![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
When Beckham Met Owen - Film Report
Aug. 17th, 2004 12:26 pmIt was a good film. It was outright slash (and the angsty kind too!) But it’s not about Beckham or Owen. That’s kind of why I’ve put off writing the review. I love it to bits but I don’t know how I could do it justice and yet not raise expectations too high.
The film is about two 12-year-old boys living in a public housing project. The two boys are best friends, classmates and teammates (albeit of their school team only - they aren’t quite that good in football). One of them is fun, full of life and has enough love for everyone; the other one is much quieter. But they are always together. And they care about each other a lot.
Then a girl got between them and it made the quieter one question whether his feeling for his friend is friendship or love. He saw his best friend hit it off with the girl and felt instantly jealous. To clear his confusion, he bought some collector cards showing scantily clad females instead of footballers, but they didn’t really do it for him. Then he went to the school library (on a Saturday!) to look for books about sexuality/puberty. But it didn’t help much.
Then he began to notice things he didn’t notice before, like how good his friend was to him and how close they were together. Like, after the teacher rearranged the classroom seating, the his friend hugged him (or more like wrestled him to the desk) and exclaimed how good it was they were sitting next to each other again. And when his friend noticed his sports shoes were worn out, he lent him his Adidas boots and wore a cheap pair himself instead. You can imagine how moved the boy was and how guilty he felt about his love for his friend. There’re many nice touches and details like these. I’m afraid I might spoil the film if I say too much.
The quiet boy then began to distance himself from the other boy. He also came out to his mother although it’s clear to us he wasn’t that sure about his sexual orientation. He didn’t even turn up at their school team’s next match (although he’s the star striker). So his friend went to look for him after the match.
They met on the football ground of their housing estate. The quiet boy wanted to pull away. But in the pouring rain, his friend said, “Let’s start again.” (People abroad may not get it but every Hong Kong people recognize this line from Wong Kar-wai’s award-winning gay film “Happy Together”. The couple in that film fought and made up all the time.) Then they fought, wrestling each other to the ground. The theme song of the popular 80s football cartoon Captain Wing started playing in the background (Yaoi fans may have heard about this cartoon. It’s one of the first cartoons slashed in Japan.) Then video clips of footballers hugging each other came on to the screen as the director left the film’s ending open.
All in all, it’s a cute little film. I would’ve said it was a coming-of-age film except I don’t feel they’ve come of age in the end. The angst is wrapped in light (kitchen-sink) comedy so it’s a
fun ride all along yet not fluffy at all. It’s full of youth and life like “Melody” and “Get Real” but with more sass and fun. The two main actors were very good although they were first-time actors. The supporting actors were mostly familiar faces on Hong Kong TV or film so everything went quite well on the acting side. But the quality of the image isn’t very good though because it was shot by DV. Still, it’d be very good if you watch it on TV.
A Side-Note:
After the film was over, there was a small meet-the-audience session. It was a pity the two lead actors weren’t there. We were very interested in how he found such good young actors and what the actors’ parents think about them starring in a “gay” film. Turns out the two boys were students in the director’s art classes. The director actually had the lead actor in mind when he drafted the script. When he finished the script, the boy was no longer in his class. So he started hunting him down and luckily he found him. And it was because he cast this boy as the lead that he cast that other boy, ‘cuz they were best friends and they were football-mad. They had no qualms about playing these roles and their parents were alright about them too. And the director said the two boys were even more affectionate towards each other off screen.
The film is about two 12-year-old boys living in a public housing project. The two boys are best friends, classmates and teammates (albeit of their school team only - they aren’t quite that good in football). One of them is fun, full of life and has enough love for everyone; the other one is much quieter. But they are always together. And they care about each other a lot.
Then a girl got between them and it made the quieter one question whether his feeling for his friend is friendship or love. He saw his best friend hit it off with the girl and felt instantly jealous. To clear his confusion, he bought some collector cards showing scantily clad females instead of footballers, but they didn’t really do it for him. Then he went to the school library (on a Saturday!) to look for books about sexuality/puberty. But it didn’t help much.
Then he began to notice things he didn’t notice before, like how good his friend was to him and how close they were together. Like, after the teacher rearranged the classroom seating, the his friend hugged him (or more like wrestled him to the desk) and exclaimed how good it was they were sitting next to each other again. And when his friend noticed his sports shoes were worn out, he lent him his Adidas boots and wore a cheap pair himself instead. You can imagine how moved the boy was and how guilty he felt about his love for his friend. There’re many nice touches and details like these. I’m afraid I might spoil the film if I say too much.
The quiet boy then began to distance himself from the other boy. He also came out to his mother although it’s clear to us he wasn’t that sure about his sexual orientation. He didn’t even turn up at their school team’s next match (although he’s the star striker). So his friend went to look for him after the match.
They met on the football ground of their housing estate. The quiet boy wanted to pull away. But in the pouring rain, his friend said, “Let’s start again.” (People abroad may not get it but every Hong Kong people recognize this line from Wong Kar-wai’s award-winning gay film “Happy Together”. The couple in that film fought and made up all the time.) Then they fought, wrestling each other to the ground. The theme song of the popular 80s football cartoon Captain Wing started playing in the background (Yaoi fans may have heard about this cartoon. It’s one of the first cartoons slashed in Japan.) Then video clips of footballers hugging each other came on to the screen as the director left the film’s ending open.
All in all, it’s a cute little film. I would’ve said it was a coming-of-age film except I don’t feel they’ve come of age in the end. The angst is wrapped in light (kitchen-sink) comedy so it’s a
fun ride all along yet not fluffy at all. It’s full of youth and life like “Melody” and “Get Real” but with more sass and fun. The two main actors were very good although they were first-time actors. The supporting actors were mostly familiar faces on Hong Kong TV or film so everything went quite well on the acting side. But the quality of the image isn’t very good though because it was shot by DV. Still, it’d be very good if you watch it on TV.
A Side-Note:
After the film was over, there was a small meet-the-audience session. It was a pity the two lead actors weren’t there. We were very interested in how he found such good young actors and what the actors’ parents think about them starring in a “gay” film. Turns out the two boys were students in the director’s art classes. The director actually had the lead actor in mind when he drafted the script. When he finished the script, the boy was no longer in his class. So he started hunting him down and luckily he found him. And it was because he cast this boy as the lead that he cast that other boy, ‘cuz they were best friends and they were football-mad. They had no qualms about playing these roles and their parents were alright about them too. And the director said the two boys were even more affectionate towards each other off screen.