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The Fish-Eye View

R. Epstein | USA | 11/06/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is basically a sort of Chinese version of the American documentary "101 Rent Boys", only really boring. That is, unless you're a pisciculturist (about 20% of the film consists of different angles of large fish in aquariums). The fish shots were nice, and I was interested in seeing modern culture in Beijing, especially from a gay perspective. But this film only shows glimpses of that culture, and I think a twelve-year-old could have done a better job of getting a wider perspective and more steady shots. It isn't long before the comments made by the rent boys becomes extremely redundant. There were a few interesting interviews with straight people who were quite accepting of gays and even claimed that China needs to legalize gay marriage (where they were and why they were talking to the camera, the filmmaker doesn't say). Considering China's overpopulation problem, it might be a good idea for the government not to discourage those who don't want to become "breeders", but what government ever does want to practice common sense? Had this been a twenty-minute film, I'd give it four stars because of the interesting view of Chinese culture, but it seems as though the director just padded his film with redundant stuff in order to sell it as a feature.

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