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[HanCinema's Film Review] "Queer Movie Beautiful"

Beom-hae (played by Kim Hyun-mok) is a shy nineteen year old homosexual. Shy is the key word. Beom-hae is not ashamed to be gay. But he's not really sure how to make gay friends, and his first foray into the online world is...ambiguous. The unnamed online application Beom-hae uses is represented on screen as a giant dark void resembling a poorly lit student theater. Older gay men make unsettling remarks to Beom-hae as Beom-hae awkwardly breaks off from these conversations.

"Queer Movie Beautiful" is an intensely gay movie, yet a very honest one emotionally, aptly describing the story of a young, ordinary gay boy trying to become a gay man. We're first introduced to Beom-hae as he makes obvious childish lies to Sang-wi (played by Na Do-hwan). It's all too painfully obvious that Beom-hae simply has no idea how to act in social situations at all, gay or otherwise. Yet there's something adorable in how Beom-hae fumbles with funerary rites, of all things, as a plausible excuse.

Where the story really picks up is when Beom-hae makes the acquaintance of Do-han (played by Choi Chan-ho-I), who is social yet aloof. There's no love triangle or anything, Do-han just introduces Beom-hae to new people, who are scary at first, but quickly turn out to be quite pleasant and just the kinds of friends an amateur gay boy needs to find his place in the world. There's a very nice sublime quality in how writer/director Baek In-gyoo is able to frame scenes from Beom-hae's point of view as the perpetually nervous new guy.

Unfortunately the editing of "Queer Movie Beautiful" leaves a bit to be desired, with many major plot points not really being spelled out. Most obviously, it's never explicitly stated that Beom-hae starts masquerading as Do-han online so he can feel what it's like to be popular. Nor is it clearly explained what all those hearts he's giving away are. I'm assuming they're similar to likes, which Beom-hae gives out to both improve his own self-esteem and bolster those of others.

There's an undeniably amateurish quality in the production and even the performances of "Queer Movie Beautiful" although these augment rather than detract from the core thesis. There's sincere ambition and determination in the very backdrop of the production that serves as a nice parallel to Beom-hae trying to build up his own confidence. There's powerful emotional honesty here about the coming of age experience for gay kids rarely seen in more fetishistic interpretations.

But don't get me wrong. These characters love to have gay sex. Yet the presentation is such that even a joke about an orgy comes off as surprisingly wholesome. Different strokes for different folks and all that. At the end of the day we can all still just be gay friends. "Queer Movie Beautiful" is available in twenty-two different languages at a fairly reasonable price world wide on Vimeo here. There's also a more expensive premium set including alternate cuts of the movie, if you just can't get enough of Beom-hae's queer little world.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Queer Movie Beautiful" is directed by Baek In-gyoo, and features Kim Hyun-mok, Choi Chan-ho-I, Na Do-hwan, Choi Ji-woong-II, Yoon Ji-hyun, Im Jung-hwan. Release date in Korea: 2018/10/06.

 


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