Komorebi (2021)

A warm and fuzzy coming out to mother short film

Been long since I watched a film regarding coming out to parents so I was really interested in watching it.

Quite a basic coming out story that contains typical elements like uncertainty of how the parent would feel, hesitation during the confession etc. Although typical, it's very well executed via the acting and the filming style.

Coming from an Asian country myself and also speaking Mandarin and Hokkien in my daily life, it really gave the "at home" feeling throughout the whole film and the conversation of the son with his mom touched me at some point in the short film.

A slight criticism I have will probably be the confession part, which was a bit abrupt and then it did not exactly showcased the mother's reaction as a result of the indirect confession. Found it slightly awkward at that part but otherwise, this film like I said in the post title, gives me a fuzzy feeling maybe because of the way they film it and familiarity of the languages.

Interesting to note that the actress for the mother has also appeared in other BL films like Your Name Engraved Herein and Be Loved (drama). The married daughter also appeared in We Best Love as Shu Yi's female crush. Happy to see familiar faces in the Taiwan BL industry :)

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BL Movie with an interesting intention but too short to really captivate me

This very short film (only 28 minutes) is mostly a slice-of-life within a Taiwanese family with siblings who reunites for their mother's birthday. The story is centred around one main question: will the gay son comes clean to his mom ? Given the short duration, there is not a lot of content but the film does a good job setting up the stakes for the various characters.

In terms of casting, I feel that the actress playing the mother did the best job in interpreting with nuances her role. You feel her stress and care for her family. I was slightly less convinced by the actor playing her son, I felt the chemistry was a bit lacking in his couple. Still, he manages to be very real in displaying the emotions and hesitations of his character.

The film felt very indie: there are clearly on a budget but the decors and filmmaking was totally suitable for a proper storytelling. The ending song was nice but not memorable.

I would recommend this to people looking for a short BL indie movie. The question approached by the story feel very real and the way it is discussed makes sense. I did not find it very captivating as it was too short to feel connected with the characters. It is of course a very personnal opinion as I think it could really touch the heart of some other viewer. As it is very short, give it a shot ! I enjoyed learning about what Komorebi means.

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Komorebi is not a word, it's a feeling!

Komorebi{ 木漏れ日 } is the Japanese word for sunlight, which is filtered through the leaves of the trees. In particular, it means the visible light rays. “Komorebi” is composed of several parts of the word: “Ko” means tree or trees. “More” means: something that comes through, something that shines through or seeps through. “Bi” means: sun or sunlight. The word “Komorebi” reflects the romantic and emotional love of the Japanese for nature. Komorebi is that feeling, walking through the forest in the morning when the day wakes up or the afternoon when the sun goes down and the sun shines through the trees. When the sunlight kisses the ground. This light wind, this smell, this unique moment that makes every morning a special morning.

This short movie is just like that: it is all about feelings! Sometimes things not need to be said, just alluded to and felt!

The story tells of tergiversations of a man: he would like to tell his mother about being in love and getting married to his boyfriend but is afraid, he thinks he's going to hurt her if he comes out to her. But as the story progresses, we see the looks she keeps giving them and by the end we realize she knows without ever having been told. And of course, there are the socks....

The feelings are everything here: insecurities, love, kindness, understanding, possibilities, hope, happiness. The mother expresses all of these with a look, a gesture, a smile. Everything is so subtle so one needs to pay attention.

Nice short watch about how parents can unexpectedly and pleasantly surprise us when we are dealing with difficult issues.

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An almost half-hour short film with a story connected to what is the most progressive thing in Asia (same-sex marriage) in Taiwan. The film was conceived and also acted with taste, subtlety and Taiwaneseness, and for me it was well above average in all evaluation criteria. I was interested in the mother, who we already know as the mother of Shi Lei-e from Be Loved In house: I Do, and I also liked A-Jheng. Nice.

Téměř půlhodinový krátký film s příběhem napojeným na to, co je na Taiwanu nejpokrokovější z Asie (sňatky stejnopohlavních párů). Snímek byl pojat a též zahrán vkusně, jemně a taiwansky a byl pro mě vysoce nadprůměrný ve všech kritériích hodnocení. Zaujala mě matka, kterou už známe též jako matku Shi Lei-e z Be Loved In house: I Do a též se mi líbil A-Jheng. Pěkné.

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