the indigenous communities in the mountains, Singha chances upon Mituna’s mother. Singha learns that Mituna is gravely ill. Okay, remember when I said that God was a bit harsh on Singha and Mituna a paragraph ago? Take that as an understatement.

That fateful day when they had promised to meet each other, something happened to Mituna; something that I commend the writer for not showing and just merely suggesting. I don’t think I have the heart to see that.

When Singha finally gets to see her, he realizes how gravely ill she really is. By this time, the movie hits you with a realization why it chose Friendship as a title. As much as we know there is a story of youthful romantic love, what moves one’s heart is the enduring power a deeper love has in their lives; and that is their Friendship. Don’t get confused on that one. You have to see the movie to really appreciate that amidst all that falling in love they built a great relationship between themselves for simply being genuine. I think some writers lose that kind of dynamic in order to come out with commercially viable romances. I don’t know if I’m communicating this properly, or if I’m speaking in tongues by this point. But maybe I’ll get back to this post sometime later and find my words.

There’s beauty in sadness as one friend of mine articulated. And I have a penchant for watching movies that portray this not just because I’m Asian [not many Filipinos would want to admit they are Asian though] and that is expected of me to understand but also because the barefoot baklesa is such a sap and he’d much rather have a good cry. Hahahaha!!!

Go and watch it if you want to have a good cry.

Lovin' Latter Days [the barefoot baklesa review]

Lovin’ Latter Days [The Barefoot Baklesa Review]

“Do you ever read the Sunday comics? The comic page? When I was a little kid I used to put my face right up to them, you know, and I was just amazed because it was just this mass of dots. I think that life is like that, sometimes. But I would like to think that from God’s perspective, life, everything, and even this, makes sense. It’s not just dots. Instead, were all connected. And it’s beautiful, and it’s funny, and it’s good. From this close, we can’t expect it to make sense right now.”

-Aaron, Latter Days


A little more than two weeks ago, while my friend Sandro [check out his blog Jesus Jokes] was parking his car in front of Owee’s house which was located across a Mormon church, I noticed that there were guys playing basketball at the court located within the Mormon compound. And I went like, “Oh, Mormons playing basketball. I wonder if anyone’s cute?” To which he responds, “Oh come on, Niki. You don’t like Mormons, you’re just saying that because of that movie with that guy playing a Mormon.” Giving out a laugh, I opened the car door with my eyes having one last look at the guys across the street before proceeding to Owee‘s birthday party. Looking back on that, the barefoot baklesa thinks it best to share this movie for those who have not seen it yet.

Latter Days holds a special place in my heart; I call it my lucky movie. Back in the day when I used to frequent the pirated DVD stalls at Makati Cinema Square around four years ago, I asked my usual supplier if she has a copy of Latter Days, and she was nice enough to go up the upper floors to a friend’s stall to find one for me. As luck would have it, they only have one copy left. Back then, the pirated copies were as good as the originals with all the menus and features intact; and I treated that copy like it was the holy grail of my gay cinema collection. After acquiring that copy, less than an hour later, I received a call from Peque Gallaga about an interview for a production design job for a television fantasy series later that afternoon. Needless to say, I got the job… Lucky me! [fast forward to a few months later at the virgin megastore in new york, in the quest to have an original copy, the store had to have a copy shipped from somewhere so the barefoot baklesa could have the original DVD....thanks, ate carol!]

I think the introduction has gone on long enough, let’s get to the movie review. Latter Days is the brainchild of C. Jay Cox, writer of the comedy hit Sweet Home Alabama [which also happens to have a gay character played by the loveable Ethan Embry]. Latter Days is the story of Aaron [Steve Sandvoss], a handsome Mormon missionary who just began his ministry of going door to door to talk to people about his church; and Christian [Wes Ramsey], the definition of a West Hollywood party boy who moves from one sexual conquest to another without the heart for commitment. These two could not be any more different, and you know what they say about opposites; they do attract.



Of the four Mormon missionaries that moved next door, one of them turns out to be sexually conflicted. And when Christian [the writer had to name him that, huh] takes a bet with his friends that he can seduce the tightly wound Mormon neighbor, the seduction goes a bit awry. Christian does find out that Aaron is attracted to him but it got a bit complicated. And you’re going to love these lines [personally I thought these made it a gay movie]:

Aaron: I’m saying I know how retarded you think I am, okay! You’ve found me out, alright -my worst secret- Now, I’m humiliated so your work is done here.

Christian: Wait, I don’t think you’re a dork. But if you know how ridiculous you look, why would you-

Aaron: Don’t you believe in anything?

Christian: Yeah…

Aaron: Then tell me! Tell me one thing in your life, beyond the shadow of a doubt that you really believe.

Christian: I believe that Ann Margret has never been given her due as an actress.

Aaron: Duh! For Tommy alone…I mean, did you see it when she was -But is that something you can build a life on!?! Look at yourself. You’re so pretty and colorful on the outside but on the inside, you’re nothing but fluff. You’re like a walking-talking marshmallow peep.

Christian: That’s not fair!

Aaron: It doesn’t matter when it’s true! I can’t believe what I was just about to do when there is nothing, Christian, nothing about you that is not skin deep.



Sidebar…

I admit, I have been staring at the computer screen for an hour now -not knowing how to proceed with this- while the movie is playing on my DVD player. It’s not that I’m distracted but more like if I put it to words, Latter Days is the kind of gay romance drama that you have to experience for yourself. It’s one of those movies that I have seen without the swirling mist in my head conjuring the sentinels of movie critiquing to shoot down the mediocrities that come across the screen [wow, this sentence is soooo me].

…and we’re back.

From then on, Christian begins this quest to prove that he is not as shallow as Aaron thinks he is. It’s like the tables turned on him for a bit when he volunteers for this thing called Project Angel Food; that delivers meals to people living with HIV complications. There’s that twilight zone freakish bit when Keith, the guy he delivers food to says, “Snow… It’s all just snow.” after he accidentally grabs Christian’s arm. The writer’s intention here was to point out that there’s still -call it- magic or miracles that happen in our lives that lead us to where we are.



Way before I went gaga over that kiss in The Love of Siam, I was raving about the kiss between Aaron and Christian in this movie. There’s that vulnerability that I saw in Aaron’s character that I feel in love with [Now that I think about it, I feel as if the Steve Sandvoss is giving me that “I feel so betrayed by you” look for replacing him with Mario Maurer… Steve Sandvoss just defines the Abercrombie and Fitch type… drool… Hahahaha!!!]. But that kiss would cost them dearly as they are caught and Aaron had to be sent away in shame to be tried and excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints for the ‘grievous and shameful sin of homosexuality’. Yeah, that still happens at this day and age.

So, in true spur of the moment fashion, Christian runs after Aaron and finds him at an airport somewhere, outside, where it was snowing. I remember this movie for these lines which I have quoted over and over when we have had conversations about religion and being gay and finding a balance to it:

“You want revelations engraved in gold and angels trumpeting down from heaven. What if this is it instead, me telling you ‘I love you’ right here in the snow. I think that’s pretty miraculous.”



I mean, come on, who wouldn’t fall for a guy after he says that, right? Well, unfortunately the movie does not end there. At the risk of me narrating the film scene by scene, let me just say it gets a bit more messy. Someone gets left behind, there’s a brief but disastrous affair with a sharp object, and we’re treated to what happens to people inside those “Christian Change Ministries”… But trust me, the roller coaster ride is worth it.

The supporting cast boasts of performances from the likes of screen legend Jacqueline Bisset, Mary Kay Place [Sweet Home Alabama], and Joseph Gordon-Levitt [Third Rock from the Sun, Mysterious Skin] as well as Erik Palladino and Rob McElhenney [It‘s Always Sunny in Philadelphia]. There are no pretentious camera shots here, nothing too epic to make an effort of, but I think the movie was held together by the acting next to a really great story about love.

Latter Days also came into my life when I was clinging on to a love I know was not mine to hold on to for long. Yes, I did have a heart once… it was one of those movies that I cried to many times over. Later would I find out that that particular love of mine would enter the service of God and I found that a bit -say- ironic now. But what I’m getting at here is that which was engraved in the silver pocket watch Aaron was carrying around and it reads: “And the greatest of all these is Love 1 Corinthians 13-13”

So, Valentines is just around the corner, and if you just plan to stay in and watch a good movie, try this one.

The Love of Siam [the barefoot baklesa review]

sinverguenza!!! i'm still not over this movie...i'm reposting my review because there's so much i want to share about this movie...[insert image of friends goin, "here we go again"] oh well...



I just couldn't shake it off... I have been watching this movie or a part of it,everyday this past month...

I've written some sort of review on The Love of Siam a while ago, but I felt that it was a bit inadequate with the kind of impact it had on me. I would like to thank joey torres for the mp4 file and strangerinsiamsquare for sharing the musical score and OST.

So, here we go...

I first learned about The Love of Siam [ Rak Haeng Sayam] after seeing another film called Bangkok Love Story. I think it was at the G4M Forums when they were discussing the latter that i stumbled upon it. I really didn't have anything to do that night, and thank the gods for wireless technology, I was able to watch it; and there was no turning back since.

I will have to admit, at first, I didn't really like it that much. I felt it was too melodramatic at times. But it does hit some chords right as per the emotional key of the scenes in the storytelling.



On the outside, seeing the way the movie was promoted in 2007, The Love of Siam seems to be one of those run of the mill teen romance movies. But at the core of this film lies a love story between two boys. Much to the surprise of the Thai audience a year ago. Well, I guess the Filipinos and the Thais really have the same mindset that gay characters must be effete, cross-dressing, and funny. Notice that every gay role commercially viable gay role written has to be the animated effeminate and people will find that amusing [ and don't use Brokeback Mountain as an example to the contrary because that i just plain crappy ].

But unlike the usual formulaic teen romances that only want to sell the "kilig" moments, LOS bears a sort of balance to the other relationships and subplots that are woven around the two leads.

LOS is the story of Mew and Tong, who were neighbors when they were young boys. Mew, a stubborn and introverted child living with his grandmother, finds a friend in Tong who is as a boy their age should be; playful and outgoing.

At what seems to be their happiest as children, Tong makes Mew hunt for his Christmas present, a woodblock sculpted christmas doll, which by some unfortunate circumstance would be missing its nose.

What I also found appealing in the storytelling is the dimension and contrast of their family structures. Mew lives with a spinster aunt and his beloved grandmother while across the street Tong is part of a Catholic household with his teenage sister Tang and parents Korn and Sunee [not what you would normally expect from a predominantly buddhist population]. I remember going, "Oh...they're catholic..."

For there is a tendency for some gay themed films to abstain from the parental dimensions of their relationships. Because perhaps, in this reality, having distant and un accepting parents reflect the cinematic view that their story is not worth telling.

When Tang goes missing during a trip in Chiangmai, Tong's family is forced to deal with the loss when there seemed to be no hope of finding her by moving away. Goodbyes are tough, and Mew would rather not deal with it. And as stories must, time passes...

But a chance encounter reunites Mew and Tong some years after during their late teens. Mew [played by Witwisit Hiranyawongkul] is now the composer and lead singer for an upcoming band called August [which to my surprise is a band for real] while Tong [played by Mario Maurer] typifies a boy his age: with a pretty girlfriend, and is part of a somewhat popular clique.

But Tong's home life is far from typical. His father, Korn, depressed, then wastes himself into drinking after Tang's disappearance leaving Sunee to hold their family together.

As the boys' rediscovered friendship progresses, Mew's strong attachment towards Tong inspires him to write love songs. And the lyrics to one goes:

"If I say that I wrote this song for you,
would you believe me?
It might not be as well
written or beautiful like other songs.
I want you to know that a love song can't be written
if you're not in love.
But for you,
I can write this song so easily"

After hearing it for the first time, Mew tells Tong that without him in his life, that song would never be. Tong responds with a kiss -probably the most innocent and the most heartfelt kiss i have seen on film in my existence.

[and the music...oh the music in this movie needs to be commended. Whether it be the songs or the musical score. I don't know a word of Thai but the i have been humming the songs in my head -indeed, if it be the food of love, it's been blasting out of my earphones to a glutinous extent]

But in discovering themselves Mew and Tong find out how their own smalls worlds and the fragile hearts they bear would collide: Sunee asks Mew not to make Tong take the wrong path, Tong faces coming out to his friends, Mew at odds with his band endangering their debut, and Tong's father's deteriorating health.

And even against Sunee's insistence, you will love Tong for running out at night and screaming at Mew's window to let him in, but to no avail.

And when all seems lost, they learn that as long as there's love, naturally there's hope.

Perhaps the line that will define this movie is when Tong tells Mew,
"I can't be with you as your boyfriend. But that does not mean I don't love you."
Then Tong hands Mew the missing piece of the wooden doll he had gifted him when they were kids [one which he had a hard time acquiring]. And it hit me, just a few moments ago what that meant! That wherever life leads them, Tong leaves Mew with some hope...That perhaps it may take a little longer for them, and like that wooden doll missing its nose, somehow Tong would find a way to complete it, to complete their love.

And I can't believe I'm using this Theology 131- Marriage & Human Sexuality lesson to prove a point. "A genuine loving relationship must be able to exist with other relationships."
Tong and Mew take a step into their maturity by accepting that they can't take a "you-and-me-against-the-world" stand on their love. If indeed what they have is true, it will be a love that they shall be able to share with their loved ones, friends, and all.

LOS does not take into account the typical requirements of what makes up love story. It doesn't give you that "dancing under the starlight" ending expected of the genre nor does it leave you with a heavy heart even if the last you see is Mew in tears [The love I know well is this: "it does end in tears." And the writer/director, Chookiat Sakveerakul presented that with no romantic pretenses]. But LOS does leave its characters with a glimmer of hope.

And that "Love", whether it between boys and girls, boys and boys, girls and girls, parent and child, friend and friend, between you and your god, is transcendent and unending.

And to answer Mew's question, "If we can love someone so much, how will we be able to handle it the one day when we are separated?"
I would tell him this, something that Gabriel Marcel said, "To say 'I love you' is to say 'thou shalt not die'..."

the barefoot baklesa reviews: Just A Question of Love [Juste Une Question d'Amour]

The Barefoot Baklesa Reviews: JUST A QUESTION OF LOVE


I’m going to take a break from my usual Japanese movie reviews to focus on two French films I enjoyed viewing most recently. The first of which, is this movie I have been dying to have a copy of for years now: Just A Question of Love. I think I saw a trailer of it years ago when with my copy of 9 Dead Gay Guys; and have been looking for it but was too cheap to pay $29 for it… Hahahaha!!! At this point, I would like to thank the underground economy for supplying me with movies I would rather not spend retail and taxes for. Moving on…

I have once commented on how some Filipino movies never tackle the issue of parents coming to terms with having a gay son; they either make it funny or absurd. I have yet to see a Filipino script that presents a somewhat believable portrayal of what happens to a family that has to deal with loving someone gay. And don’t throw “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros” [translated as The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros] my way to say otherwise; because until now, I still can’t find what the world fell in love with when it came to that movie. On the other hand, maybe I should watch it again to give it a fair chance. Maybe…

Just A Question of Love [JAQOL] presents a contrast between two gay men and the relationship they have with their parents in terms of their sexuality. Laurent [played by the Cyrille Thouvenin] is a senior finishing up in agricultural college, much to his father’s disappointment who had expected him to take up pharmacology to follow in his footsteps and continue the family business. Laurent is what one would call the worst closet case. His masquerade includes his roommate named Carole who poses as his girlfriend. Laurent decided to keep his sexuality a secret after seeing the way his cousin Marc get disowned and left to die by his aunt and uncle after learning that he was gay. After Marc’s death, Laurent’s academics have taken a downward spiral in his senior year.

Advised by his dean to take on some required apprenticeship to graduate, Laurent gets assigned to work under Cedric [played by Stepan Guerin Tillie]; an agricultural researcher for the government who also runs the garden center left to him by his deceased father. Not wanting to leave his mother to handle the business alone, Cedric does his scientific research in his private laboratory located within the compound. His mother Emma, who knows about his sexuality and has learned to live with it somehow… I guess by now you’ve figured out the complications. Eventually, when Laurent and Cedric become romantically involved, Cedric becomes frustrated with Laurent’s insistence on keeping up with his masquerade.

Cyrille Thouvenin, who plays Laurent, is just right for the role with the proper mix of boyish charm and sexual appeal. I have to admit, the movie takes me back when I saw Laurent wearing a green shirt with the word SOUNDGARDEN printed on it [I‘m a production designer, I notice these things]. While Stephan Guerin Tillie as Cedric has this attractive maturity about him that when mixed with the passion in his performance of the role isn’t hard to fall in love with. Okay, I better stop myself there…but they just look good together to say the least.

Essentially, what JAQOL treats upon is that when it comes to love, parents must realize that their children need them [Well, that’s just me if this were an ideal world…]. Emma had it right when she said, “Don’t listen to people! We don’t live with them but with our children. When your son is gone, they won’t fill in for him.” I like the way JAQOL injects the points it wants to make through the characters without being so obvious which for me makes up a well written script. Then again, I have yet to see a horribly written French film.

I recommend JAQOL to all you gay guys out there who are still living their double lives -it’s not a judgment against your choice but more of a push to the OUTward direction- for to quote the movie, “It’s terrible to carry around so much useless suffering at your age.” As for the parents seeking to understand what their gay offspring are going through, this would be a good movie to start with. Because “It’s not a question of gay or straight. It’s just a question of Love.”

the barefoot baklesa reviews: Takumi-kun: And the Spring Breeze Whispers

BL and Yaoi fans, this is for you...
There are movies that people watch when they're down that suddenly makes the day a little better. I have known a fair few that consider the movie, The Sound of Music, as one one movie to watch to drive the dark clouds away -a little too squeaky clean for your taste, huh? Then, allow me to share with you my latest discovery, that BL- YAOI movie that drives those dark clouds away for me: Takumi Sashite Haruka Zeni [ Takumi-kun Series: And the Spring Breeze Whispers ].


Takumi-kun Series: And the Spring Breeze Whispers

Based on the widely popular yaoi novel by Gotoh Shinobu, it tells the story of Hayama Takumi, a high school student from an all-boys boarding school who has what the translated subtitles call 'human phobia' -roughly an estimation of the anti-social behavior displayed by Takumi rooted to some childhood trauma. As the new schoolyear begins, Takumi gets assigned to the same living quarters as Saki Giichi -nicknamed Gii. A boy who earlier had spared Takumi from being hit by a plate of rice and beef curry by a bully.

I'm kind of new to the BL-YAOI scene so pardon me for listing down the few plot elements i find common among some of the animated and live action versions i have seen. When it comes to Gakuen [school] set stories, there's always some childhood connection that the story must unravel, a memory lost or suppressed that would surface years later, and there's the sudden profession of love which springs from Cupid knows where that leaves one wanting a moment like that to happen for real.

I forgot to mention this earlier: originally the BL-YAOI writers of Japan were female. What made the genre unique to Japanese pop-culture is that they were originally intended for a female audience from female writers.

Okay, and we're back on track...So, Gii likes Takumi -no surprise there, right? Projectile beef curry isn't something you get in the way of for just anybody. Apparently, when Takumi was still a child learning the violin, Gii was there during one of his performances and had liked him since then. Gii himself is a popular guy on campus, having grown up abroad and heir to a multi-national company, he is not without admirers. An all boys school with all boy admirers, where was that school when I was growing up? Hahahaha!!!

I mean, who wouldn't fall in love with a guy who finds a way to fly in the concert violinist you admire and have him perform at your school?

Not without its complications, Gii has to fight for Takumi's love through a wager he has to win to protect Takumi from the obsessive advances of another boy. Now, I don't know what it is with this particular type of hug, but I've seen it in quite a few asian series. You know that moment when the one you love is walking away and you hug or hold on to him from the back, asking him to stay? Takumi and Gii share a moment like this as Takumi holds on to Gii in the rain while training for a race that Gii must win[from the Korean series "Princess Hours" to "Full House" and a Japanese one called "Hana Yori Dango", the sight is all too familiar]. Then again, who wouldn't want to be held that way? To stay that way -even in the rain- cherishing that moment while it lasts because it's so fleeting? I think you get the point...

I have come to expect something from the Yaoi genre that I call the 'Epiphany' or 'A-ha! Moment' where the past unravels and the secrets are revealed [some often built-up by devices such as flashbacks etcetera]. I won't go into the details because you've got to experience that for yourself.

Don't worry, unlike most of the movies i recommend and review here, this one ends happily. Didn't I tell you earlier that it's one to take the dark clouds away?

If it's going to be a series of sequels for this one, then I can't wait for the next one...

here's more about takumi

the barefoot baklesa reviews Taiyo No Uta [A Song to the Sun]

TAIYO NO UTA [A SONG TO THE SUN]




[ Before reading on, if you haven't seen the movie yet and you don't intend to come upon any spoilers, then go to crunchyroll.com and watch it first. If you care to know what I think first, read on...]

I have had this copy of Taiyo No Uta [ translated as 'A Song to the Sun' also released as 'Midnight Sun' in some territories] for more than a year now, I think. I never actually got to watching it until recently when i learned that there was a mini-series patterned after it; and thanks to the underground economy, i was also able to purchase the latter.

I have never lost so much tears for a movie, I tell you. And I don't know what is it with me and these kinds of movies these days...

Taiyo No Uta is the story of Amane Kaoru, a girl who suffers from a rare genetic illness called XP or Xeroderma Pigmentosum -a condition that makes exposure to the sun's UV [ultra-violet] rays life threatening and fatal- thus preventing her to live a normal life. Sleeping during the day, she comes out at night bringing her guitar and sings the night away at a park in front of a local train station.

Once, from her window, just before the sun goes up, she chances upon a boy with his surfboard. She would watch this same boy pass by that same bus station everyday just before she goes to sleep. Under these circumstances, they never would have met. But as fate would have it, one night, as Kaoru was singing at the park, she sees the boy and runs after him.

She catches up with him at a crossing by the train tracks and ends up pushing him to the ground. Bombards him with an introduction about her which weirds the guy out. Thankfully a friend, Misaki -the only one she's got, runs after her and pulls her away. Leaving a rather confused teenage boy on the train tracks.

Before we continue, let me just say, this movie kind of takes its time, and i think it helps in the storytelling, establishing the loneliness Kaoru feels of not being able to live a normal life.

Some time later, Kaoru was sitting by the bus stop she usually watches from afar when that same boy, Fujishiro Kouji [ played by Takashi Tsukamoto ] sees her. They get acquainted, and he then promises to watch Kaoru perform at her usual spot by the park once the summer vacations have began.

However, on that evening, Kaoru's spot on the park was taken over by a rather obnoxious musician and she couldn't perform there. Kouji then takes her to Yokohama where they find a spot for her to perform. The movie features songs sung by Yui, the singer actress that plays Kaoru. The montage at Yokohama features the song 'Skyline', reflecting Kaouru's longing to soar into the unknown world.

"I want to fly well
I want to fly well
If only someone could teach me how
Don't wait too much for chances
Every morning repeats itself..."

By the sea, on their way back, Fujishiro Kouji asks Amane Kaoru to go out with him. This would have been the perfect evening for falling in love until she realizes that the sun was about to rise on her and she's still a long way from home. Fortunately, she makes it indoors in the nick of time, but now her secret is revealed. Kouji discovers why Kaoru could never go out into the sun, because she could die.

Kaoru gives up on having a relationship with Kouji because she feels he may do things out of pity or may see her as a freak. "I'd be happy if I could just live a normal life, that's all I ask."
A self-confessed simpleton, Kouji deals with the situation the way he knows how. Trading his surfboard and getting a part-time job, he works out a plan for Kaoru to be able to share her songs to more people. And in that crossing by the train tracks, where they first met, Kaoru and Kouji share their first kiss -a cute one at that.

I don't know if I read into it that much, but there's something about the use of the train tracks and the pedestrian crossing in this movie. I saw the train tracks as a symbol of movement, of life passing Kaoru by, and the inevitable future. And to share that moment with Kouji, at the place where one crosses the tracks, shows the importance of living in the moment.

But as the summer came to pass, the effects of the disease begin to progress, and Kaoru finds herself unable to play the guitar. [Sufferers of XP face the risk of the deterioration of their nervous system and may never get to live past the age of 20] Kouji encourages Kaoru not to give up on her singing while hiding his own tears...

Kaoru records her song, and Kouji finally gets to show her his surfing skills when she takes the courage to wear the protective suit her mother had made for her so she can go out during the day.

Kaoru held on as long as she could, with as much love for living as she had for the song she left behind.

I reckon most of us don't have the heart for movies like these. But suffering from a type of solar allergy myself, i know how people often never realize how lucky they are, to be able to go out into the world carefree. Kaoru may not have had the chance to live like the rest of the world, but she sure gave her life a good try even towards the end. One can sense this longing within Kaoru to leave something behind when she had passed on. The song 'Goodbye Days' communicate the long wait for life to change, to have some sort of meaning, and to be able to share it. She leaves them this song not as a matter of legacy but a reflection of a life truly lived without any regrets.

There are loves that fuel our very souls, and they bring meaning into our lives however short they may be. Though one never wishes that fate on anyone, i think Kouji was meant to experience this love. To shake him from being the humdrum teenager he saw himself to be, and find a sense of purpose in the world.

If someone asks me for a love story, I'll tell them to watch this movie. Because a love story isn't limited to storybook endings, love stories should reflect the other realities of life, bitter or painful as they are; or else, i don't think that's love at all.