Three high school students experience the perks and pitfalls of love in director Leste Chen’s sensitive tale of friendship and yearning.
| Tagline | No One Wishes To Be Lonely, Neither Do We. |
| Release Date: | Oct 13, 2006 |
| Genres: | Drama, Romance |
| Production Company: | Three Dots Entertainment Company, Flash Forward Entertainment, Rolling Film Entertainment |
| Production Countries: | Taiwan |
| Casts: | Ray Chang, Joseph Chang Hsiao-Chuan, Kate Yeung Kei |
| Status: | Released |
| Budget: | $0 |
| Revenue: | 254000 |
Although it is a bit ponderous and retreads well-trodden ground of queer cinema--the unrequited, sexually confused love triangles of teenagers--Eternal Summer is more restrained, skillful, and affecting than most attempts to tell this story. The unusual Asian setting helps to further distinguish it. The actors are decent, the writing is decent, the cinematography is competent if amateurish ... It's worth a watch.
This was a bit of a disappointment for me and it felt a bit disconnected at times. It starts when two boys become friends in elementary school and then it jumps to their senior year in high school and then jumps again to their first year in college. By the end of high school one of them realizes that he is gay and in love with his best friend and the best friend's girlfriend figures this out, but keeps his secret. The gay guy actually starts to treat his best friend horribly, even though the best friend does nothing but want to be his friend. The gay guy is struggling with his sexuality, but that isn't really a good reason to treat your best friend like that and going out of the way to hurt his feelings. At the end, the truth does come out, although it was hinted at that the best friend probably figured it out right before that. However, nothing is resolved and the movie ends without any idea of the fall out of the revealing conversation. It wasn't a bad movie, but it also didn't have much emotional impact either. Much of movie was the gay guy avoiding his best friend and his best friend trying to find out why. It really had the potential to be much better than it was.
