Weirdness, tender ingenuity, and so much subtle significance in the apparent meaningless. These three characteristics are the heart and soul of many sci-fi films, where space and aliens represent more than a connection between two distant worlds. Chinese activist filmmaker Cui Zi’en‘s “Star Appeal (2004)” navigates Earth’s discrepancies and dysfunctional approach to love and relationships by bringing an alien face to face with the harsh realities and incoherence of us humans.
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Coming alone from Mars to the Earth, ET (Wang Guifeng) is brought home by Xiao Bo (Bo Yu). Xiao Bo’s girlfriend, Wen Wen (Zhang Xiwen) disbelieves that ET can be an alien, while Xiao Bo’s boyfriend, Xiao Jian (Hou Jian), is simply skeptical. However, Xiao Bo is rather convinced of ET’s identity. Not only that, but he is very attentive to the alien, enthusiastically showing him what the Earth looks like and how it feels like living in it.
To distract Xiao Bo from ET, Wen Wen masquerades herself as someone from Jupiter. Since her plan doesn’t work, Xin Xin declares that she’ll have a mixed Earthling-Martian baby with ET to get revenge. She brings him home, teasing him and trying to persuade him to have a baby with her, but instead, ET ends up losing consciousness. Coming to his rescue, Xiao Bo inadvertently utters “I love you,” a phrase also used by Martians. Upon hearing this, ET recovers consciousness. From this moment, the relationship between the Martian and the humans get more and more dangerously intense.
ET used to survive merely on sunlight, never taking any food or drink. As a matter of fact, it is thanks to Xiao Bo’s sake that ET savors coffee for the first time. He gradually experiences various aspects of life on Earth, learning how to love and not to mention the physical limitations of humans. Through metaphors, puzzling conversations, and eclectic photography, the role of the alien goes beyond the figure of a lost soul in an unknown land, but instead, works as a means of critique of contemporary human behavior.
Especially Xiao Bo and ET’s relationship strikes most compared to the others, as its queerness represents the most authentic and ideal symbol of a nonconformist and countercultural approach. Together with its rawness, the incompatible yet undeniable attraction between the protagonists gives birth to a doomed, soul-like connection. ET’s naivety and Xiao Bo’s dysfunctional means of approach bravely hint at the daily difficulties of living in a world we humans built.
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The cinematography of Zhang Huilin is captivating, giving the perfect shape to a typical visual queer discourse hinting at Gregg Araki’s famous trilogy or indie new queer wave films. The use of colours, despite being on a low budget, is enough to confuse the viewer, making the film a rollercoaster ride of emotions. However, sometimes the editing seems to be intended to distract us from the troupe’s chemistry on set, which is blatantly missing in some scenes throughout the film.
What mostly captivates about Cui’s project is the subtle yet unapologetic approach to the nature of humans, who model their attitude towards life and others on toxic heteronormative, selfish and patriarchal relationships, where everyone is victim of jealousy, gender roles and irrealistic and almost submissive co-depedent ties between one another. To this extent, the director’s goal is palpable and almost makes up for the poor screenwriting, which thrives on riddles and confusing timelines.
Although inconsistent and flawed in many aspects, “Star Appeal” is an unconventional and daring take on the heteronormative and individualistic nature of mankind, especially in our contemporaneity. By playing with lights, colors, and riddles, Cui gives shape to an interesting yet unfortunately hidden gem in Chinese queer filmmaking, a captivating fantastical and extraterrestrial modern tale. Let alone, probably the first all gay Chinese science fiction.
