I brought this movie out of curiosity because I had done a play that was also centered around baseball ("Take me Out") and because I wanted to see Scud's first movie (I have heard his second movie, "Permanent Residence" is really good)...
I was expecting a homo-erotic, gay-themed film. It was not. This movie is more about life, than baseball... It explores sexuality but does not judge it... It is about overcoming adversity and not surrendering to life's obstacles... The structure of the movie and the plot makes this a very original movie too... I think it's worth watching.
The movie's plot feels like a series of vignettes except that they are connected to each other. The main plot has a gay undertone but I would say that after watching the movie I am not convinced that I would categorize this as a gay movie.
The "famous" full frontal scenes are beautifully shot and the first shower sequence is gorgeous. I would not call this gratuitous nudity, it is just a shower scene that feels real. The nudity is also not erotic for the most part. Actually, I felt that the scenes with partial or no nudity were much more erotic than the locker room and shower scenes.
When the main plot reaches it's climax, so those the main character's subplots. Here, there is a very tender scene featuring two of the main characters that I actually watched twice. The movie ends in what first seems as an unsatisfying ending but upon meditating about it, I feel that the movie simply asks us to fill in the blanks.
Is this a gay movie? No, but you will appreciate it's gay undertones and reflect upon one (or more??) character's sexuality. Is this a homo-erotic movie? No, but you will see brief, artistically done, nude scenes.
In the end the movie achieves what it set to do in the first place... If I was in Hong Kong, I would probably start watching more baseball games... The movie humanizes their struggles, makes them appealing, and makes the baseball players very likable characters....
The fragmentation of the plot is the weakest point of this movie. The cinematography is its greatest strength. What makes it worth watching (at least as a gay men), is the one really tender scene towards the end.
Like another reviewer said, this is a good movie not a great one. It is very different from anything you probably have seen before...
