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Contrast (Japanese Series)

By Golu
This is basically a high school BL where two guys who have nothing going on in common somehow end up getting really close to each other, and that's kind of the whole point of the title too. There's barely any drama or fluff packed in here, it stays pretty straightforward the whole way through. A little bit of friction pops up here and there, but it's nothing compared to what you'd normally get in this kind of show. Runtime wise you're looking at 8 episodes, each one sitting around 25-30 minutes. The two guys carrying the story are Akira and Kanata, and funny enough they knew each other's faces way before they ever knew each other's names. Kanata's the type everyone likes, always got people around him, popular guy, but there's this distance to him that people can't quite place. Turns out he had an injury that ended his football days, and that's what pushed him into being more withdrawn, and it only got worse once his younger brother got picked...
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Martyr (Arabic)

By Golu
This is definitely not a gay film, but its for sure one of the more homoerotic ones, even though its set under the pretext of death. I know these both things sound oxymoron, but the way the camera lingers a lot longer on a single man's body and everything around it, the makers were clearly going for homoeroticism. There is no other kind of audience that would connect with the film.

The plot os simple. Set in a poor section of Beirut, we meet Hassan who is aimless in life and sleeping at his parents house. Instead of looking for work, he spends the day with three other friends at the beach. A few conversations about life, work and friends lead the two of them  to climb up to a busy walkway and, before his buddies and a cluster of onlookers, take a fatal dive into this rocky bit of the Mediterranean. The dive is fatal for Hassan and his friends run around to save him but is too late. They take the body home to his parents where they discuss if he can be considered a martyr.

There is a poetic undertone in addition to the homoeroticism to the whole film, which is evident throughout the film very clearly. The beginning itself has the camera lingering over Hassan's body including an erection and his hots for masturbation, except he has no privacy since he is at his parents. I don't think there is any clear love or gay connection established between friends, but using poetic ideas and thoughts, the camera slowly lingers occasionally freezing to show men holding their dead friend, first among the rocks, then at his parents’ apartment. You do get a portrait of isolation, and also the sense of a connection that’s more intense than plain-old camaraderie. Hassane and his friends had a tight bond that the movie allows you to receive as, at least, homoerotic. The fact that each and every guy is half naked and is extremely hot and the camera takes its sweet time to let us gaze and appreciate their bodies is testament to that. The more time camera takes to wend its way around Hassan’s suspended body, the more its caresses seem to match all the embracing and caressing Hassan’s friends do. In Martyr, life and death are linked through gestures of pain, grief, sensuality. The whole experience is poetic. It is not queer but it is at the same time. Poetic and Artsy is the only way to describe this simple yet a very complex film whose overall effect is sacred, sensual and very touching. (5.5/10)
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