An experimental film by the Hong Kong based director Scud—the name used professionally by filmmaker Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung, whose Chinese name reportedly translates in English as “Scudding Clouds”—chronicles, as The Chicago Reader described, “a hapless, down-on-his-luck actor in Beijing as he becomes a popular gay porn star.”
The movie, Adonis, will receive a rare United States screening on September 25 at Reeling 2018, the “second-longest running LGBTQ+ film festival in the world, premiering queer-centric films that can't be found anywhere else,” according to the Reader’s description of the event. This year, the festival’s 36th, began yesterday, September 20, and runs until September 30 at various movie theaters and locations around Chicago.
According to Steve Warren, film critic at Chicago’s LGBTQ newspaper The Windy City Times, “the story spans the 30 years of Yang Ke (played as an adult by Adonis He Fei), but in random order. There's a recurring scene where he's naked in the woods, surrounded by 30 men who are also naked except for face paint and masks. There are flashbacks to Ke's early life with his mother.”
In an interview last year with the site FilmDoo, Scud took a more philosophical approach to the subject matter of his film, then titled Thirty Years of Adonis.
“The film visualizes and envisions Tibetan Buddhism’s fundamental values and its version of life and afterlife,” the director, who is one of China’s most-acclaimed LGBTQ moviemakers, said. “I’ve found them closest to my belief so borrow to explore the ultimate question of life: what do we live for after all?”
In addition to He Fei, who plays the lead character, the cast also includes the well-known Chinese gay porn star Eric East in a supporting role.
“You will never find another man like him,” Scud told the Chinese gay news site GagaTai. “Although he only appears for a few minutes, he plays a very important role. I need the audience to recognize him.”
Scud himself will be on hand for the screening, which will mark the film’s North American Premiere, September 25 at 7 p.m. Central Time. For more information on tickets and screening locations for Reeling 2018, visit the festival’s site at this link.
Photo of Scud by Artwalker Limited/Wikimedia Commons
