Maybe I'm lucky ~ until 3 hours ago, I had never heard of this movie at all. I was randomly browsing around youtube when I happened upon the ending of this movie (unfortunately youtube only allows a limited length upload unless you pay or something, so people upload movies incrementally). I spoiled it for myself, and wasn't about to go back & find the beginning of it, but something about it poked at me. A half hour later, I went back, found the beginning & watched it through. No doubt the ending would've had more of an impact on me if I hadn't known it was coming, but that didn't detract from the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire movie. This is coming from someone who had no prior knowledge of the movie or what anyone else thought of it. I had no preconceived notions or expectations about it. I just liked it.
I liked the gritty, rough & seedy look & feel of the bath house. It's stark & constantly damp, and I could almost smell the chlorine and wet tiles. It's a wonderfully weird hub for depraved clientele who are all there to get off in one way or another. The atmosphere is dark, the characters perverse, and thrown right into the center of it all is a fresh young innocent boy.
It's not "badly plotted" at all. Mike goes through a slow transformation from a shy, easily embarrassed newbie to an infatuated, then obsessed, "pervert." He's treated badly by the object of his attention but that only seems to infatuate him more. It seems like the atmosphere itself affects Mike, until he's just as creepy as all the other sexual deviants around him who we get to see in short little vignettes.
It certainly wasn't what I'd call "edge of my seat" thrilling (not that it was supposed to be), but it held my full attention, and I was interested to see where the climactic relationship would go between Mike & Sue. The character of Sue is quite interesting as well because she starts off seemingly uncaring and indifferent, but as it turns out she not only has a wild streak and a personal interest in Mike, she also seems to get a kick out of causing trouble. Their relationship develops into an immature little game of pranks; she playfully pretends he's pregnant, he grabs her boob in a movie theater, she threatens to have the cops nab him, he gets her fiancé nabbed by a cop, she runs over his bicycle, he blows out the tires on the car...it goes back & forth until the climactic ending.
I think the thing I liked about it the most was the surreality. When the bully boys push Mike into the pool & hold him under, suddenly instead he's swimming over a naked Sue. It's a bizarre moment where, as I took it, he believes himself to be defending her honor.
I don't know what other people said about the movie or if it's supposed to be "art house" or what...I just liked it. It wasn't gratuitous sex just for the sake of showing sex, it was a story about sordid characters and a place that seemed to attract them. There were humorous moments but it didn't seem like it was supposed to be funny or a comedy...it was haunting, strange, and the characters were weird & interesting. If that makes me a "sheep" then...BAA.
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I can't understand your crazy moon language.
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