Star Appeal (2004)

A beautiful painting

Very weird, very strange, and absolutely beautiful with this weirdness. Another example of a low budget gem, a beautiful magnetic picture, where the faces features are not too sharp, but you enjoy watching silhouettes and lights surraunded with this strange sounds, and all this creates an amazing atmosphere.
The plot of the film may seem illogical, but the way the story goes you accept it all and you are not disturbed. A naked man standing on a highway claims to be from Mars and is picked up by people who just simply accept his story and later on teach the ET everything about the Earth and earthly interactions.
Initially, I thought that the BL thread would be someting superficial or of less importance, but it's the axis of the film. Actually the theme is simply love, love that connects living creatures regardless their sexes, and their origin.
The scene when an Earthling explains to a Martian how love is expressed on Earth, the naked silhouettes and vibrant colors and calm, is simply a cult scene for me. The next one in which the Earthling and the Martian finally show this love to each other is simply hypnotic.
Yes, I know, the film may irritate those who like fast action and a realistic story, but for me it's just a wonderful picture that I can't take my eyes off of.

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'Star Appeal': much more than intergalactic love

The innovative Chinese filmmaker, film scholar, screenwriter, novelist, activist and gay academic Cui Zi En, known worldwide for his films 'Zhi tongzhi' (2009), 'Jiu yue' (2001), 'Feeding Boys, Ayaya' (2003 ), 'Chou jue deng chang' ('Enter the Clowns'), 2001, 'Nannan nünü - Nan Nan Nü Nü' ('Men and Women'), 1999, 'Queer China, Comrade China' (2008), among others, he creates with 'Star Appeal' (Xingxing xiangxi xi', 2004), the first completely gay Chinese science fiction film, with this fantastical story of a lonely alien, nicknamed "ET", who learns a tender lesson in earthly love after being taken in by Xiao Bo, a curious bisexual.
The first time I saw the film, about 10 years ago, it made me discover a new meaning to love. It made me see that love knows no boundaries. It led me to understand that love, that feeling we experience towards another person, to whom we wish all the best and towards whom we feel a special connection, breaks walls, shortens distances, overcomes difficulties and moves forward in harmony. Love, healthy and intelligent, nourishes, allows us to grow and goes beyond distances.
'Star Appeal' tells a story in which love plays a great role, together with a desire to improve, to know the world around us, to find oneself. This is the case of "ET", a being who claims to be from Mars and who has been sent to Earth to learn everything possible about the physical interaction between the inhabitants of our planet.
The first thing that comes to mind when reviewing this film is a phrase from the science fiction film 'Interstellar', directed and written by brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, in 2014: "Love knows no limits of time and space." Well, this beautiful and symbolic film tells us about that, about love in its various forms where two people from distant worlds can come to love each other.
To demonstrate that in the same way that love does not understand age, trauma, gender, race, nor borders or any other obstacle, Cu Zi En, recognized as a pioneering figure of the so-called New Chinese Queer Cinema, summoned Yu Bo (not to be confused with the actor of the same name whose alias Apolio Yu), to star in the film released in China in 2004 and shown four years later in the United States, in which he proposes an endearing love story of two beings from different planets, since one is an Earthling and the other claims to be from Mars.
On this occasion, Cui Zi En's fetish actor is once again named Xiao Bo, as happened previously in three of the Chinese filmmaker's films: 'Men and Women' (1999), 'The Old Testament', 2001, and 'Enter the Clowns' (2002).
The first act of the film introduces us to the life of Xiao Bo and his encounter with the interstellar visitor. In this way we will learn that Xiao Bo coincidentally meets a strange, naked being on a deserted road who claims to be a Martian. Showing himself to be a lost man, Xiao Bo decides to protect him and takes him home to teach him a thing or two about life on Earth.
"ET" (role played by Guifeng Wang), as the stranger will soon be called by his human hosts, soon reveals that he has been sent to this planet to learn about the lives of Earthlings and their way of relating to each other.
We discover that the bisexual Xiao Bo has a girlfriend named Wenwen (Xiwen Zhang) and a boyfriend named Xiao Jian (Jian Hou), but neither of them is particularly excited that Xiao Bo has brought home such an enigmatic visitor.
While Wenwen doesn't believe that "ET" is an alien at all, Xiao Jian also has doubts. For his part, Xiao Bo is the only one who firmly believes in the identity of the stranger, so he promises to protect him and do everything possible to take him to see Earth. To do this, he is responsible for teaching him several languages, mathematics, geography, world history, art and natural sciences.
The two become closer and closer and eventually fall in love. For their part, Xiao Bo's boyfriend and girlfriend also develop feelings for the visitor.
One of the "great sins" of the film may be the dialogue between some characters, especially when trying to understand and approach the strange visitor and learn about his space journey, but let's be honest, if they didn't do it this way, there would be very little People would understand what is happening, which is why I see it as a point in their favor, since even with this detail many people continue to wonder what they just saw.
It is then that the cinematographic experience becomes something magical again in the middle act, when the viewer discovers that a jealous Wenwen tries to win back Xiao Bo's love, but when her plans to win back fail, she conceives revenge on her boyfriend by seducing the alien to have a son with him. While trying to seduce "ET", he falls into a deep coma. Upon learning of the situation, Xiao Bo comes to the rescue and accidentally says "I love you", a phrase also used by Martians. Hearing "ET" these words, he wakes up.
Even so, it is the third act of 'Star Appeal' that gives value to everything we see in the film, leaving an echo resounding in our heads long after having seen the film: Xiao Bo teaching an alien of which has fallen in love with various aspects of life on Earth, the true meaning of Earthly Love and what the physical limitations of humans are, before "ET" undertakes the journey back to his home planet to take with him the exciting discoveries.
But "ET" is not far behind in "being reciprocal and giving back lessons" and, on the eve of his return to Mars, he uses the same supreme human way of expressing love and makes love to Xiao Bo. Through this, dedicates his Martian love to Xiao Bo.
Already in the epilogue, not long after "ET" has left Earth, Xiao Bo, who was "infected" by a certain Martian quality while making love, returns to the place where they met and discovers the way to Mars.
The film shows us real and raw feelings (although not in the most subtle way or perhaps if we compare it with much more recent cinema) wrapped in a space epic. The 86 minutes of footage are enough to establish the idea that love can be understood as a love that remains, even though the person you love is somewhere else, as a mature love capable of facing the difficulties that arise are presented or how, if desired, one can travel to the other side of the Universe to reunite with the loved one.
Both Xiao Bo and "ET" are capable of learning to cope with what happens that they cannot control, in addition to doing everything they can to ensure that the circumstances that occur do not prevent love.
Focusing a lot on plot details (such as Wenwen trying to win back Xiao Bo's love by seducing "ET" to have a child with him, or how she pretends to be from Jupiter and even thinks she speaks his language to approach the visitor, space travel...) is not seeing what is behind everything that Cu Zi En presents to us and it would be not fully enjoying the wonderful and exciting experience of seeing the film for the first time, or watching it again, as is my case .
In a few words, I want to say that although it seems that this is a gray film and that its low budget has condemned it to oblivion (judging by the comments and the low rating on MDL and other virtual platforms), 'Star Appeal' is a film full of hope that bets on the value of the human spirit and the strength of love, no matter how cheesy this may sound.
Despite encountering the odd radio romance here and there, I loved the ending, where the negative turns Earth into an alien planet.
This painfully romantic and charmingly reflective film leaves us trapped looking into outer space..., or rather, traveling along a deserted road, waiting to see if one day we will encounter a strange being, equally naked, solitary, claiming to come from another planet... a being who without a doubt, if we have an encounter with him, we will nickname "ET", to whom by expressing earthly love we will learn about Martian love.

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