Well, that was depressing.
So how do you differentiate BL from queer art? Because...I see people refer to LGBT films and shows from Asia as BL as if the type of queerness is different from Western ones?! That's a bit weird. Gay is gay everywhere, no?!
Anyway, this is a story of sexual awakening in a crappy era in Taiwan and it's appropriately heartbreaking. You can't really expect all daisies and roses from an era where political and social upheaval are piled on top of dominant prejudices. It's not a cute, fluffy story. So the plot and the characters' characterization are appropriately bleak and raw. It's tragic and heartbreaking, not just due to the circumstances but also because of the regrettable choices made by the characters that make life even harder for them. Then, it is no one's doing but theirs.
I enjoyed this but the experience is bittersweet as the implications of the timeline and the story speak of lost time, irreversible mistakes, and regrets that haunt the characters 30 years into the future. But it's done very well so it feels satisfying to watch the story develop.
That said, I did not love the movie from start to finish. I found the conversation scenes with the priest to be stilted and unnatural. They felt too much like preaching and it made the whole thing awkward. I also disliked the flash-forward in the end; not because of the positive or negative ending but because it felt like over-explanation in a way that was not very graceful. There seemed to be too much conversation. Or the camera was following where it was not meant to go? I don't know, it just didn't feel connected to the rest of the film. It felt like a totally different movie and while I liked the atmosphere and aesthetic of the past (not just visually but the cinematography and the direction choices too) the modern bit felt like your run-of-the-mill indie film...I just didn't like it. It felt like there was a break in the film's flow. Maybe if they had maintained the vibes, I would have liked it better.
The acting...well, actually I watched this because I liked Tseng Jing Hua in a different project and came here for that so I knew the acting was going to be good. But the rest of the cast was great too. I really liked Edward Chen. They kind of break your heart throughout the film.
Music is a big part of this film and so they paid special attention to it. It pays off.
Would I rewatch? I would rather not, to be honest. I hate stories about regret the most. They make me so anxious. So once is enough!
Overall: I guess you can watch it if you don't mind a little heartbreak. It's not a feel-good film but it's also not high-art...still, I think it's worth a watch, for sure. The quality is genuinely high, the story is touching and the acting is moving. You wouldn't feel like you wasted your time. It will be well-spent watching this.
P.S.: A bit of an unrelated tangent but this movie just proved to me once more that with proper crew and budget, Taiwan can save us from certain bad adaptations and censored content...just putting it out there.