Movie Review: All About Love/得閒炒飯

***It’s not easy being me.*

Sometimes it feels impossible.

Apparently, it’s impossible to be withme too, but that’s not my point.

My life is often defined by the grinding, antagonistic contradictions

that I struggle to reconcile on a daily basis.

The most important one (at least right now) is that I can much more easily write negative

movie reviews than positive ones.

Granted, I get a lot more of those opportunities than the alternative.

I can excoriate a film almost endlessly, but I find it difficult to write a

positive review of any length.

Maybe its easier to write negative reviews because I find flaws with

them rather objectively.

Or so I like to tell myself.

Inane plots or bad direction arequantifiably bad.

If I like a movie, I can’t always give you an objective reason why.

Wong Jing doesn’t make objectively good films. But I love them

because theyentertain me.

Wong Kar Wai’s films bore me to tears.

Why should I give up two hours of my life to watch people do nothing but  smoke andcontemplate life?

To move slightly closer towards the ostensible subject of this entry, as indicated by the subject heading, I recently/finally watched Ang Lee’s Brokeback**** Mountain .

I have a large amount of respect for Ang Lee, or Lee Ang as he’s known around here. His films are technically sterling, well-acted, and well-directed.

That said, I can’t be bothered with them. They don’tentertainme.

I never bothered watchingLust Caution.

Maybe because I had seen The Hulk.

And I’ve seen pubic hair.

A long time ago, perhaps, but I do recall it. Fondly.

Alright, Ihaven’t seen Tony Leung’sbozack , but my life doesn’t feel incomplete.

At least not for that reason.

So when

Brokeback

Mountain

came out (!), I was not pressed to watch it.

Partially because I am not a huge Lee Ang fan, and partially because I come from the United States, where the concept, depiction, and understanding of homosexuals is much more advanced than here in Hong Kong.

Local people’s atavistic, proudly homophobic attitudes are wildly at odds with the oft-trumpeted and grossly unsupported  assertion that Hong Kong is a ‘world city’ ready for democracy.

How nice.

I watchedSpider Lilies/ 刺青in Hong Kong, and during the love scene,between Isabella Leung and Rainie Yang, a man to my right was loudly flustered andindignant.

I wanted to scream at him,“What are you, f@#$ing stupid?!?”

Here I am, trying tohave a momentwith this spankerrific imagery, and this uptight moron isruiningit for me.

But never mind my opinion. I’m just a gweilo , so I can’t possiblyunderstand.

Or so I have been told.

Brokeback Mountain was the ‘must-see’ film of 2005.

So what?

I refuse to watch ‘bandwagon’ movies not just on principle, but because what’s ‘groundbreaking’ and provocative to the average audience member is not necessarily new and necessary for me.** The only reason I could think of to go watch Brokeback Mountainin the theater was to hopefully be there when some local’s homophobia popped his heart like a ripe zit, ensuring he’d be remembered as dying while watching a ‘gay’ movie.

Random truth: Only in Hong Kong can you find homophobic metrosexuals.

Well, I finally did watch Brokeback Mountaina while ago.

It was $33 and I was bored, that’s why.

As I watched it, I kept hearing an imaginary commentary track from many of the gay friends I have, and I didn’t hear much positive feedback.

Of course, if I wasn’t bored out of my t*ts I might have paid more attention to the actual film.

I did appreciate the scenery, though. The American West is a magnificent landscape, and anyone who ever gets the chance should go see it in person, because it will astound you.

Neither Ang Lee nor any gay rights association can take credit for the Rocky Mountains , but I wanted to say something positive about the film.

——————————–

Let’s recap: I write epically lengthy reviews filled with vitriol and foul language and I struggle to write positive reviews of any length.

I have a PhD and used to teach film studies, yet I deeply loathe some of the ‘greatest’ filmmakers (I have never watched Ingmar Bore Man and I never will) and adore some of the ‘worst.’

I don’t need to run out and see the ‘must-see’ film of the day because I’ve either read the book(s) or don’t have the stunted mindset the film seems to antagonize.

And thank Christ for that.

Ann Hui, whose work I greatly admire, is one of a very few directors whose work I will see simplybecause they directed it .

Ann Hui’sThe Way We Are/ 天水圍的日與夜 is a meditative character study of a profoundly average broken family in Tin Shui Wai. It is slow, deliberate, and riveting. I was entertained by this film not because it had gang fights and mahjong (it doesn’t), but because the actors did a magnificent job and the film was extremely well-directed.

Night and Fog 天水圍的夜與霧 was also gripping, but in a completely different manner; its central character was so vile, evil, and repugnant that you couldn’t believe it. It is one of the few films I would call excellent and yet have absolutely no desire to ever see again.

One of the others is the New Zealand film Once Were Warriors,a harrowing tale of alcoholism and domestic abuse that was so well-done it made me sick.

When Ann Hui releasedAll About Love/ 得閒炒飯 , I knew I wanted to see it, but probably more for the filmmaking than its subject matter.

It’s a story of two lesbians who were once lovers but broke up. Both of them make brief forays into heterosexuality and become pregnant. Then they meet again.

These four characters are at the center of a widening maelstrom of funny, irritating and otherwise wholly human behavīors that make up the narrative arc of the film.

A gay American friend once laughingly told me that homosexuals are the best men and lesbians are the worst women. While I can see what he means, at least conceptually, I can happily say that it isn’t the case in Hong Kong .

Lesbians in Hong Kong are a lot more easygoing.

Proof? I have a lot of lesbian friends in Hong Kong .

Yes, I realize some of them may simply be telling me that they are lesbians as a defense mechanism. Well, f@#$ you too.

I hadvery fewlesbian friends in America . The few friends Idid have often seemed frightened to be around me in public, as if the Lesbian Police would catch them in thissociopolitical infidelity. A couple of them told me as much.

It seems to me that compared to the US , being a lesbian in Hong Kong is much more a lifestyle choice than a political statement.

What I mean is that lesbians here seem much more interested in hanging out with women than they do in smashing oppressive phallocentrism and wearing t-shirts with the silhouette of a penis over the slogan Just Say No.

All About Love/ 得閒炒飯 seems to support this assertion, because the one militant lesbian in the cast of characters is seen as funny and/or irritating much more than correct and justified.

The main reason I may have disliked the character was that her partner in the film was played by Jo Koo, and I was jealous. I also disliked the character because she didn’t bathe with Jo Koo. But I can admit that today.

I wouldn’t callAll About Love/ 得閒炒飯 Ann Hui’ best film, but I enjoyed it. It’s well-made, well-acted, and the plot is refreshingly unusual. It entertained me, and that’s enough.

But it has a lot going for it as well.

One of my favorite parts of the film takes place early on, when the two lovers meet after their respective dalliances. Their behavīor while walking each other home is sweet, romantic, and very real. It humanizes them to a great degree, and shows that love and affection are human traits, not heterosexual traits.The scene is played for laughs, but is still very romantic and realistic.

All About Love/ 得閒炒飯 is a romantic farce, and a highly enjoyable one.

It won’t win many points with the Order of Flannel Shirts and Comfortable Shoes, but f@#$ those cheerless bull dykes anyway.

Yes,All About Love/ 得閒炒飯 makes lesbians look silly, flawed, and wrong. But it also shows them to be funny, loving, and the kind of friends we wish we had more of.

All About Love/ 得閒炒飯 can very likely do more good in combating Hong Kong people’s homophobia thanBrokeback Mountain, and not because its in Cantonese and takes place in Hong Kong.

***All About Love/* 得閒炒飯presents homosexuality as something other than tragic, a dirty secret, or an aberration.** It does so by making its characters very average and typical in everything they do except having sex.

Which, in case no one told you, is the way homosexuals are.

I enjoyed this movie and I recommend it. It was nice to leave the theater smiling for a change. It was nice to know that Hong Kong can still make good movies.

Go seeAll About Love/ 得閒炒飯 and decide for yourself.