Review Taiwan

This is my review of Moneyboys (金錢男孩), a Taiwanese LGBTQ film that was released on 12 July 2021 at Cannes.

About

Fei lives in the city working as a “Moneyboy”, a sex worker and sends money back to his family. His family accepts his money but not his sexuality. Fei struggles to make a new life for himself but appears to get much worse.

The film was made in Taipei City, Taiwan, but is set in China. So the perspective of this movie is that of being gay and a sex worker there. It appears to have been a joint production between a number of countries. It was made in Mandarin although the version we saw appeared to have English titles at the beginning and end.

Cast

I have never heard of any of the actors in the movie, no familiar faces.

Kai Ko (柯震東) as Liang Fei
His father is singer Ke Yaozong. Kai Ko’s career goes back to playing movies in 2011 and directing “Bad Education” in 2021. He won the 48th Golden Horse Award for Best New Performer Award for the movie “You Are The Apple of my Eye”.

JC Lin (林哲熹) as Han Xiao Lai
He has appeared in numerous TV shows and films since 2018.

Bai Yu Fan (白宇帆) as Liang Long
He is an actor from China who graduated from the Nanjing University of the Arts. Before becoming an actor he served in the liberation army.

Review

This film received a lot of praise from many people and many global awards from different film festivals including Cannes.

The film is what I would classify as “artsy”. I am guessing this is why it won a lot of awards. Some said it was “realistic” and didn’t include any of the cliches you normally see in LGBTQ movies, which is true. It is also very different from any other Taiwanese, or Asian come to that, movie or TV series.

However, it isn’t a happy film, in fact, there isn’t a jolly moment throughout its 2 hours. The movie shows sequences of people doing nothing and not talking to each other much, I guess this is what they call artsy but I just felt “what on earth is relevant about this scene”. Two times they showed a movement on a gravelly road and I’m not sure what that had to do with the movie, maybe an artistic inner concept of the story. I didn’t find the cinematography as great as some people had described it.

Virtually every city sequence showed squaller, just the worst of the country on display.

Even though the ending wasn’t positive, I was left thinking “that’s the end”? We were left thinking Fei is going to be miserable forever looking back to one moment of happiness in his life. Maybe the moral of the story is “don’t be gay or a sex worker otherwise you are destined for misery your entire life”, maybe this is realistic for life in China.

If artsy movies are your thing then this might be a film for you. Personally, I will give it a 1 out of 5.

How To Watch

The movie is available and is licensed to Mubi.

Links

• Internet Movie Database
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Festival De Cannes
• Douban

Trailer

I WeirDo (怪胎) is a movie from Taiwan that was released on 7 August 2020.

About

Chen Po Ching and Chen Ching both suffer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). One day they bump into each other in a supermarket and form the perfect loving relationship. Things are going well until Po Ching recovers from OCD and realises freedoms he never experienced before leaving Chen Ching behind.

The entire film is shot on an iPhoneXS.

Cast

The two main actors I have seen in previous productions.

Austin Lin (林柏宏) as Chen Po Chin.
I last saw him in the Chinese series Yolk Man, it was an amazing series that is a must-see. Austin is a Taiwanese actor, singer and model born in Taipei.

Nikki Hsieh (謝欣穎) as Chen Ching
I last saw her in the Sci-Fi Romance series Meet Me @ 1006, another great series. Nikki is an actress and model.

Summary

The first thing that drew my attention to this movie was the camera work. At first, I thought something had gone wrong with my TV but noticed that it was done on purpose and for a reason. The quality of the film was good and I would never have realised it was shot on an iPhone. I would have liked to have seen some “behind the scene” work to see how they managed this process and edited it together, maybe they did that on a regular computer.

The storyline was unique, at least to me, and the characters developed well over time although I might have written it slightly differently.  At first, the characters were funny, it looked at the lighter side of being OCD. Later on, however, it became serious as they encountered obstacles.

Both Austin and Nikki did a good job. I think that Nikki was more the star of the show than Austin was, maybe she just had a better part.

The movie felt low budget. I’m not sure if it was the camera work or just because they focused on a story in a minimalist environment to reflect the characters’ condition. There was one interesting special effects sequence.

The film is worth watching and I would give it 4/5.

To find more about OCD please visit the Mayo Clinic website.

Trailer

I came across this movie from a review by someone else and although it was not highly rated thought it was interesting enough to check out.

About

Warning: Spoilers

Growing up in an orphanage Wang Yi Zhi and Ye Jian Han both fall in love with Hsin Hsin. She happens to mention that she would fall for a strong man and in order to win her heart one of the guys becomes a boxer and the other a policeman. The story centers around Wang Yi Zhi who is trained by ex-superhero Flash.

Hsin Hsin falls in love with cowardly superhero Sonic, and when she is kidnapped it’s up to Wang Yi Zhi and Ye Jian Han to save the day, and win her heart, by defeating the evil Cube.

“A Choo” [打噴嚏] is a Taiwanese movie released on 15th July 2020. It is 1 hour 42 minutes in duration and can be found on Netflix.

Cast

The cast in this movie is very impressive.

Chen Tung Ko plays Wang Yi Zhi
One of the few actors I had never heard of and placed in a lead role, his performance was good. He has a mix of leading and support roles in other movies but no TV series, as far as I can tell.

Darren Wang (Wang Dalu) plays Ye Jian Han
I have seen Darren in several productions including film Super Me. He is becoming extremely popular with two films and two TV series currently in production.

Ariel Lin plays Hsin Hsin
I always thought Ariel was a singer but hadn’t realized how many Movies and TV Shows she’s been in.

Louis Koo plays Flash
I was stunned to see Louis Koo in this production, mind you he is starring in so many movies these days it’s difficult to miss one. To think last week, we only saw him in All’s Well End’s Well. His part was serious with a bit of comedy thrown in. He has six different films in production, not sure where he gets the energy from.  It was great to see him in this production.

Review

During the movie I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. I was thinking it’s just a film about two guys trying to win the heart of a female but never expected it to be about superheroes. So, the two main superheroes involved; Flash ended up a recluse and Sonic was a coward. It was up to someone with no powers, as much as he wanted them, to save the day.

The production quality was surprisingly good, especially the CGI. With Netflix’s investment in the movie the production team were able to afford outsourcing it to a quality effects company, I don’t know really.

If there is one thing to remember about the movie it would be “if you get knocked down, keep getting up” or maybe “you don’t have to be a superhero to achieve remarkable things”.

I’ve heard that many people enjoy the work of Giddens Ko who was the screenwriter on this movie.  He is a well-known Taiwanese novelist, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. I heard that in 2014 the CCP ordered all his works in China be removed from bookshelves for supporting an organization that was involved in the Hong Kong protests. However, many of the cast in A Choo were Chinese, so not sure if China still dislikes him.

Like others, I would give this movie a 7 out of 10.

Trailer