Word: Raymond Phathanavirangoon

Are you craving hot new gay films already, just four months after the feast that was HKLGFF? Well you’re in luck, because the Hong Kong International Film Festival (www.hkiff.org.hk) this year – from March 21 until April 6 – has what you want: lots of cute boys, plenty of passion, and tons of explicit nudity and sex!

Of course, with HKIFF being a cultural institution, all that flesh is in the name of art – ahem. Take Angelos Frantzis’ In the Woods, a quasi-experimental film that is full of explosive lust. This Greek saga is a love triangle between two good-looking boys and a girl. Boy is with girl until boy sticks hand into another boy’s shorts. Soon, you get full, uncensored fellatio underwater – and more! But far from being gratuitous, In the Woods is a fantastic, expressionistic film that examines humanity and nature in an almost paganistic fasion – one of the highlights of this year’s fest.

Another must-see is one of the most acclaimed gay works of 2009 – Xavier Dolan’s I Killed My Mother. The cute director – who also plays the lead – was just 19 when he shot the film. And when it premiered in Cannes, it grabbed three awards and became an instant sensation. Despite the title, no mothers were killed; instead this is a perceptive and hilarious coming-of-age yarn between an overly sensitive gay boy and his somewhat neurotic mother. I have a feeling quite a few of you will relate…

For something wholly outrageous – and pretty much X-rated – there is The Family Complete from Japan. Director Imaizumi Koichi’s last film was the sweet gay love story Hatsu-koi. But here he does a 180°, with furry sex, homo-incest, and plenty of erections to go around. It’s rough, perverse yet strangely compelling – and it’s one of the few times you’ll actually see uncensored genitalia coming out of Japan.

For those more into blondes and shaved heads, there’s the acclaimed gay neo-Nazi fiction Brotherhood, the Best Film winner at Rome Film Festival last year. Lars is an army officer who is discharged after eyeing one of his soldiers the wrong way. Angry and frustrated, he starts hanging out with the wrong crowd – namely right-wing supremacists. But to his surprise, he starts bonding with the intense Jimmy, and the two start a forbidden love affair. This surprisingly affecting love story is sure to move audiences.

Lesbians aren’t left out either, as the beautiful Vietnamese drama Adrift is full of same-sex longing. Of course, the communist country is still quite reserved and censorship is a problem, so the lesbian subtext is more muted than otherwise. But those who are perceptive will immediately recognize that the two women’s friendship goes beyond just sisterly love. And the award-winning film itself is a moody, sensuous examination of female desire in modern Vietnam.

Closer to home, the HKIFF’s closing film is from the prolific independent Hong Kong director Scud. Just a year after Permanent Residence, the filmmaker is back with his most ambitious work yet: Amphetamine. And like his earlier features, there’s plenty of toned, hot bodies bared for all to see – especially by the two hunky leads. The story concerns a tempestuous romance between a working-class swimming instructor and his rich, foreign-educated quasi-boyfriend. But as always, Scud is unafraid of ruffling feathers with topics such as drug use, rape and, well, sex and nudity.

Three other works have gay characters in their films. In the incredibly transgressive and strangely compelling Mother is a Whore, a young teen is in love with the protagonist – a man who pimps his own mother. Where this leads is shocking…and is left for you to see to believe. Another, Singapore’s well-shot satire The Blue Mansion, one of the sons of the recently dead patriarch is revealed to have an unconsummated affair with an old friend. And in Slice, the gritty and gory Thai thriller à la Se7en, a serial killer hacks off his victims’ genitals. The mystery surrounding these gruesome actions is central to the film’s thrills.

HKIFF is also bringing back a recent favorite: Lou Ye’s gay Chinese melodrama Spring Fever, winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival. The screenings are part of a forum on independent Chinese cinema by the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China. If you missed the film before, here’s another chance!

And that about wraps it up. For sure there are other gay characters in the over 200+ feature films that will be shown at the festival, but these are the highlights. Tickets are on sale now, so go to www.hkiff.org.k to find out more. See you at the movies!