TAIWAN's runaway hit Formula 17 will capture diehard soap aficionados
in its Manila premiere at the Pink Festival (The International Gay and
Lesbian Film Festival), on June 1 at the Gateway, the newest mall to
rise in Cubao, Quezon City.
Directed by DJ Chen Yin-jung, Formula 17 follows a virginal country boy (Tony Yang) who comes to the big city in search of true love and promptly falls for a heartbreaker playboy Pai (Duncan Chow). The plot is pure formula: boy gets, loses, then gets boy again routine that can never go wrong with fantasy sequences, flashbacks, bright gay colors, funky humor and liberal blasts of bubblegum Cantopop sing-alongs.
Both stars, well-built and undeniably good-looking, are heterosexuals and their female fans drool over seeing two straight guys kiss. Yang is a well-known soap opera hero in the TV series First Love, Love Train, and Crystal Boys, while Chow starred in the soaps Lover of Herb and Legend of Speed.
Despite the total lack of female characters, Filipino ladies and gays
of all ages will nevertheless surely melt in the film's relentless bombardment
of mushy elements - kissing one's reflection in a mirror, sulking after
a breakup, writing "I love you" in the sand on a beach, syrupy
phone conversations and gossiping about each other's romantic escapades.
But despite the formula, Chinese traditions are subverted at every turn with a queer twist. An old man the lovers meet on the street turns out to be gay providing not only a comical moment, but an exciting and liberating one. The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, an ultimate symbol of macho conservatism and the Asian melodrama of the fortune teller's warnings become fixtures in the grand scheme of things in this totally gay utopia.
Formula 17 debuted at the Taipei Film Festival in 2003, then played
at the Pusan Film Festival and the Golden Horse Film Festival where
Tony Yang won an award for best newcomer.
Completing the Taiwan connection is Hey Jimmy by Ming Chieh, a short documentary about "Black Jimmy," a black Taiwanese drag queen. The piece considers the socio-cultural complexities of the protagonist's mixed parentage.
Posted May 17, 2005