When he was young, Ivan (Sean Li) has always been afraid of death. He was afraid of losing the loved one. Being so attached to his grandma, Ivan could not accept the fact that one day his grandma would leave him. When he was a teen, Ivan moved to Hong Kong, leaving behind his grandma in China.

When he was a young man, Ivan hid behind his busy workload instead of looking for a lover. He got his own place and indulged in boxing exercise and gym. That was when he met Windson (Osman Hung). Ivan was attracted to Windson and made his move. They became good friends, and Ivan had hoped for more. Unfortunately, Windson was straight, and had a girlfriend back in mainland.

They became closer friends eventually - a gay guy and a straight guy, with the gay guy falling for the straight guy, and the straight guy unable to return his love. Windson became more accommodating to Ivan's need and allowed Ivan to touch him, and they shared brief kisses but nothing more, which led to Ivan into frustration.

When Ivan's grandma passed away, Ivan was further devastated when Windson announced that he was getting married to his mainland girlfriend. Windson left Hong Kong. Their paths crossed again eventually and Windson told Ivan he never got married. Ivan had always been his 'wife', except that Windson could never understand how a straight him could ever be in a relationship with Ivan.


Permanent Residence is a movie that is bound to delight many gay themed film fans, especially those who want to see less clothings on hunks in gay films. The actors are not shy to show skin. Imagine that once a male nud*ty in Lan Yu (2001) cooked up a great storm of interest. This one makes Lan Yu looked real tame. The director / writer for this gay film is Scud, who is responsible for City Without Baseball (Mou Ye Chi Sing) (2008) , which was also produced in Hong Kong. City Without Baseball became controversial among the gays because of a homophob*c remark made by one of the male cast.

Permanent Residence open well. I was intrigued by the cinematography of the film, although I thought the choice of the child actor was poor. But still, the beauty of the film was delivered well enough to ignore that. As the movie progressed into Ivan's youth life, the climax of the gay film picked up, as we are treated to many seconds of beautiful male nudi*y. Sean Li and Osman's bodies can bring shame to many lead male actors of erot*c films. They are simply beautiful.

The dynamic of wanting and staying a distance of the relationship between Ivan and Windson drew my attention. I was wanting to see how it ends. However, once Windson left Hong Kong and Ivan became the 'son' to take of ailing mother of Windson, the film became a little bit draggy. The second half of the film was rather disappointing, until Windson showed up again, and just like most gay films, gay characters deserve no happy ending. So, we were treated to the unnecessary ending of the gay Titanic. Just when I thought the gay film had ended, the film seemed to go directionless and dragged unnecessarily to become a joke.

Still, for the first part of the gay film, the film was worth to be devour for the beauty of the complexity of a love between two - a gay and a straight. Beautiful indeed.


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