my rtvf 111 midterm - your name engraved herein (2020) analysis
directed by patrick liu kuang-hui and inspired by his teenage years, your name engraved herein (å»åØä½ åæåŗēåå, 2020) follows two boys who fall in love as martial law in taiwan ends in 1987, yet they diverge as society impacts their lives. their story unfolds in an all-boys catholic high school that transitions to co-ed during their final year of high school. the film touches upon the intersection of gender and religion, kinship and familial pressures, life post-dictatorship, and adolescence/impending adulthood during personal and societal upheaval. it emphasizes character construction above the story and non-traditionally uses a linear storyline. additionally, it uses visual cinematic storytelling to sprinkle in popular culture and portray the progression of the protagonistsā relationship. though it is often categorized into āboysā love,ā its content reflects the broader genre of queer films, especially since its release one year after taiwan legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the first country in asia to do so.
chang jia-han (edward chen hao-sen) and ābirdyā wang po-te (tseng jing-hua) reflect the experiences of youth who are exploring their identities, especially in the context of the lgbtq+ community. it exemplifies character construction, as evident above the story. isolating the two together for certain scenes emphasizes their initial personalities: jia-han is the ānormalā guy, while birdy is the ācrazyā one, as referred by the former in one of his first conversations with father oliver (fabio grangeon). there is also more to the priest than meets the eye. although he tells the students to live in the present, he still has a hole in his heart from missing opportunities to be with a man he loved.
when the protagonists witness homophobia against a schoolboy and an arrest targeting chi chia-wei (a taiwanese lgbtq+ activist), birdy tries to do the right thing by intervening, while jia-han holds him back. their initial personalities are sociologically evident in the first few scenes. jia-han follows the rules and worries about anyone around him getting in trouble. he appears as the righteous one in his friend group. birdy is rebellious, sneaking out to buy takeout and urinating in the school directorās car at midnight. he has no friend group and remains ostracized by the masses. viewers would notice a switch in their personalities as time passes and society applies more pressure on them. the physical and emotional barriers they face are too overwhelming for them to remain static.
in a film set in and produced by a country with a collectivist culture, one sees the contrasting family dynamics between the protagonists and their kinās brief character construction. jia-han has a put-together family with a supportive mother. however, his mom is the only woman in the house; the guys cling to heteronormative roles. this is evident with his dad, who often tells him to delay getting a girlfriend (instead of using the term āpartnerā) until he starts college. his brother also fits the norm with his relationship. their word choice reflects their era, likely as a way to protect their children from discrimination. many members of the older generation still use this language. the only member of birdyās family physically present is his dad, the schoolās parentsā association president; he berates and beats his son for failing to focus on school without asking why. he uses the typical sibling comparison, saying his three older sisters (taken from tsengās family background) are ānothing like [him].ā it is implied that they are the only men in the house, opposite jia-han. despite this, he does not mention his sonās sexuality. these relatives have more shallow personalities that work around the status quo (in gender and education), but they tie back to the protagonistsā issues. the same goes for the female characters, whose backstories are not fleshed out. i wonder how their dynamics with the guys would change if they were more nuanced.
compared to the immediate beginning of liberalization in the film, lgbtq+ issues have been more pronounced throughout the past few years. what remains is stigmatization from groups dependent on traditional norms, such as those affiliated with christian churches and conservative ideals. amy brainer, an assistant professor of sociology and womenās and gender studies at the university of michigan - dearborn, discusses this in queer kinship and family change in taiwan. she states that in a country where less than 4 percent of the population practices christianity, āobjections to homosexuality have not focused on sin and morality in ways that are likely to be familiar to readers coming from a christian, muslim, or jewish context but rather on maintaining and reproducing the patrilineal family and hierarchical gender relationsā (brainer 6).
many of these beliefs protect the patriarchy. the film touches upon both justifications but emphasizes the former through jia-han and father oliverās conversations. the room where they ponder their respective relationships and godās word is color graded with golden hues and plastered with portraits of religious figures, showing the clash between catholic ideals and the desire for freedom to love. father oliver says lust is the deadliest of the seven deadly sins, but jia-han rebuffs him by claiming that it concerns physical intimacy, not love. he deviates from blindly abiding to his religionās beliefs, something religious parents often impose on their children. he believes in god but knows that his freedom to love is more important. the teenagerās understanding of love versus lust is dismissed due to his lack of āreal-worldā experiences. christianity, especially catholicism, may be insignificant in taiwan compared to a country like the philippines. however, isolating the setting to a place where it is bread and butter (witt catholic high school) makes the intersection of gender and religion more evident.
with technique, dir. liu uses a linear storyline in a non-traditional way. the flow is like a plot mountain that skews left. the so-called āpresent-dayā is jia-han conversing with father oliver until he rushes home to see his parents and birdy. most of the action is in the āpast,ā which follows a typical plot line. although the film was marketed as set in 1987 (when martial law was lifted that july), most of the story takes place in 1988, given former president chiang ching-kuoās passing on january 13. using two school years logistically shows how the protagonistsā relationship changes with time. aside from a few homophobic incidents they witness, their second year of high school is filled with happy moments, from exploring taipei to playing around with a film projector. however, their hangouts are nothing compared to the drama facing them the next school year.
ban-banās (mimi shao yi-mei) enrollment further complicates their dynamics. birdy sees her presence as a way to mold himself into societal norms, feigning dominance when he is with jia-han as he offers to introduce him to one of her classmates and asks for his scooter to transport himself to dates. by their disqualification from the military song competition, he further understands that pursuing a relationship with a guy would be impossible. he is like a bird who wants to fly free but withers in its nest, while jia-han is the opposite; his name may not involve wings, but he flew for the person he loved most. this leads to a climax filled with drama, yelling, and physical violence, which is sometimes excessive. one of the most unnecessary scenes is the one with the old man, but i understand if it was included to have the audience experience the same discomfort jia-han had. from another perspective, that sceneās setting represents how hidden the gay community was at the time. the deleted scenes could have offered more balance between the emotional poles if they had been in the final cut. using a non-linear storyline would work if liu filmed from the perspectives of jia-han, birdy, and ban-ban. the telephone scene provided closure for the two guys, making the 30-year flash-forward in canada extraneous (i commend chen and tseng for flying to the other side of the world to film one scene). although it was nice to see how the lgbtq+ community is more accepted in 2020 compared to the 1980s, most people already know about that.
the element of martial lawās cessation and democratization interested me before i first watched the film. it should have been emphasized more through the protagonistsā interactions with their families. the school officials retained an authoritarian approach, joking that their martial law was not lifted. given that they all grew up under that era, it would be interesting to see how they viewed taiwanās political leaders. jia-hanās mother speaking taiwanese to her son was surprising since the government strictly enforced mandarin during the dictatorship. living in a rural area like yilan instead of urban taichung would have made her dialogue more reasonable. the filmās era reflects on how the country took time to become a āmodel democracy.ā in todayās taiwan, martial law is regarded with regret by its head of state. in a focus taiwan article published before international human rights day, president william lai ching-te states that the country āunderwent 38 years of martial law rule, during which its societal and economic [development]ā¦ was greatly impacted, and such harm has continued to affect todayās society.ā
the aftermath of political repression is visible during the mourning period for former president chiang, when jia-han and birdy travel to taipei as their schoolās representatives. they blend in with the myriad of taiwan flags and people crying profusely. as the only satirical moment in the film, they muster sobs while holding their banner. they try not to be disrespectful since they learned to idolize their leaders via school and associations. the militaryās influence also seeped into their extracurricular activities as they prepared for a uniformed competition. unfortunately, the filmās political aspect gradually loses meaning as the plot thickens. it intersects well with the lgbtq+ communityās struggles, even if they were overlooked at the time. dialogue from family members about shaky liberalization would help maintain historical context and express ambiguity towards their new era.
aside from political and sociological contexts using character construction and a non-traditional linear storyline, liu uses visual cinematic storytelling to connect with the protagonistsā characters, their relationship, and their surrounding popular culture. when birdy causes chaos by escaping jia-hanās friends, he looks at the camera for a few seconds before jumping from the schoolās second-floor balcony. the audience briefly experiences what it is like to face a teenager one would call ācrazy.ā jia-han does the same when he asks father oliver about the craziest thing he did in his youth. most of the shower scene is filmed as a one-take close-up, showing how the protagonists realize they could never be together. the framing of their last confrontation is similar, as birdy is still willing to keep his secret. what stands out most are the scenes with shaky camera movement, especially those with physical violence. filming them in one take before a standard cut forces necessary discomfort on the audience. they make the longstanding drama of the film obvious.
the storytelling also incorporates pop culture from 1980s taiwan. āthis worldā (éåäøē) by tsai lan-chin and āthe crowded paradiseā (ęę ēęØå) by bobby chen reflect the charactersā era for two different reasons: an interpretation of hope popular among the countryās lgbtq+ community and a hit on the weekly charts, respectively. there are hints of globalization with the wham! posters on jia-hanās bedroom wall and the mention of quebecās quiet revolution. viewers may overlook the set design, historical references, and soundtrack, but they prove dedication towards accuracy.
finally, the protagonistsā hobbies and life circumstances represent their development as young, queer men. with their senior status at school, they should devote time to studying for the college entrance exam instead of entering a relationship. jia-hanās grades start to dwindle after birdy transfers to his school. one can infer that he let his academics suffer so they could be in the same liberal arts class as seniors. a retired military instructor demands that the band students be separated by sex during practice until birdy and ban-ban confront him. the former student sarcastically tells him to divide the world in two after they graduate. they show an acceptance of societal change quicker than their superiors. masculinity is more pronounced during the uniformed song competition as they first compete with a typical military cadence that depicts toughness in rough terrain. however, birdy takes center stage from jia-hanās conductor spot when they duet āthis world,ā a āwimpyā song that results in the schoolās disqualification.
the rigid gender roles that stifle those who identify outside the binary influence these scenes. a study conducted by michelle birkett (northwestern university) and dorothy l. espelage (university of illinois at urbana-champaign) on the socialization of adolescentsā homophobic behavior found that peer groupsā perspectives on masculinity were strongly associated with traditional norms that perpetrated homophobic name-calling and that related attitudes and gender significantly influence maintaining said behaviors (birkett and espelage, 2015). these discussion points are reflected in jia-hanās friend group as they bully a gay classmate multiple times. however, the schoolās attitude towards said norms also exemplifies the stifling effect of these clashes. in an environment with a clear hierarchy, youth are often pushed down if they deviate from ānormalcy.ā it gets worse when peers perpetuate the bullying. birdy recognizes this immediately, and jia-han realizes the matterās significance over time. exploring the formerās experiences before transferring could have made the issueās effects more impactful. knowing the filmās presence on netflixās catalog, i want to know how viewers from countries that criminalize homosexuality, such as malaysia, feel after watching it. would queer audiences from those countries see themselves in the charactersā struggles, especially with having to hide their identities? how does the viewing experience compare to typical āboysā loveā films and dramas? i wish they can eventually experience boarding their ātrain to happinessā by loving who they want without fear.
a film like your name engraved herein allows its viewers to see that even āmodelā democratic countries have struggled to reach acceptance for marginalized groups. these discriminatory acts, from microaggressions to homophobic physical violence, significantly affect youth, and the regret of missing the ātrain to happinessā can remain decades later. jia-han and birdyās love was strong, but society was stronger. liu never reunited with the real birdy. he tells his story with authenticity and grittiness to gain closure. unlike most queer productions from asia, the film was not produced out of superficiality and the actorsā visual appeal. the editing is choppy, but it allows for anecdotes that make viewers think about each scene. what makes up for it are the nuances each scene carries. they develop the characters and their relationships with one another. a bittersweet ending in an otherwise out-of-place epilogue shows that there is still a long way to go. the drama and nostalgia may be emotional, but the cast and crew did a great job telling a story that needs to be told. its themes of love and acceptance are universal.
