MovieChat Forums > Hei yan quan (2007) Discussion > Tsai Ming-Liang's eternal homophobia...

Tsai Ming-Liang's eternal homophobia...

posted 14 years ago by yduric
3 replies | jump to latest

In several of his films, like for instance 'Vive l'Amour', or 'What Time is It Over There?' or, most obviously, in 'The River', Tsai Ming-Liang features gay characters: but what strikes me is that he does ALWAYS do so in a negative way, and this is only getting from bad to worse in each of his films.
But in 'Hei yan quan', this really reaches a peak: at the end of the film, the Bengladeshi character who is obviously gay, being attracetd to the Chinese man he took care of (played by Tsai Ming-Liang's sooo beloved actor), tries to MURDER him and is only stopped by the fact that the latter awakes and prevents him from doing so. This is clearly disgusting and unforgivable, WE KNOW that Tsai Ming-Liang is homophobic, enough is enough... So in his next film, he should definitely shut his filthy trap, and avoid treating that subject matter for he apparently knows no other way of tackling it...

[–] Revolutionow 14 years ago

Tsai is gay.

there is a very loud amusement park right in front of my present lodgings

[–] mik-19 14 years ago

Oh, come on, you have completely misread the film! None of what you write makes much sense in the context of the movie. Tsai Ming-Liang is certainly no homophobe, I am gay myself and felt immensely attracted to the way he emphasizes with all characters, straight and gay is not the point here.

And again, first and foremost, art does NOT owe anyone to have politically correct opinions.

[–] yduric 14 years ago

I agree with you at least on one point: when you say that art does not owe anyone to have politically correct opinions: in this respect, I shouldn't have said that Ming-Liang Tsai should 'shut his trap', because I am definitely in no position to say what he should do, he's entirely free to film and display whatever he wants.

Now, for what affects 'political correctness', and I will never deviate from this observation made over many years and thousands of films, those disgusting homosexual stereotypes (mostly imported from the West) have precisely become politically very correct and so abundant, that it gets tedious. Examples in Tsai-Ming Liang's films? 1) Hsiao-kang dressing as a woman in 'Vive l'Amour': nothing new here, seen a thousand times 2) The father cruising baththouses and getting constantly rebuffed in 'The River':so common gay cliché, nothing original 3)The fat and ridiculous guy in 'What Time Is It Over There?' standing naked in the cinema's toilets in front of Hsiao-Kang and holding a giant clock to hide his cock? (some kind of phallic symbol, I suppose?): totally laughable and ridiculously boring cliché. 4)The knife held by the Bengladeshi worker and aimed at Hsiao-kang at the end of 'I don't want to sleep alone? I definitely don't believe that it was to carve him a nice tattoo or to make him some kind of esoteric erotic massage!!! This is murderous jealousy, another disgusting cliché. All of this has become so boringly abundant that everybody, even filmmakers dealing with homosexuasl subjects seems to have internalized it. What seems to be THE crime is cinema is to see two guys interacting without any clichés, just like a straight couple would do (By the way, this is funny, I come to realize that I do agree with you on a second point: straight or gay is not the point didn't you say that?) Apart from that I don't say that I hate Tsai-Ming Liang, he's made other very good films where these stereotypes are absent and I think that he is a talented filmmaker indeed.

BUT, what I will always keep is my politically very incorrect right to hate those disgusting and nauseating clichés, to vomit on them, and to immediately leave the theater or stop the DVD everytime I see one of them!!!