Grounded (2018)

Growing pains

Teen years are probably the sweetest and the most difficult years in anyone's life. If you are an arts student, looking into your own memories should be enough to find inspiration. I would not be surprised to discover that it is the case here: this being an university project!

The story about burgeoning feelings between two teen boys is told with sensitivity and beauty by someone who knows what he's talking about! Two boys' friendship and certainly more, is ruined by the lack of courage and the fear of how other people perceive them.

The actors skilfully conveyed the feelings of loss, love, desperation and disappointment: their eyes seriously tugged at my heartstrings. The cinematography is lovely and the sets tell a lot about the boys feelings of confusion, loneliness and yearning for happiness, understanding and love. Unfortunately, the society, the misconceptions, the lack of acceptance, scare one of the boys who ends up running away from the promise of a different but right kind of happiness for him.

I wish this were longer and that the ending did not give us a forshadowing of not nice things to come for one of the boys. As the title puts it, one boy managed to ground the other one, stop him from flying away. But now that he is scared, he abandons the other boy not grounding him, holding him down anymore....Sad and tragic? Or hopeful that he will find the strength to go on?

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How does the gaze of others affect an a priori perfect homosexual relationship?

In this 2018 short film of only 15 minutes, Taiwanese director Ching Chi Hu captures a youthful homosexual experience with a good deal of sensitivity, but also with the same taste for taking the dramatic conflict to a practically extreme situation that crushes the audience's heart. more sensitive.
The first part of this deeply personal portrait of a newly discovered love, draws the love relationship between the two protagonist boys, Kai Chang (Xuan Qi Chen) and Hao Tsai (Bo Yao Wang), the latter co-writer with Chi Hu, in a of those intense and unique connections that occur over six magical months, while both frequently skip classes at a Taiwanese high school to discover the universe within their reach.
Between jokes, laughter and complicity, what emerges as a friendship quickly transforms into a more intense bond. However, with the same speed and simplicity as this pure relationship is created, it is affected when moving to another socialization environment, school. As Hao rides the bus with his fellow students, they express an obvious aversion toward homosexual people. In fact, the girl next to him, presumably a girlfriend to hide his homosexuality, asks Hao about the boy with whom he spends many hours together every day and they are very close.
As the connection between the two strengthens, Hao grows increasingly certain that they will not have the possibility of a future together. Therefore, against her will, she decides to break up with her lover. The scenes, which show the mutual discovery of secret desires until one's lips want to eat the other's, are filmed with a tender and tactile lens.
Through ellipses and in a naturalistic tone, in its second half, 'Grounded' becomes a drama around the loss that Kai suffers, first due to the death of his mother, and then due to the tragic breakup with Hao .
Instead of jokes, laughter and complicity, now there are half smiles on the faces of the two protagonists and involuntary grimaces of pain, with the boys' lips closed and those dark, very dark eyes, shining with shed tears and others without shedding.
Hao wants to “marry the sea and embrace freedom, but he is afraid of the wind and the waves and the limits of painting.” The homophobic society in which he lives and where marriage between people of the same sex is not recognized until the year after the filming of the short, does not allow him to conquer his dreams. Hao does not reveal himself to the circumstances and ends up being a victim of them. This foresees serious consequences for the loved one.
The short film thus becomes a sharp portrait of how the gaze of others ends up affecting an a priori perfect relationship. The audiovisual offers us, on the one hand, a window to other realities, and on the other hand, it places a mirror in front of ours.
With a little more development of the characters and events, I have no doubt this film will be able to remodel the belief system of many viewers, make them think and reconsider our immovable truths.

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