Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

CUT SLEEVE BOYS

A small film about gay Chinese men in London. That’s not an easy life and being gay in London, and I guess it is the same everywhere or in many places, is rather disappointing and offers flimsy security. The world outside is hostile, very hostile at times since some young men are so bored that hunting gays is a funny game and since they can’t hunt foxes any more they have to look for some substitute animals, and for them gays are just as good as any other game, and I do not mean a card game, rather some living creature that is assimilated to a boar or a hare. And that can be a hairy bore in a way.

The fact that the main characters are of Chinese origin does not change anything in the story. In fact it does not even make it deeper or more profound since there is absolutely no trace of racism in the film. The fate of gays in London is shallow and cruel especially when they are young and when they do not want to get attached, probably their Buddhist heritage, but more probably the freedom they want to keep against all odds because they were clandestine for so many centuries that they can’t even think of being or going stable which would mean telling everyone including their own parents they are gay. Somewhere they see their parents suddenly hit by nightmares about what they may or may not do in bed with their alter egos.

So they live on the side of real humanity. They make believe everyone and themselves they are happy with a one night flimsy superficial sex episode that they call making love though it is nothing and there is no real love in this quick rapid short episode, nothing but pretending. And they kick the transient visitor out or they kick themselves out with the fair intention that it was one time and there will be no second. It is sad, very sad, even painful to see them smile and laugh in a life that is nothing but a dream of a life, in fact a nightmare of a real life.

At the very end the director maybe insinuates that maybe perhaps there might be some further developments, a second night after the first, but under duress. That is still not a life. That is still not human. Man, just like women, needs stability and continuity, flexible and fluid adaptability but within some stable frame. Changing sexual partner every night, or even twice a night is not exactly psychologically viable. But some pretend, and that pretension is very emotionally expensive, that it is the basic condition for their happiness and they forget that one day they won’t be beautiful any more, they won’t be young any more, they won’t be desirable any more, they won’t find any real satisfaction in internet pornography any more, if ever, when they won’t find partners any more.

I find the film rather sad though we could consider it as a warning. But there is little effectiveness in giving a warning to the Titanic; It is bound to sink. Or it has to be redesigned completely.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU