In its 2020 edition, Queer East Film Festival too offers its program online. The festival launched a charitable initiative to raise money to support independent cinemas. Welcome to the Queer East: HomeSexual Edition that features five programmes, with 17 feature and short films from 9 countries. Their stories celebrate inspiring queer activism and storytelling from East and Southeast Asia
“Gentleman Spa” is part of Shorts 3: Made in Taiwan at Queer East HomeSexual Edition on Demand 18 April – 17 May.
Hao (Lai Hao-zhe) works in a gay massage salon, a place full of pretty masseurs and a variety of clients. But Hao seems to stick out. He is not a masseur and definitely not a man with a body of kouros. One day, a client walks in, and Hao starts his one step forward, two steps back dance.
Hao's job – janitor – doesn't require a six-pack and a rack of a Norse god. Yet, he works in a space that embodies the term “tacit body shaming”. No one ever points out his figure, the colleagues are actually quite supportive. Nor even his crush, swimming trainer, even during their lesson utters a word in this direction. Still, Hao fails to overcome his insecurity of own body and kind of projects it into others.
The message of “Gentleman Spa” might be quite obvious, though the film conveys it with a good deal of understanding, almost gently. It doesn't sugarcoat. It makes you feel for and with Hao, but allows you to roll eyes about his overthinking, overreacting. Moreover, it manages to use Hao's point of view as the look and smoothly works in some sensual moves just like a musical number in Chorus Line.
There is no magic behind it, mostly the smart choice of story settings made by filmmakers, the environment and situations, other the casting choices, and overall low key tone. Mix it together with all-male spa with full body massage, swimming lessons, men and boys whose bodies are their work tools, and the base is ready.
“Gentleman Spa” is about bodies and attitudes towards them. It doesn't lull his main protagonist to just sit and have another boba tea, it only asks him to accept that he might be attractive to someone else. And, as written above, the film does it with some well-chosen tools. It is only later that a voice in your head might go: “If you can't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”
