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Dragoncastle presents a series of short reviews on gay and gay themed movies.
All these reviews are the personal opinion of the author and are not so serious!
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| Brokeback Mountain (US)
The numerous awards that are being heaped upon this masterpiece are well deserved. This heart rending movie is a portrayal of the huge difficulties two gay men had in developing a relationship in rural America in the 1960's, with both social and family pressures working against them. The stunning natural beauty of America's wilderness is enhanced by spectacular cinematography, and superb performances by Heath Ledger, whose Texas accent was sometimes difficult to understand, and Jake Gyllenhaal, who commented during the British BAFTA awards that the film meant a lot to him socially. Director Ang Lee engulfs you into the story and you cannot help feeling very sad for all the characters involved in this tragedy, including the two men's wives, who were completely bewildered by the events. A moving tale, that faithfully recreates an era that hopfully is now long gone.
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| EAST PALACE, WEST PALACE (China)
One of the few Chinese made (and of course banned) gay films, it follows a young gay writer, A-Lan, as he visits hidden gay haunts where he is beaten, humiliated and harassed along with other gays. When arrested for the second time, he undergoes a loaded overnight interrogation filled with erotic tension in which he talks about his gay life to the fascinated officer. A-Lan is strangely attracted to his tormentor and vividly recounts his impoverished childhood, his first love, and various men from his past. Seen in flashbacks, all of the men in A-Lan's life have the face of his captor, officer Shi. A-Lan remains neither shamed nor intimidated by the oafish cop's verbal and physical abuse, but he welcomes it as the realization of his sadomasochistic desires.
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| MACHO DANCER (Philippines)
This is a provocative film that explores the lives of teenage hustlers fighting to survive in Manila`s seamy red-light district. Based on a true story and directed by internationally acclaimed Lino Brocka, Macho Dancer depicts a world of bars and brothels, drag queens and crooked cops, porno movie-making and sexual slavery, and drugs and violence. The film revolves around a youth who arrives in Manila seeking a better life, only to be forced to resort to prostitution to support his family. Through his eyes, the tragic lives of other young men and women in the same predicament are witnessed and the harsh realities of life in the Philippines are exposed.
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| UNDERONE ROOF (USA)
A highly erotic and funny romantic film about two guys in love - one from a traditional Chinese-American family and the other with single California style mom. A clever, romantic and sexy comdey about finding love right at home. Jay Wong as Daniel Chang, living at home with his clueless, traditional mother. Desperate for a grandchild, she’s eager to see him married off and spends much of her time setting him up with suitable Chinese girls. But when she recruits a new lodger named Roger for the downstairs flat, Daniel finds himself falling for this hot Southern boy who’s moved to the big city. Pulling no punches in pursuit of erotic laughs, this film festival hit will have you rooting for these two guys to fall in love!
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| My Beautiful Laundrette (UK)
A 1986 movie that hit a nerve during the ultra conservative rule of Margaret Thatcher in Britain. The story revolves around two men from opposite social camps who become lovers. Omar, a Pakistani boy charged with running his uncle's laundrette, employs school mate Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), a would be fascist, to help him run the business. They turn it into a glizzy wash palour, but have to continually fend off both Omar's conservative family, and Johnny's fascist mates. The gay love theme is nicely matter-of-fact while the tension in the movie is built by the racial and social differences. One of the best and earliest gay kisses is featured in this originally made for Channel 4 film.
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| Party Monster (USA)
Based loosely on a true story of two young gays who get sucked into the party drugs scene, manage rave parties in New York at the expense of the Limelight Club, and end up overdosing, while one murders a friend in a dispute over drugs. Made as a moral tale for American youth, it stars Macauley Caulkin (of Home Alone fame) as Michael Alig, a drug ridden gay teen party monster who looses all sight of reality, while easily manipulating those around him, and his sidekick Seth Green as James St James; it was the real James St James who wrote the book this film is based on. The little boy from Home Alone has grown into a fine actor, judging by his very believable portrayal of a camp young gay man; Seth Green also play his role excellently, and the whole movie is well delivered, with some quite wild and sexy costumes, in a rollercoaster ride of comedy, tragedy and pathos.
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| FORMULA 17 (Taiwan)
This movie gives a great feel for gay life in Taiwan, which seems not so different to gay life elsewhere. A virgin boy from the country hits the big city and quickly falls for the city's most serious gay playboy. The characters are wonderfully portrayed, with much feeling and humour, as the country boy goes through both heart break and love for the first time. A great supporting cast of camp but realistic characters live through similar emotions around the main story. Original photography in and around Taipei give this well produced film a very professional feel. The guys are cute (especially the two lead actors), and there's enough bare flesh to give the film a realistic view of gay life and get your juices moving, but without being tasteless.
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| Alexander (USA)
This Oliver Stone film has stirred some controversy simply because it portrays a historical figure as a bisexual. If fact, history records Alexander the Great as a gay man who spent most of his life with his male lover Hephaestion, and the film makers seemed to have emphasized the female lovers to boost 'general' audience appeal. While the gay side of his nature is not ignored, it is not portrayed graphically. That said, this is another epic movie filmed in both Morrocco and Thailand, containing vivid, grand scenes of carnage and blood, from a strong cast led by Irishman Colin Farrell, who plays the part with feeling. Alexander is revealed as a ruthless, master warrior, but also a drunk, who carves a huge empire from seemingly impossible odds, only meeting his match in the depths of India. There's plenty of eye candy for gays, and this widescreen three hour journey through Alexander's life is both exciting and enjoyable.
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| 9 Dead Gay Guys (UK)
Walking down Bangkok's Silom Road, one comes across all kinds of things and all kinds of people. Money boys are not exactly unusual, but coming across a British movie on a street stall about two Irish money boys working London's gay scene probably is. Starring, among others, Steven Berkoff, this is an outrageous tale of two supposedly straight Belfast lads earning a living by taking care of middle aged men's sexual needs, and ending up with nine dead bodies en route. Featuring a huge and scary lesbian, three west African brothers, an orthadox Jew, the 'queen', a desperate dwarf, and many other camp and colorful characters, this is a wild and hilarious tale, set partly in a pub called "The Elephant's Graveyard", instantly recgonizable to anyone who has spent any time in London, partly in "Margaret's Bar" run by a monsterous lesbian, and partly on the streets of the "Big Smoke". Another great gay story as only the Brits can tell them (My Beautiful Laundrette, Queer As Folk etc).
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| SATREE LEK (Iron Ladies - Thailand)
The true story of the 1996 winners of the Thailand National Volleyball Championships, this movie follows the trials, tribulations and fun encountered by a volleyball team of transvestites who fought against bigotry and officialdom as they powered their way to the top. The movie tells the story through humour and a lot of typically Thai outrageous high campery, but also shows the courage and determination that took these katoeys to the champion's podium. It may not be the best film every made from the technical point of view, but it was one of the biggest grossing films every made in Thailand.
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| Beautiful Boxer (Thailand)
Nong Toom (Parinya Kiatbusaba) hit the headlines in the 1990's when he began appearing in the Muay Thai ring in full makeup and long hair before mercilessly hammering most of his opponents into submission. This movie tells Toom's story from a young age when he began to realise that he was a woman trapped in a man's body, through childhood, and his Muay Thai days, until he became a she. The tale is sensitively told, and is a surprisingly well made film that reveals not only the successes, but also exposes the problems, mistakes and disappointments of a difficult life. The real Parinya has a small cameo role and can be spotted as the massuese who gives Nong Toom a bottle of pills. DVDs and CVDs are on sale in Thailand and some western countries.
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| Troy (USA)
Some critics may bemoan the fact that 'Troy' is a bastardised version of The Iliad, but what it lacks in following the tale, it more than makes up for in sheer epic proportions, and sweaty butch men in leather. This was an exciting, 3 hours of digital, wide screen action with frequent flashes of Archille's (Brad Pitt) rear end, thousands of pairs of sweaty Greek thighs being very macho with each other, and an average looking Helen of Troy relegated to a minor role, almost an after thought. Forget about the Greek Classics, this is well worth going to see for the men and the spectacle - a real old fashioned Hollywood Epic in all it's spendor, enhanced by great music and special effects and some nifty direction. Brad Pitt, a pretty decent actor, was fairly convincing in the unusual role of a Greek warrior, and the several Brit actors seem to enhance the overall feel of authenticity.
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| Queer As Folk (UK/USA TV)
This ground breaking British TV series about the lives of three gay men in Manchester's gay village (Pittsburgh in the US version) quickly found a cult following, and when the British series ended, a new series was made in the USA and became equally popular. The British version was the first time a domestic TV station showed fairly graphic gay sex scenes in a totally gay program. The series follow the lives of these gay men and their friends as they go about their daily, and gay, lives. Drugs sex, rock and roll says it all. A spiced-up gay "Sex in the City"!
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