Jonathan is a well-behaved and studious young boy; his classmate Shane is neither. The teacher pairs them as study partners, beginning a bond of friendship. Throw in the new girl Carrie and flash forward to the end of high school. The three teens try to figure out the relationships among them. Taiwanese films tend to be melodramatic; this one somewhat less so than many, but to an American sensibility it wallows in the angst of the characters far too long, particularly focusing on Jonathan's almost unrelenting misery. The soundtrack is dominated by ponderous piano music that makes the plot seem to move even more slowly. Disappointing.
The short film Dissolution of Bodies (dir. Kevin Choi, 2007 USA, 12 min.) ran ahead of the feature, but I missed about half of the short, so I can't say much about it. It looked promising, though.
Eternal Summer (盛夏光年), dir. Leste Chen, 2006 Taiwan, 97 min., in Mandarin Chinese with English and traditional Chinese (正體字) subtitles
Technorati tags: Eternal Summer, 盛夏光年, Frameline, Frameline31, LGBT Film
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