'Shi qi sui de tian kong' (FORMULA 17) is a very fine first venture into film making by two young Taiwanese women - Yin-jung Chen, director and Rady Fu, screenwriter - who are unafraid to take on a taboo subject in Taiwan and find some excellent talent and ideas that suggest that there will be more films from them in the future. Though the central theme and two characters of the story are excellent, the movie drifts into wide-eyed burlesque with its supporting cast, and thus the six rating instead of eight.
Tien (Tony Yang) is a naive seventeen-year-old from the provinces who comes to Taipei to live with his old friend Yu (Chin King), a bartender in a gay bar, for a summer. Tien is gay, a virgin, and intends to stay a virgin until he is in a meaningful love relationship. Yu is suffering from a relationship that is tainted by distance, but he sees the need to introduce Tien into the active gay life in Taipei - and to put an end to Tien's virginity. Together with Yu's friends (way over the top flamboyant kids) Tien is introduced to gay bars, is set up with hunks, but he holds to his values - until he eyes 30-year-old playboy Bai Tieh-nan (Duncan Lai), a lothario famous for his one night stands. We gradually learn that Bai is a sensitive hunk with issues who is afraid to fall in love, hence his one night stand rule. The story at the core of this film is how the two ultimately fulfill each others' ideals and needs.
Much of the film dawdles in stereotypical situations and poorly acted and directed excursions into the bar scenes, but the work of Duncan Lai and Tony Yang makes the film credible and well worth watching: both men are handsome, talented actors who develop a fine screen chemistry. For all its weak points, FORMULA 17 is a film with a big heart and a gay film that manages to deal with some important issues of fidelity and honesty instead of focusing on merely the superficial. In Mandarin, Cantonese, English with subtitles. Grady Harp
Tien (Tony Yang) is a naive seventeen-year-old from the provinces who comes to Taipei to live with his old friend Yu (Chin King), a bartender in a gay bar, for a summer. Tien is gay, a virgin, and intends to stay a virgin until he is in a meaningful love relationship. Yu is suffering from a relationship that is tainted by distance, but he sees the need to introduce Tien into the active gay life in Taipei - and to put an end to Tien's virginity. Together with Yu's friends (way over the top flamboyant kids) Tien is introduced to gay bars, is set up with hunks, but he holds to his values - until he eyes 30-year-old playboy Bai Tieh-nan (Duncan Lai), a lothario famous for his one night stands. We gradually learn that Bai is a sensitive hunk with issues who is afraid to fall in love, hence his one night stand rule. The story at the core of this film is how the two ultimately fulfill each others' ideals and needs.
Much of the film dawdles in stereotypical situations and poorly acted and directed excursions into the bar scenes, but the work of Duncan Lai and Tony Yang makes the film credible and well worth watching: both men are handsome, talented actors who develop a fine screen chemistry. For all its weak points, FORMULA 17 is a film with a big heart and a gay film that manages to deal with some important issues of fidelity and honesty instead of focusing on merely the superficial. In Mandarin, Cantonese, English with subtitles. Grady Harp