Senior same-sex love in Hong Kong: Ray Leung's quiet study of character and culture, TWILIGHT'S KISS

Having just seen a French film detailing senior lesbian love and the damages of the closet, here comes another that covers gay seniors in Hong Kong, both grandfather-age and both quite firmly in the closet so far as their respective families are concerned. 

Unlike the heavy melodrama that drives (and plagues) Two of Us, TWILIGHT'S KISS, quiet and concerned, gives over to character and the culture that has helped mold this in our two heroes, as well as in their families, friends and society at large.

Written and directed by Ray Yeung (at right), whose charming, slightly-dark rom-rom Front Cover, I enjoyed a few years back, this new film of his -- made prior to the seemingly endless protests now roiling Hong Kong -- is surprisingly immersive, given how quiet and small-scale it consistently proves to be.

Yeung's two leading actors -- Tai-Bo (below, right) and Ben Yuen (below, left) -- are triumphs of low-key detailing. Bit by bit, they lead us into character, life and the culture of Hong Kong, as each experiences it. Because Yeung and his cast are so full of specifics, all these details quickly pull us into the narrative, which only grows more specific and fascinating, the more complex and problematic it slowly becomes.

There are no real villains here -- not even society or the State itself. While it is obvious that things could be better in terms of acceptance for the GLBT population, the movie has a welcome lack of finger-pointing or -wagging. Instead our two guys make the best of what they have, even as they try to push  the boundaries, at least slightly. (Along the way we also get to see what Hong Kong's younger generation is doing for gay rights and how the semi-necessary closet is still holding back many in the older generation.)

The two men's families are perhaps more of a hindrance than a help, yet it is clear that they are all doing the best they can, given their circumstances and beliefs. Religion -- Buddhism vs Christianity vs agnosticism -- plays into things -- yet so kindly and fair is his perspective that the filmmaker never dips to easy satire nor simplistic views. 

Some viewers will wish for more explicit drama here, but TrustMovies is more than happy with the level to which Twilight's Kiss rises. The final sequence -- which for me, at least, seemed to indicate a willingness for exploration (and/or perhaps compromise) -- proves as quiet, subtle, thoughtful and lovely as all that has come before.

From Strand Releasing and presented with support from the R.G. Rifkind Foundation Endowment for Queer Cinema, in Cantonese with English subtitles, and running just 92 minutes, the movie opens virtually at New York City's Film Forum this Wednesday, February 9, and will very soon open elsewhere around the country. Click here for more information on viewing at Film Forum, and here for info on further nationwide playdates.

Romance, the closet, China! Raymond Yeung's happy/sad gay love story FRONT COVER opens

What happens when an ace stylist (gay, of course:"All the good ones are," he explains early on) for a major fashion magazine in New York City gets the job of styling a shoot involving a red-hot and very popular Chinese actor who's just a little bit uncomfortable around homosexuals? Given that the movie under consideration is a gay film, you can probably choose among several typical scenarios and come pretty close to correct.

What makes FRONT COVER charming and entertaining, however, is its combination of decent dialog, good performances, deft direction and an insistence, where the home stretch is concerned, on believability over feel-good.

The writer/director here is one, Raymond Yeung, aka Ray Yeung (shown at left), a Hong Kong-based filmmaker with a few earlier films to his credit. His latest explores Asian identity and sexual identity, both East and West versions -- in China (via that popular leading-man actor) and here in the USA (from the POV of our fashion stylist). Neither one, it turns out, is all that comfortable behind the mask that he has created for himself. All of which proves nothing much new, but the way Mr. Yeung handles his tale is appropriate, often fun, and finally surprisingly moving.

In some ways the movie is quite a typical gay film. Our hero, Ryan (Jake Choi, on poster, top) is surrounded by stereotypical characters, from his diva boss at the fashion mag (Sonia Villani, above) to his BFF (played by Jennifer Neala Page, below). Both actresses do what they can with limited and rather obvious material, but fortunately the movie concentrates most of its mind and heart on its two leading men.

These are played by Mr. Choi, as the Asian-American stylist who only has sex with white guys, and James Chen (below) as Ning, the hot young Chinese actor, who is himself constricted by his "image" and constantly surrounded by female hangers-on.

After a rocky start, the two men begin to warm up to each other and an interesting bond is formed. Yeung's style -- via both dialog and visuals -- is mostly graceful and loose, which makes it easy for us to willingly tag along. And the performances of Chen and Choi are lovely, too: funny and smart, with both men uptight in different ways for different reasons.

Ryan's parents (Ming Lee and Elizabeth Sung, above) get into the picture, and while their behavior may seem typical to Asians, for us Americans, they appear just different enough to raise the interest level a notch or two. And if the ensuing relationship between the young men seems initially a little too easy, wait a bit.

Plenty of drama and good/bad possibilities are provided when a photo, above, is surreptitiously taken and released to the media. The outcome may divide audiences between those who demand their feel-good fix and those who prefer some reality with their romance. For me, the finale proved not merely bittersweet but downright sad, lifting the movie out of typical gay rom-com fluff and into something richer and deeper -- out of which a dose of genuine character might even be built.

Front Cover -- from Strand Releasing and running 87 minutes -- is worth a watch. After screening at various GLBT festivals, it opens theatrically this Friday, August 5, in New York City at City Cinema's Village East Cinema, and the following Friday, August 12, in Los Angeles at the the Sundance Sunset Cinema. To see other currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and then click on Screenings on the task bar midway down the page.

Streaming choice for Hong Kong action: Clarence Fok's silly-but-entertaining toss-up, SPECIAL ID

Although the Koreans have given Hong Kong action movies some competition of late (most recently via the superlative Snowpiercer), Hong Kong is what many of us still think of first when it comes to exciting man-on-man (sometimes on-woman, and occasionally in-car) action. A recent example of this would be SPECIAL ID, by a director new to me, Clarence Fok, who together with his prize star, Donnie Yen, has staged a hefty handful of terrific action scenes, each one seemingly better than the last.

Mr. Fok, shown at right at a press conference for the film, has also made a movie that often seems silly -- yet because the silliness also seems intentional, this allows us to relax and just go with the flow. That flow takes in the three characters shown on the poster, top. Mr. Yen, who really is a terrific performer, fighter and actor, here plays Dragon, a police-man who, due to a problem in the past, is remanded to working undercover to get the goods on a certain criminal gang. All poor Dragon wants, how-ever, is to rejoin the police force as a cop.

The new leader of that criminal gang is an old friend of Yen's named Sunny (Andy On, above, left), a very nasty type who believes in nothing but power and brute strength. The third wheel is a very pretty, by-the-book woman cop (Tian Jing, below, right), who is rather extraordinarily gifted in gunplay and fighting.

The plot also involves Dragon's delightful mother, who has clearly raised her son well, plus various assorted criminal types and other cops. But really, we just move from one great action set piece to an even better action set piece -- all which display Mr. Yen's skills to amazing effect.

One of Yen's biggest assets is his charm, along with the all-out enjoyment he seems to be having throughout much of the film. He can be serious as needed, of course, but often he seems to be showing us what a lark this all is -- so just lean back, relax and enjoy.

Special ID can be viewed on Netfix streaming now, as well as on DVD. To bad it's not also on Blu-ray, but Netflix's high-definition will cover that base almost as well.

Roy Chow Hin-Yeung's NIGHTFALL: What does a somewhat middling Hong Kong movie look like?

When I first saw NIGHTFALL appear on the list of new additions to Netflix' streaming service, I automatically thought it was a Korean film. The poster had that certain look, and the story --according to the short Netflix description -- had to do with a detective investigating the murder of a famous pianist, so that sounded properly dark and delving. But then, as we started watching and the opening scene was one of those uber-bloody and frenetic but perfectly choreographed action/fight scenes taking place in the shower room of a prison, I immediately realized, uh-oh: Hong Kong! (I've never been there, so the night-time cityscape on the poster above didn't ring any bells.)

And indeed this is a Hong Kong creation, though not up to the level of some of the better of the Johnnie To movies like Breaking News or Sparrow (click and scroll way down). In fact there are two major action sequences: that fine and fast opening and another in a glass-bottom cable car (plus a couple of good chase scenes, as well). But the major part of this off-key but reasonably fulfilling film from Roy Chow Hin-Yeung (shown at right) is devoted to the mystery of multiple deaths arriving a generation apart, and the detective bent on solving them, along with his -- this is near-de rigueur for current Asian thrillers -- pretty young female assistant. (Real feminism is coming but slowly to Asia, if its movies are any indication.)

The longing of families fractured by untimely death is a paramount theme here, and it's handled pretty well, mostly thanks to that wiry but highly muscled actor Nick Cheung (above) who manages to handle both action and emotional scenes with prodigious flair and feeling. The titular star of the film is Simon Yam (below) who plays the detective in charge of the case, who lost his wife to supposed suicide (he imagines something other) years before. Mr. Lam gives a perfectly OK, close-to-the-vest performance but his work pales against what is required of (and provided by) the amazing Mr. Cheung.

The family that gives the plot its goosing is made up of a servile mom (Yu On-on), that pianist dad (Michael Wong, in a pretty scary, "Hey, listen to me revert to English!" performance) and put-upon daughter (the lovely Janice Man). Each is up to snuff, with Mr. Wong particularly memorable in a nasty way.

Enjoyable enough and somewhat mysterious (though I guessed the characters' connections awhile before the movie revealed them), Nightfall never rises much about the level of "just so-so." Despite all the back-and-forth, past-and-present time-frame changes, the film is not at all hard to follow. In fact, it's a little simple minded in its plodding manner, and the detective work on display is pretty paltry, too. Not to mention the coincidences that abound. I suspect that, had this been a Korean film after all (see initial paragraph), it would have made a better movie -- though perhaps with not quite such good action sequences.

(On the subject of "just so-so" (in the paragraph above): This was a rating level that Netflix, early in the game, used to offer its viewers, before it realized that forcing folk into either liking or not liking a movie was a much better marketing strategy because most of the time, viewers will, if they have mixed feelings about a film, opt for liked it over didn't like it. Little wonder, once Netflix dropped the so-so rating, so many movies seemed to become so much more popular. Rotten Tomatoes does the same thing. You either like or don't like a film. A mixed review cannot exist. This is, of course, bullshit. But this is also the hail-the-god-of-marketing times in which we live.)

Nightfall (a rather much-used title) in this case probably refers to the beautiful shot above -- in which sea, sky, cliffs and moon are actually the background for some very ugly goings-on. The film is available now via Netflix steaming.

Chan fils on DVD in THE DRUMMER: Mayhem, Martial Arts & Film Movement?

TrustMovies was going to post about a new straight-to-DVD out this week: THE DRUMMER, starring Jackie Chan's son Jaycee Chan (shown at right: note the resemblance).

But then he decided to give the review instead to GreenCine, as his weekly outing on its GURU site (you can read the full review here).

The Drummer ought to prove worth your time -- a mash-up of genres (competing Triad crime bosses to chunks of Eastern philosophy) that works surprisingly well and, thanks to writer/
director Kenneth Bi, is one gorgeous movie to view.  It's available today for sale from Film Movement (that's right: excepting its quality, the film is nothing like that distribution company's usual fare), and for rent via Greencine and elsewhere.