The Story of the Stone (2018)

Story: Watching the movie without reading the description in the summary is like going on a trip to the jungle without a road map, and even then, the potential to get lost is great. Which is what happened to me when watching this movie.
Only in the end did I realize that there was actually a love triangle between Lin, Josh and Sean, but it was really hard to tell among the constant revolving door of almost naked men in their cheap-looking underwear that look like they've been worn since they were teenagers.

Honestly, I did not realize that there's actually a story in this mess. My take-away from this movie is that gays do drugs, bad disco and sleep around with whomever and whatever is available. But I know this is not the case. There is even a line in the movie, that for gay men, what is important is not the clothes you wear, but the body underneath it. Basically, if you're fat, you're fucked. Or rather, not fucked. Unless you are some guy with connections or money, you're pretty much hopeless.

But to give you a quick brief, so to spare you from wasting almost two hours of your life. This is basically what happened, if I understood it correctly.

Spoilers ahead:

Main Line:

Josh has been in love with Lin , who is still hung up about the death of his boyfriend.
Josh sleeps around with everyone except Lin.
Lin has AIDS and Lin dies by suicide similar to what his boyfriend did.
Sean did something about a video, probably driving LIn to his death not sure.
Sean did the above to get Josh.
Sean also has AIDS.
The description says that Josh and Lin are boyfriends but it doesn't look like it in the movie, they may like each other but nothing that shows they were together, except that Josh frequents Lin's flower shop a lot.

Side Lines:

Miss Rose is the manager of the Red House.
Lang is Miss Rose BF who sells/supplies drugs in his apartment. Another hang-out.
Lang also sleeps around. No surprise there, as almost everyone is.
Miss Rose also provides sexual services to keep her business afloat.
The Red House burns to the ground mysteriously during or after or before a police raid.

Acting: They are all convincingly gay.

Music: The only good part about the movie.

Re-watch value: Watching one time is more than enough.

There are so many loopholes, gaps, questions about this movie that is so choppy at best, and laziness at worst.
The only reason I am giving this a 3 star even though it is a bad movie, is because I have seen worse if you can believe it. I'm looking at you, Graupel Poetry, Innate Differences, Alternative Love, In Between Seasons, A Touch of Fever, and the list goes on and on.

Unless you are a masochist, be forewarned. No matter how you like Sky Li or Aric Chen, they will not save this movie. Nobody can.

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Hardly anyone will understand this movie the first time. I didn't understand much either. And this, I think, is the biggest disadvantage of the entire film, when from the outside it seems unclear, rambling, but at the same time it tells us so much. This piece requires reading about it BEFORE and watching it a second, third time and not immediately condemning it. So I give it, even if I rate it decently overall, "REALLY NOT RECOMMENDED", because many people just want to quickly watch it, skim through it, and I don't take seriously the opinions that the film is only about the physical dimension. I understand that the film has a lower rating on world servers, because heterosexuals did not give it because of the complexity and 100% gay component. That's why I give the Story the lowest rating for the targeted "outrageousness". It is based on the theme of a Chinese novel from the 18th century. Dream of the Red Chamber, which is also the second title of the film, transformed the story from the Chinese imperial court into the present day and the current capital of Taiwan, so it must adhere to certain prescribed rules (more characters, not creating a comprehensive dramatically graduated plot, etc.). That it is such a deliberately non-story and its development can be read by everyone, I liked the film after the third viewing, there are several gaps in it that the viewer can guess and it shows gays as they are without napkins (not all of them are saints, faithful to one partner until death, do not smoke, drink, or fart). There is beauty, love, hope, selfishness, ignorance, irresponsibility, ruin, sickness, death, just everything that life brings. As the greatest strength of the film, I cite the fact that the cast played it extremely well, humanly, UNTWISTED. Now I don't mean that most of the actors were handsome Taiwanese including the main trio of Josh, Lin, Sean, which is true, that's an added bonus. One of the main roles (Lin) was played by the star of the great series Dark Blue and Moonlight (this series is also shown here on MDL) - Eric Chen. I wanted to give a nine for the processing, but I reduced it by one for the fact that many scenes were dark, dark, I know that was the intention of the creators, but it made me uncomfortable.
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