Out & About

Following the success of last year's "Rainbow Boy The Movie", Cyberfish Media is sending out another gay-related message in its latest film "Club M2", where good intentions disastrously clash with poor acting and impaired production.

While "Rainbow Boys The Movie" deals with closeted gay youngsters with inner physiological turmoil who reach out for acceptance and understanding from those around them, "Club M2" addresses broader and more serious subjects - HIV awareness and ignorance, homophobia and the misconceptions of gay people. The story follows a homophobic married man, Chad (Akarat Chong-kittiwong), who seeks advice from his closeted brother to woo back his estranged wife. While putting the plan into action, he accidentally gets involved with a big sum of bribed money that belongs to a politician who is a member of the mafia. Terrified and not knowing what's after him, Chad accidentally takes refuge in a gay sauna, Club M2, where he faces his fear and comes of age with a more mature perspective of homosexuality.

In another intertwining plot, a homophobic band with a closeted drummer is desperate for a gig to get them some quick cash when out of the blue they get a deal to play at Club M2 on the grand opening day - the same day Chad comes to the club. Homophobic as he is, the Club M2 owner tricks the band to play for some small payoff by promising a music producer to see the show as a member of the audience. Adding more complication to the situation, the set-up producer happens to be Chad, who is persistently seduced by band members who pretended to be gay for a record deal.

From the very beginning of the flick you might get the feeling that you're watching a movie for an Aids awareness campaign. The owner of the club is living with HIV with his devoted lover by his side, encouraging and understanding the harmlessness sides of the disease. The latter part deals mostly with the misconception that straight men have about gay men - that they love, love, love to harass straight men and they all carry HIV. Simply put, they're trying to show that gays could be friendly and helpful, and they know more about HIV than most straight men do.

Good messages are there, but unfortunately portrayed in a bad presentation. First of all, the conversation is not at all natural. It's too contrived and banal, though there are some witty gay gags. And to make it worse, most of the cast cannot act nor have the magnetic physical power to draw the audience (as suggested by some gay viewers). They look startled, nervous and not convincing - especially the supposedly raunchy gay love scenes.

The story reaches its peak of confusion and complication then resolves itself all too easily - the bad guys go to jail, closeted gays face the world and most importantly, peace and love develops between gay and straight men. It's almost too easy to be true for an utterly homophonic guy to come to terms with his brother being gay, or the wife to immediately fall back in love with the helpless husband who gets his ass saved by a bunch of queens.

But what would you get from the film? It's not a question of true love regardless of sexual orientation as in "Me & Myself", the parody of Western gay films as in "Gay Station", which makes fun of both gay and straight men with obscene gags delivered by ugly men-turned-even uglier transvestites in most gay or katoey movies. This is a profound, heartfelt outcry calling on society to accept, or at least try to understand this group of fellow human beings who happen to have different sexual preferences - as if to say it's okay to be homophobic subconsciously, but consciously please don't be. n

"Club M2" is showing with English subtitles at House on RCA.

Manta Klangboonkrong