My Latest DVD Collections

I added the following DVDs to my library, downloaded from the net:



"A Bangkok Love Story" - Thai Gay Movie

Plot:

A loner gunman named Mhek is assigned to kidnap a police informant named It, but Mhek has a change of heart when he is ordered to kill It.

In a gunbattle with his employers, Mhek is wounded, but It grabs Mhek's gun and returns fire. The two men then escape on Mhek's motorcycle.

At Mhek's rooftop hide-out, It tends to Mhek's wound and finds himself attracted to Mhek. While giving Mhek a bath one day, It initiates sexual intercourse with the hitman. Conflicted, Mhek demands that It leave him alone. It returns home to his fiancee, Sai, but is no longer interested in continuing a relationship with her. It spends his days pining over Mhek, and tracks down Mhek's brother, Mhok, and their mother. Mhok is HIV positive, as the result of sexual abuse by his and Mhek's stepfather, and their mother is dying of AIDS.

Mhek's dream is to take his mother and brother away from Bangkok to the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province. But after Mhek's mother witnesses Mhek and It kissing each other, she commits suicide by hanging herself.

It's fiancee, Sai, also witnesses the kissing by Mhek and It, and terminates their marriage plans. Meanwhile, Mhek's former employers are gunning for him. It decides to take matters into his own hands, and goes to Mhek's bosses' hide-out and shoots them both. Mhek, meanwhile, is planning to meet his brother at the railway station to leave Bangkok for good. But before he can board the train, he is apprehended by the police and sent to prison.

Years pass by. Mhok dies of AIDS at a hospice in northern Thailand. It visits Mhek in prison and reveals that he was left blind in the final gunbattle with Mhek's bosses. Eventually, Mhek is released from prison, and It meets him. But before the two men can leave to start their life together, Mhek is gunned down by an assassin. It eventually gets his sight back, and the first thing he does is to look at his mobile phone, which has a picture of Mhek on it that he took many years before.




Ang Lalaki sa Parola - Filipino Gay Movie

t its heart, "Ang Lalake sa Parola" ("The Man in the Lighthouse") is a tale of self-discovery.

It is the story of Mateo, played by up-and-coming hunk Harry Laurel, whose search for his estranged father (Richard Quan) leads him to the town of Lobo, Batangas. Once there, he finds out that his father, who disappeared when Mateo was but five years old, is now working in Dubai.

Mateo decides to wait for his father to return and settles down in Lobo to become the caretaker of its lighthouse. While he is acting in this capacity, he meets Jerome (Justin de Leon), a gay man from the city. The former is inexplicably attracted to the latter like a moth to a flame, despite the fact that he is very much attached – and to a woman at that.

As he falls deeper in love with Jerome, his girlfriend Suzet (Jennifer Lee) struggles for his love and attention. To paraphrase Shakespeare, Mateo is faced with a decision – to come out, or not to come out? That, indeed, is the question.

"Ang Lalaki sa Parola" is sure to delight both gay and straight audiences alike. How so? Yes, homosexuality is one of its major themes, but it is more than a simple "gay interest video." It is a heartwarming tale of two people finding themselves by finding each other – something that everyone can relate to – gay or straight.

According to its director, Jay Alterejos (whom i've known way back in 1998 coz we have a common friend, Bong), "Life is a journey and a continuous search for something. We might be looking for our roots, happiness, or even material fulfillment. At the end of the journey, we realize that the search is all about finding one’s true self, and learning to accept and embrace it."

"Ang Lalaki sa Parola" is Harry Laurel’s film debut. He hails from Legaspi City, Bicol (my hometown) and is the newest member of Viva’s Men of Provoq. Alan Paule, Crispin Pineda, Dexter Doria, Monti Parungao and Sheree also star.

I remember in 2004 when he lost in G. Albay pageant. I was there (among the less than a hundred audience in a big Albay astrodome) watching the search with James Blanco as their special guest, and Harry seemed to be unnoticed. Anyway, he has gone this far good enough and i'm glad he looks more manly than the winner of the G. Albay 2004 search who, i heard, is now a certified "ka-baro".



Formula 17 - Taiwanese Gay Movie


FORMULA 17 puts a lighthearted, humorous spin on gay life in Taiwan, painting an idealized portrait that contains no mention of the difficulties associated with the gay community. Ponderous topics like AIDS, societal pressures, or coming-out issues are absent, and there are no women or straight people--only beautiful young men with hearts more or less made of gold.

This candy-coated depiction comes off as a refreshing celebration of the simple joy of being young, gay, and in love. Tien is a 17-year-old country boy who has just arrived in Taipei to meet an internet friend he has been corresponding with. It soon becomes clear, however, that the prospective man of Tien's dreams--whose online handle is "Beast Man"--is only out for one thing, so Tien flees to a nightclub where his childhood friend, the flamboyant Yu, slings drinks with enthusiasm. Yu takes his naïve friend under his wing, scoffing at Tien's dogged insistence on waiting for love before he loses his virginity, and attempting to educate him in the ways of urban existence.

Tien persists in his virtue, resisting the advances of a hunky plumber hired by Yu and his crew of queens for the purposes of deflowering the boy. Meanwhile, it seems Tien has caught the eye of the local playboy, Bai, whose reputation for loving and leaving is well-established. Tien is likewise drawn to Bai but is justly wary of his past, and the two enact a halting courtship fraught with misunderstanding that stems from Bai's fear of intimacy.

The entirety of the film takes on the structure of a Greek comedy, complete with a chorus--Yu and his friends, who provide humorous commentary on the action--and a deux ex machina that pretty much saves the day. There is never any real doubt as to how this love story will end, but the pleasure of the story lies in the telling.



Adam & Steve - Comedy Gay Movie

In most romantic comedies the lovers meet cute. "Adam & Steve," directed by actor Craig Chester (familiar from his roles in such gay-themed indie films as "Grief" and "Swoon"), adopts a new approach. In this ramshackle if intermittently amusing effort, they meet gross.

And I do mean gross. We first encounter the titular characters via a prologue set in 1987, when Adam (Chester) is a Goth partygoer and Steve (Malcolm Gets) is a glam dancer. Hooking up at a club, the pair attempt to get it on, only to find their foreplay rudely interrupted by a burst of diarrhea prompted by the baby laxatives that have been mixed into their cocaine.

Whew! Cut to years later, when the more conservatively dressed figures, unaware of their previous encounter, meet again. Adam is now a bird watcher tour guide and recovering addict who hasn't been in a relationship for months, while Steve is a promiscuous psychiatrist. This time they do meet cute, of sorts, when Adam accidentally stabs his dog (not fatally).

The resulting courtship and inevitable complications form the crux of the story, which quickly settles into a familiar mode. Adding some comic spice to the proceedings are Parker Posey as a formerly obese stand-up comic who can't seem to remove the fat jokes from her act and former "Saturday Night Live" star Chris Kattan as Steve's straight, horndog roommate. Also on hand are Julie Hagerty, as Adam's accident-prone mother, and Sally Kirkland, no doubt wondering why Oscar nominations seem to count for so little in one's ensuing career.

The performers struggle to wrestle laughs from the crude material, and to their credit actually succeed to some degree. But ultimately "Adam & Steve" mainly goes to prove that indie gay romantic comedies can be just as witless, vulgar and over the top as their straight, major studio counterparts.


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