Skip to main content

Mannen Som Elsket Yngve (Norwegian) [The Man Who Loved Yngve]

What i liked best about this film that it was not your regular run-of-mill coming of age story. It was a film with maturity and a very authentic feel to it in which many of the scenes and the characters were handled. Till now it is very hard for me to say whether our lead character was bi, gay or even just straight. There are moments when you just fall in love with a person. There is no reason behind it, sometimes sex of the person doesn't even matter. You just feel a connection and this film tries to give us a portrayal of that.

Jarle is a regular teenager, who is a part of a band with 2 of his good friends. He also has a girlfriend with whom he is very much in love with. Enter Yngve, a new student in the class and for some strange reason, Jarle gets instantly attracted to him. He wants to do everything that Yngve does, so much so that he starts missing his rock band practices and even starts avoiding his girlfriend. Till this point, Yngve has not given any hint that his either gay or interested in Jarle. Things take such a turn that Jarle has to now choose between Yngve and his friends. In a strange twist of events, Jarle bashes up Yngve yelling that he is gay. This happens right after he tells him that he loves him. Yngve cannot take this anymore and he tries to commit suicide and is now in a rehab institute. Jarle visits him after days of struggle and cannot contain himself when he sees him. The ending though not positive, shows that Jarle really cared for Yngve. You will never know whether he truly loved him or not. If he did, why could he never have the courage to do so.

An engaging and tender story, this film also shows the struggles with admitting true feelings when it comes to a same sex relationship. Jarle fears violent retribution from his father and emotional disapproval from his mother. I wish the movie had a little more to offer during the whole length of he film. There is so much that happens in the last 15 minutes, that I personally wish the film makers had spent more time on etching out those details of Yngve's and Jarle's relationship. I liked the friendship that Jarle shared with his straight friend. Unfortunately in these kind of stories, the girlfriend is always neglected. I feel, someone should make a film of what the girl goes through when she gets dumped by a guy for being gay.

My first Norwegian gay film but overall pretty impressive. It could have been a better if treated a little different, more streamlined beginning with maybe a positivie ending but still it is one of the better films that I have seen in recent times. (6.5/10)

Comments

moonlitlake said…
Some movies talk so much while saying nothing..Both the main actors excel in their characters.I will watch it all over again since you recommended.

Popular posts from this blog

The Shortest Distance is Round 3: Fallen Flowers

Continuing with the weird trilogy of "The Shortest Distance", I am so glad that finally I am done with part 3 and won't have to deal with this again in future. Thankfully, as of now the makers have not announced any further parts; which will save all of us on this earth from the embarrassment of watching this in near future. After the first 10 minutes are used in sort of recapping bits of first two parts, the story moves forward. Haruto is now starting to have feelings for Ruka, the mysterious pole dancer from second part. In a fit of rage, Ruka ends up killing the goat man and to save him and Haruto, Shibahara asks them to go underground. Meanwhile Shibahara continues the search for Seiya (the guy who had cut off Haruto's penis). It turns out Seiya is now also taking care of the original club owner from part 1. Both of them were released after they had informed Shibahara of Aoyama's secret location. Shibahara tortures Seiya's boyfriend leading to Seiya killin

One Summer Night (Korean)

I really wanted to like this film but for non native speakers, these movie leaves a lot to be understood and the way scenes were unfolding in front of me, I wasn't sure many times what was really going on. The story had potential button getting any back story on any of the characters limited my ability to empathize with any of these actors. Film starts with two North Korea military guys Yong Joon and Jae Sung having sex and they are caught red handed and they run. Three years later we see Yong Joon in Seoul leading a very mundane and poor life. He has a boyfriend Tae-Kyu, who is a weird guy. He is carefree, doesn't do any work and is completely emotional and financially dependent on Young Joon. In fact, even Yong Joon will go to any lengths to protect him , fend for him and taking care of him to the extent of even taking up prostitution. Suddenly one day Jae Sung appears in their life again. His motivation is not clear but it is obvious he wants Yong Joon back in his life, who

Ultimate masturbation: Shigoki no yama (Japanese) [The Ultimate Masturbation]

I would never know what was the point behind making this film. Was it supposed to be a comedy, cos it wasn't. It wasn't even porn. It was just a silly attempt at making something absolutely senseless and ridiculous. The story, as well as direction is equally shoddy. You could laugh for having seen something so bad, but I wouldn't call that comedy. An old man runs a camp about gay masturbation. The explanation given is that gays masturbate for pleasure unlike straight men, for whom the act is seen as shame or because they can't find a woman. One day a straight man shows up and wants to join the camp for his thesis. After discussion, he is allowed in. Rules include that you can masturbate together, you can masturbate one another, but there is no fellatio or anal sex. Some students of course breaks rule. The teacher then talks about 2 forms of masturbation which gives ultimate pleasure. He shows one without touching and then refuses to talk of the other. Somehow suddenly,