Bishonen (1998)
Maybe not all it's being made out to be...........
2 February 2006
Yes, the cinematography of this movie is well-done, the musical soundtrack is fine, and, as others have pointed out, the main characters are male and, indeed, may be described as beautiful and as eye candy. But, make no mistake, these are gay characters, and their stories are gay ones. So, if other reviews haven't made that abundantly clear, this one is now doing so.

That said, and despite what some other reviewers may have lead you to believe, if you are expecting to see really well done love making scenes that are natural and true-to-life, you're going to be disappointed. The male on male love making shots, for the most part, are made up of fumbling gestures. Rather than actual kissing, there is an awful lot of what I would call "neck nuzzling" (you know, that's what you do when you can't stand to place your lips on those of another human being---but instead spend moment after moment grinding your face in the crook of that person's neck and shoulder). But, wait, there is one end-of-film scene between our two main characters in which actual lip to lip kissing does occur.....and it is exciting. Fortunately for the undoubtedly embarrassed actors, however, the script does call for a quick "interruption" to the proceedings (doesn't that always seem to happen?).

I have a tip for those of you who wish to proceed in purchasing this title on DVD (I honestly don't especially regret doing so, and you can maybe check out some place like yesasia). Here's that tip: the subtitling into English of what is spoken in this film (perhaps a Chinese dialect, such as Cantonese) is, I believe, the poorest I have ever run across. Silly things, for the most part, which detract mightily from the film's story (example: the subtitle is meant to read "From dusk to dawn" but instead shows across the bottom of the picture as "From dust to dawn"). And there is a lot of this type thing. Too bad, because our leads, Wu and Fung, were either born and/or partially raised in the US, one even attending the U. of Michigan. The film makers should have paid these guys a little extra and had them take care of the subtitling. If I were a wannabe star, I'd even have done it for free.
8 out of 12 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed