Some of the many LGBTI films now playing or coming soon to Thailand
OPTIMISM WITH A MESSAGE
Love, Simon is finally showing in Thailand after being pushed back from its original release by two months, and this first gay teen romcom being released by a major studio has proven to be worth the wait.
Declaring himself "just like you all", high-schooler Simon (played by American actor Nick Robinson) is revealed to be a closet gay. The story follows Simon as he navigates life with his family and friends, as well as his budding attraction to his email pen pal Blue, a guy whose identity is unbeknown to him. As Simon tries to uncover the true identity of Blue, he also has to prevent a classmate from exposing his secret to the entire school.
This coming-of-age (and coming-out) story manages to be quite funny while exploring that early stage of confusion, doubt, self-discovery, opposition, and finally acceptance. Due to its romcom nature, understandably, it carries the tone in a light-hearted, highly optimistic manner at times, very much the same way many straight romcoms do. The drama and tension are light, not digging into any complex and deep issues. But at least, finally, the issues and characters are relatable to the LGBTI crowd.
At its core, Love, Simon resonates a universal theme of feeling like one doesn't belong or fit in -- a feeling anybody can relate to, regardless of gender, age or race. The film then speaks not only to LGBTI youth, but perhaps youth everywhere trying to find themselves and their place in the world. It is both a teen- and family-friendly story that reflects diversity in representation, that doesn't show just one image of gay men, but paints a few shades -- with stereotypes and without -- of how sexuality is expressed and experienced differently by each individual.
The film has been quite groundbreaking in its own country, with several celebrities buying out screenings so the public can watch it for free. I wonder if it will create the same level of impact here that it did in the US, however, considering that we've had something like Love Of Siam ever since 2007, and now there are strings of Boy's Love and Yaoi series available on our streaming services.
We have preceded them, and it seems Hollywood is finally trying to catch up. The questions remain as to how it'll be from now on, and whether we will continue to see an increasing number of LGBTI stories outside of the independent, art-house scene and into the mainstream consciousness of the public -- and not let this milestone achieved by Love, Simon become just a one-time fad.
The film is now showing at Siam Paragon and CentralWorld.
LGBT SHORTS
Last week, Honda unveiled four short films to promote its Scoopy i motorcycles. The four films are under the theme "iStories: LGBT Project", with each story focusing on a person identifying with each letter of the LGBT abbreviation: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
The first film released for the project is T by Thitipong Kerdthongtavee, last Wednesday. It tells the story of a transgender woman whose motorcycle is stolen by a farang she had a one-night stand with.
Other stories -- L by Nattawut Poonpiriya (director of the famed Bad Genius), G by Naruebet Kuno (director of Project S The Series: Side By Side), and B by Salinee Khemjaras -- will be released online, one by one, in the next three weeks, each Wednesday at 7pm. Viewers can watch the films on Honda Motorcycle Thailand's Facebook page, Line TV and iflix. English subtitles are available.
BRIT STORIES
If you want to graduate to something more sombre and sensual than Love, Simon, don't miss God's Own Country -- a British drama around a sheep farmer and a migrant worker and their budding relationship in the Yorkshire countryside. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January of last year to rave reviews. It is now showing at Lido and House RCA.
Combine Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, a close-knit Orthodox Jewish community in London and the ladies' forbidden old flames, and you get Disobedience -- a drama by Sebastián Lelio, whose works included A Fantastic Woman, a tale that centred on a transgender woman's struggle following her partner's death. In Disobedience, Lelio is shifting his attention to the L in LGBTI as he explores Weisz's character Ronit -- a free-spirited photographer who returns home to London following her rabbi father's death, reuniting her with the object of her childhood affection, Esti (McAdams), now married to Ronit's cousin. The film is an adaptation from the novel of the same name by Naomi Alderman. Disobedience will hit SF Cinema venues and House RCA on June 21.
CANNES GOES GAY
Briefly, a note on the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival. The much-publicised event, which presented world premieres of a few dozen films from around the world, featured a sizeable number of LBGT-themed titles, many of which will be discussed widely once released internationally. To name a few, the Kenyan lesbian love story Rafiki attracted much attention from the press partly because it had been banned in its country even before coming to Cannes (and not really due to the quality of the film). The French film Sorry Angel, by Christophe Honore, narrates the lively and painful relationship between a gay writer and a young college boy in the 1980s, when HIV/Aids was rampant. Meanwhile Lukas Dhont's Girl, which tells the story of a transgender ballet dancer fighting to keep her place in an elite school, won the Camera d'Or prize for first-time filmmakers, and Victor Polster (who's not a transgender) won an acting prize in the sidebar section. The film will open in Thailand soon.
MONTHLY SNIPPETS
How is LGBTI inclusion going on the big screen? According to US gender-advocacy organisation Glaad, the numbers aren't looking too good. Its sixth annual Studio Responsibility Index shows that, in 2017, there has been a drop in LGBTI characters in major studio films. Out of 109 titles from major studios released last year, only 14 (12.8%) of them include LGBTI characters. This is a drop from 18.4% last year, and the lowest since Glaad began keeping track, in 2012. None of the 109 films include transgender characters. On the plus side, there has been an increase in the racial diversity of characters. Glaad recommends that the industry up its inclusion game to 20% by 2021.
Deadpool 2 now features the first-ever openly gay superheroes in cinema. X-Men member Negasonic Teenage Warhead (played by Brianna Hildebrand, who is openly gay) has a girlfriend, fellow mutant Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna), in the new release. While the on-screen couple serves more on the supporting side, and their romance is not more explicit than holding hands and saying they're dating, their inclusion alone has people jumping for joy that, finally, queer heroes are making their onscreen debut. Superheroes films have a track record of "straight-washing" their heroes, from Wonder Woman to Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. It will be interesting to see how or if the small impact initiated by Deadpool 2 gives queer superheroes the light of day.
Queer films were quite a conversation starter at this year's Cannes Film Festival, even before the red carpet started rolling. Prior to the event, it was reported that Rafiki — a lesbian romance from Kenya — was banned in its own country for normalising homosexuality. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section, though losing the Queer Palm to Girl — the Belgian drama about a transgender girl's road to becoming a ballerina. Girl's leading actor Victor Polster also won the Un Certain Regard Jury Award for best performance. Fifteen LGBTI-relevant films were among the selection this year. And while the world celebrates them, fans were also delighted to see the so-called Holy Trinity of the onscreen lesbian universe coming together at the film festival's red carpet. Pictures of the Cannes jury's Cate Blanchett (Carol), Léa Seydoux (Blue Is The Warmest Colour) and Kristen Stewart (who is dating a girl in real life) standing side by side — gazing and holding each other's hands — got people saying "Be still my gay heart" on Twitter. Really, we wouldn't mind a film with them all together.
