-she's fine.
...
- Can she make you laugh?
- Oh, we laugh a lot.
- As smart as you?
- Yes, for sure.
- she caught you?
- Yes, she really did.
...
- I think you really should stop.
If it weren't for the fact that the object of discussion was a woman, this girlfriend conversation could be said to be commonplace. But even if the subject is lace, the film still feels unremarkable.
"Kiss Jessica" is such a bland movie.
Bland is not a positive word for a movie, a good movie must give the audience the pleasure of watching the movie within 120 minutes. However, things are dialectical, and when it comes to a subject that the audience already has strong psychological expectations for - homosexuality, it is the greatest advantage of this film to be flat.
The blandness first lies in the fact that the protagonist of the story is not positioned on this marginalized group. Whether it's Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung, who live on the other side of the world in "Breakthrough", or Liu Ye, a poor and helpless college student in "Lan Yu", or Heath Ledger riding a horse in the mountains of the western United States, once homosexual themes enter the adult world , the characters always take people into another realm. The superb skills of the master director can certainly make the story moving, but for the general audience, it is a matter of imagination after all.
"Pro" can resonate strongly with the audience, because its protagonist Jessica is a very life-like character. Nearly 30 years old, no boyfriend, best friend is pregnant, my brother is about to get married, my mother and grandmother are urging me to go on blind dates frequently. The appearance of the film, the appearance of an affordable handsome guy, and the title of the film is changed to "Diary of an Older Literary Young Woman", maybe there will be more people who are related to each other. But then, it's really dull.
The fact that the story is different is the foundation laid in the first twenty minutes of the film. Whether Jessica or Helen, it wasn't lace to begin with. In many gay movies, the protagonists are gay from the beginning, and the characters of the protagonists often serve the theme of "homosexuality", and even the plot cannot get rid of this issue. After all, in these films, homosexuality is a marginal area, and homosexuality The actor is a marginal character. To highlight the word "love", it is destined that the character's experience must be dramatic. Unlike happiness, which often encounters the embarrassment of "strange laughs", sadness is the most common emotion of human beings, so most of the gay movies are made as tragedies, which is also the reason why usually one person has to sacrifice for the plot, "Brokeback Mountain" "If Jack hadn't died unexpectedly, there wouldn't have been the classic scene of hugging the shirt later.
The blandness of "Pro" makes it get rid of the gray and sad tone of gay movies, and it is completely a light comedy displayed in front of the audience. Here, homosexuality is no longer a genre subject that requires characters to serve it. On the contrary, the promotion of the plot makes homosexuality a natural experience for Jessica and Helen, as common as falling in love with an ordinary person.
But is plainness meaningless at all? Apparently not.
Due to its unique way of telling, "Pro" analyzes the hidden issues that gay films most want to address: Is homosexuality a physical need or an emotional need? As I have said before, most of the gays in the film are presupposed, so their (their) emotional experiences must be flashed, which is tantamount to agreeing that homosexuality is a sexual orientation first, and then produces great emotions. These films give the audience a feeling of unparalleled love, and the resulting tolerance does not come from a sense of identity, but from pity.
Jessica and Helen are just two options on this issue. Jessica met Helen because of her repeated failures with men of various colors, and Helen because of the tedious sex life and followed a friend's suggestion to try same-sex love. Clearly, the former represents emotional needs, while the latter is a physiological need. From the development of the relationship between Jessica and Helen, it can be seen that the director is inclined towards emotional needs. Jessica has been experiencing emotional changes. Sex is not the first need for her. , sex is seen as a sublimation of her relationship with her partner, which depends entirely on Jessica's emotional attitude, not the sex of the object. On the other hand, Helen has been experiencing what she calls sex ugly. Between Jessica, she is always the one who is proactive, but she is often restrained by Jessica. To some extent, this is a metaphor that emotions can control desire.
As the protagonist of the title, Jessica's emotional experience is the main aspect of the performance. There are family members, girlfriends, and a touching confession from her ex-boyfriend. This kind of character does not have the label of homosexuality, and actually exists in the audience. In life, the emotional identity that the director took pains to create actually already has the answer. The options revealed by the ending of the story can be said to be clear. Jessica and Helen's love affair was blessed by family and friends, and her ex-boyfriend received a good card. Everything indicates that there will be a Happy ending. However, the two have different needs. It finally led to the two breaking up. Jessica loved the known Helen, but Helen was looking forward to a partner who could satisfy sex ugly. Homosexuality has returned to ordinary emotions here. It is no longer a strange love. It has a fateful first encounter, a process of twists and turns, and a letting go that is forced by reality. At the end, the director even seems unnecessary to arrange the reappearance of ex-boyfriend Josh. This plot is not only to suggest another possibility of Jessica and Josh, but also to think that the common essence of homosexuality and heterosexuality is " Love", that is, emotion is the first need.
After reading "Pro", I can't help but think of the famous song by the Beatles: All you need is love. Although it is a story about lace, it is a good lesson for those who don't know their love in reality. good people? Does it make you laugh? Are you as smart as you are? caught you?
So, what else is needed? After all, Love is all you need.
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