This one's a beautiful, tender, quiet romantic drama with a moody atmosphere, set in a tight knit Welsh fishing community. It's a touching story about a man waking up sexually in the middle of his life, and how he, his family, and everyone around him deal with it, which makes it emotional and sentimental without ever getting over the top. The slow burn plays out against a landscape that's as bleak as it is gorgeous, where quiet, closed off men are stuck inside rigid ideas of what masculinity should be. Some people might be reminded of "God's Own Country," but I think both films are lovely in their own way. Jack is a middle aged guy who co-owns a mussel farm with his rough around the edges brother Dyfan, and the tension between the two of them is simmering under the surface right from the start. Dyfan's three sons all help out with the work, while Jack's sulky teenage son Tom keeps skipping out. Jack's been with his wife since they were both 16, and...
Red House is the gay district of Taipei and The Stone Bar is one of the famous gay bars. As expected, the gay life is very superficial and eventually what matters is what your body looks like and if you are hot. Lin, who runs a flower shop, recently lost his boyfriend. A new employee at Stone Bar Josh gives attention to Lin but he constantly keeps shying away. Lin, who wants to fully explore the gay world goes around literally sleeping with everyone and starts seeing Sean, a clothing store owner and gets into some threesome. Then we have the bar manager, who also tries to sleep around with older men to keep the money flowing. Eventually, in an accident a fire breaks out almost destroying Red House and Lin dies in it. And the film randomly ends, just like how it started.
The film is so confusing. You are introduced to character after character and are not sure whom to focus on. It is like going on a trip to the jungle without a road map, and even then, the potential to get lost is great. At first, it just feels like everyone is having sex with everyone and not much happens. A plot was just forcible inserted about the characters above in an otherwise just voyeuristic pleasures of Taipei gay district. Lacking both the maturity and the emotional depth, this film ends up dragging its own feet in a hopeless attempt to make some kind of point along its way. My only take-away from this movie is that gays do drugs, bad disco and sleep around with whomever and whatever is available and unless you are some guy with connections or money, you're pretty much hopeless. And we all know that is not the case. The film could have delved more into what’s really happening behind all those masks of party boys, too obsessively concerned with their own existence.
This was a waste of almost 2 hours of my life. There are too many loopholes. I would not recommend watching this, unless you just wanna be a viewer to random acts of drama, sex and drugs without making much overall sense out of anything. (3/10)
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