A Lock With No Key (2019)

this is a queer film made by a queer filmmaker

I liked the story it told, and I got the point it was trying to tell. I have a short attention span, especially if it doesn't catch my attention straight away, so I will most likely not watch it again. Also, I would like to mention that this short film isn't made to be all rainbows and sunshine like usual Taiwan queer stories show to the world; it's supposed to show how in some cases, this is someone's reality. The reality is that toxic masculinity is very much present in the society that everybody lives in and influences how people act in everyday life. In order to fit in, he acts and does things in the same way that his friends do, and although the main character is drawn to the victim, the only way he knows how to get closer to him is what he sees in everyday life. He does, however, try to lessen the punishments in ways others can't see. It's not like other queer stories that are portrayed in which the main characters are madly in love, but it still very much is one, whether you'll agree or not.
(I can't remember if there was music and what it sounded like if there was, so I gave it a 5.)

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I liked this short film a lot, enough to watch it a second time. It's a story about a teenager who has to decide if he will go along with his "friends" and continue bullying another student or stand up to them and risk becoming an outsider and a victim of bullying himself.
I didn't see the queer subtext, not even on my rewatch. But I can see how it relates to the queer experience of trying to fit in and trying to go unnoticed but never truly fitting in and always feeling scared that your true ("weak") self will be discovered. It's a good film with a good, relatable protagonist.

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