The Reviews Hub
Date:  31/10/2020
By: Reviewer: Richard Maguire

Writer and Director: Ming-Lang Chen

While set against the campaign for same-sex marriage in Taiwan, this unassuming film, receiving its premiere at the Queer East Festival, examines the more personal politics of a young man finding his voice as he embarks on his first serious relationship. Kevin dares not tell too much to anyone, and Ming-Lang Chen’s film, quiet and sometimes unaccommodating, mirrors this reticence.

Kevin teaches civics at a high school. He’s enthusiastic in his lessons talking of the importance of self-respect and of human rights, but his students are too full of hormones to care and when they suspect their teacher of being gay they begin to make his life difficult.

His home life takes a nosedive at the same time as his new relationship is suddenly filled with problems. Moving out of his mother’s house into his boyfriend’s luxury apartment seemed like a good idea but Kevin asks few questions and strangely doesn’t inquire if Gao has officially split up from his wife. And like every gay man, Kevin soon has to deal with the shadow of HIV/AIDS that threatens both his relationship and his position at work.

But despite these dramatic events, there’s a sedateness and a dignity to The Teacher and the camera only allows us glimpses of Kevin’s life, often without exposition like the odd scene in which he attends the birthday banquet of Gao’s father or the short episode where Gao’s wife enters the flat with a hammer.    [FULL  STORY]