Author: pASslosS
Just earlier this month, "The Name Engraved in Your Heart" became the first LGBTQ film to break the NT$100 million mark at the box office , and it was also the most successful of the few dozen LGBTQ films in Taiwanese film history.
The film is directed by Yao Hongyi , the photographer of "Assassin Nie Yinniang" and "The Last Night of Earth" , and Du Duzhi is the voice director. At this year's Golden Horse Awards, the film also won two awards for Best Cinematography and Best Original Film Song.
The movie opens with a quote from the Old Testament Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verse 7:
Love and many waters cannot be quenched, and great waters cannot be submerged. Anyone who trades all the treasures in the family for love will be despised.
A short sentence has already metaphorized the overall situation of the story.
The story takes place in 1987, when Taiwan had just lifted its decades-long martial law, but the winds of change in the society were still weak, stepping into a stubborn and repressed conservatism. This trend is still rooted in Ahan's Catholic school, where life is as usual, full of masculine militarized management, the absolute obedience of the lower to the higher, and absolute faith in Catholicism.
A tyrannical education trains boys here to be violent men, which means they humiliate and trample on men who are "not masculine enough". One of the violent scenes was described as shocking, and they brutally humiliated and persecuted a boy in a public toilet.
A Chinese and Birdy in Canada priest managed to meet the band, whose real name is Birdy the name of euphony, from the Alan Parker film "Birdman" where insane people Birdy, he inherited the absurd and the character traits became school Notoriously disobedient student.
As a young student with an "authoritarian father" and an "excellent brother" at home, Ah Han faces many demons. Because of his poor grades, he was placed in the social group in high school, which made him scorned by his father, because the social group had no future in his father's eyes.
This is the gap between the two generations in the historical background at that time. That era was not only behind the needs of the younger generation, but also behind the needs of Ahan and Birdy. Their parents were the product of repression and erosion by the times, and their definition of life was "to live", but the young people of Ahan's generation are already discussing "love and freedom".
During a trip to Taipei to attend Chiang Ching-kuo's funeral on behalf of the school, Ah-Han and Birdy became close.
They hang out on the streets, and as early as 1988, there were affirmative activists on the streets of Taipei. The film pays tribute to Mr. Qi Jiawei, who spoke out for the gay community in the 1980s. He is known as "Taiwan's first openly gay male".
The avatar of Mr. Qi Jiawei held a simple placard that read "Marriage is everyone's right! Homosexuality is not a disease!" This simple and neat handwriting is not as gorgeous as the rainbow flag that is overwhelming today. But the preciousness of it is difficult to describe in words.
In this episode, he is violently treated by law enforcement officers, and Ahan and Birdy subconsciously help him without realizing that they are "community".
This is the cruel age of "the cage has not been revealed". Today's people can resist and break the bond with tenacity, but Ahan and Birdy are caged birds who can't see the cage.
Another thread that runs through the whole film is a piece of Cai Lanqin's "This World" , which they always sing over and over:
In this world, a little joy, a little sadness, no one can escape. Our world is not as bad as you said, so why should you feel emotion? Add some beauty to the world with your care and all your love.
This song is an inspiration to young souls. They are still exploring the understanding of love during their travels. They imagined freely before touching the iron wall. It seems that only under the protection of this song can their love bloom safely.
It is worth mentioning that Cai Lanqin died in 1987 at the age of 22. This means that their love has been haunted by death from the very beginning. But first love is always accompanied by the imagination of death, so it will be extremely enthusiastic. For them, no matter what, they must commit suicide once in spirit.
Then they did somehow kill their youth and enthusiasm.
Birdy wasn't so brave when he found out he liked Ah Han. At this time, the school started to recruit female students, and he made a girlfriend to prove that he was a straight man. He used A-Han to do a lot of things and deliberately hurt A-Han's emotions.
In this campus atmosphere, love is a taboo, and same-sex love is a taboo among taboos, all dogmas are racking their brains to prove that Ahan's love is not love, only heterosexual love is love, As the godfather said, you "care" but not "love". Previously, the priest had also told young students to "live in the moment and enjoy the relationship", but unfortunately the subject of this sentence did not include Ahan or Birdy.
Interestingly, the film also mentions Birdy's girlfriend and future partner . The fictitious "girlfriend" between gay men is proof that homosexual feelings cannot be told. In the plot, they deny their homosexuality by having a girlfriend, and take the blame by "robbing a girlfriend"... This kind of "unspeakable" will detonate more tragedies in their future lives.
Same goes for gay and same-wife families. It seems that men don't need to persecute an innocent heterosexual woman, but social pressure will force them to fill the vacancy according to the "right answer", and the ultimate victim is both women and men, and they should not sacrifice themselves for any wrong person. The backward system will make people resent each other, be the scapegoat for each other, and then make atonement endlessly. Nothing can kill humanity more than this.
And what struck me was when Birdy and Ah-Han faced their passions and desires for the first time in the bathroom, and then fell into a long grief.
They shouldn't have this sadness.
About 80% of the character Ahan is based on director Liu Guanghui's own experience. Originally, his intention was not to make a gay movie, but a movie that recalled his first love. It's just that his first love happened to be a story of a boy liking another boy.
It is worth affirming that the director did not make the film a vulgar story about "coming out", because for the real life of LGBTQ people, coming out is a "pseudo ending", although it can be used as a proof of courage, But it will never be the end of the story.
But from another perspective, "The Name Inscribed in Your Heart" is very suitable to be regarded as a milestone in the history of LGBTQ equality in Taiwan, because it is a film deeply rooted in history. The film not only exposes the hypocrisy of Taiwan's "proclaimed openness" for decades, but also shows the all-round repression suffered by the LGBTQ community. easy.
The director has said that he especially wants "The Name Inscribed in Your Heart" to reach Malaysia and Singapore, where laws still equate homosexuality with a crime. And these two places have special significance because they are the hometowns of Xu Yuanting, Jia Wang and Chen Wenhua , the songwriters of the film's theme song .
In fact, until now, most Taiwanese gay men born in the 1970s still choose a very low-key life, and their pressure and risk of revealing their sexual orientation are greater than that of young people. All the belated jubilation after the success of peace rights is a bit "too late" for them, because they have been hurt by the era, and any good news can only disarm their hearts to a limited extent.
Some people wonder, is this kind of vigorous emotion between homosexuals considered love? In fact, they ignore the fact that the emotions in this film are so strong, precisely because these emotions have been suppressed under the deep sea, all you see is their emotional close-up , but when the camera gradually recedes, Ahan The story with Birdy will be obliterated by that era to the point where nothing remains.
This is not a game about who loves more vigorously than gay or heterosexual. It is a memory of scars. The love that should have happened in the youth did not have a sequel until middle age, and the missed years are the times when the era is engraved. The most painful scar on their body.
At the end of the film, Ah Han saw Birdy's figure in the bar, struggled inwardly and didn't dare to recognize him, but then waited in the bar for several days until Birdy miraculously appeared.
They weren't lucky enough to recover easily from it, but their stories affirmed what affirmation is about not allowing this trauma to perpetuate.
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