Monochrome (2023)

Stress and colours but no love

Monochrome is being sold as "boys love, lgbtq+, yaoi, gay" on WayuFilms Production youtube channel. I have not seen any of it unless you count a long fixed look between the leads until one of them turns the head around. That is the only moment in the film which could make the audience think that this is a romance, though there might be a whiff of unrequited love in the air!

The story:
White is a graphic designer who, after being scolded at work, loses his confidence and the ability to see colours. His best friend Shield tries to help him adjust to the new situation but White is too frustrated to make a real effort. Until one day they meet a blind girl painting in the park and White realized that his deficiency is not the end of the world and that he can do his job in spite of it.

The story deals with the pressure: the one we put on ourselves thinking we can do anything and the one put on us by the world, the employers and the society at large. We need to learn how to deal with this kind of stress, and the film shows it to us: there are people worse off than ourselves who are doing much better just because they accept themselves as they are and have found a way to make the most of it by taking an alternative path. In this film, the bling girl teaches White to distinguish colours by smell.

The production is, as usual, on a shoe string budget. The best was actually the actress playing the blind girl: I really believed she was blind. The film also has the main character working on a poster for a film/web drama starring the same actress and from the same producers. (On n'est jamais mieux servi que par soi même!!) The actors are rookies who act better when they are not speaking: there is a long montage without dialogue, which I found the most interesting. It seems to me that WayuFilm Productions are rarely going outside these days, filming their short movies in the office. They have lost a bit of its charm: I remember when I first discovered them, the cinematography was stunning and the stories were original. The last few short films have been a slight disappointment: actors learning the trade, boring stories and bad production values.

So, there is no romance here just some wishful thinking from the audience used to better fleshed out stories (Mon & Oak period!) from this director .

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