This review originally appeared on Capital New York.
“I haven’t been gay in a while,” admits shy optician Weichung (Richie Jen), in Arvin Chen’s sophomore feature Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, a bittersweet comedy about a closeted gay man in Taiwan.
Weicheng was openly gay as a young man, and then, like most of the men in Taiwan (at least according to Chen’s film) gave all that up to get married and have kids. A serious subject, to be sure, but Chen suffuses the story with melancholy, bittersweet yearning, and humor.
In an early scene, Weicheng’s boss says he is now “done with glasses,” and hands the managing of the shop over to Weicheng. The boss leaves the store, opens a red umbrella, and promptly floats up into the sky. This whimsical scene sets the tone for the film. It’s non-realistic and emotional. The boss sets himself free of his responsibilities by retiring. So up into the air he goes. Most of the lead characters are looking for a way to open their own red umbrella and float up to an atmosphere where life is good and they can be free. With a beautiful original score by Wen Hsu, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? is surprising, touching, and funny.
Weicheng and his wife Feng (the wonderful Mavis Fan) have a young son, two busy careers, and a comfortable existence. But doubt and trouble loom. Feng wants another child. She also wants more affection in her marriage, and cannot understand why Weicheng is so distant. Weicheng’s wild sister Mandy (Kimi Hsia) has announced her engagement to the stodgy unimaginative San San (Stone). At the engagement party, Mandy makes an inappropriate speech saying triumphantly, “So this time I’ll make sure it lasts!” Weicheng runs into an old friend in the bathroom. Richie (Lawrence Ko) is a wedding photographer, flamboyantly gay, and married to a lesbian. Richie bows to convention, as it suits him, but still lives his life as a gay man. Weicheng, entirely in the closet, is shocked and yet also awakened by his encounter with Richie.
Mandy’s engagement is the spark that sets the rest of the film in motion. Weicheng’s buried past starts to rise up before him. Feng wants more from her marriage. Mandy, not surprisingly, does not make it to the altar. In fact, she freaks out in a surreal flashback scene at a giant fluorescent-lit grocery store, getting a vision of her future as one of endless, rampant consumption. She abandons poor San San at the store, and holes up in her apartment, eating cold noodles, weeping, and watching soap operas. Occasionally, the male lead in one of the soap operas, baby-faced and gorgeous, appears in her apartment with her, giving her advice and a shoulder to cry on. San San is baffled. What on earth did he do?
Meanwhile, a handsome flight attendant (Wong Ka Lok) comes into Weicheng’s eyeglass shop to get fitted for glasses. There is obvious romantic and sexual tension between the two men.
These are the main story lines of Chen’s beautiful film. It’s a lot of balls to keep in the air, but Chen’s script deftly flows back and forth, spiking the tragic moments with humor, weaving it together. The film is coherent in tone and mood. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? is reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood romances, George Cukor films especially, with their easy blend of serious subjects, in-depth characterizations, and hilarity. The colors are all bright, greens and pinks and oranges and blues, and with all of the sadness and loss presented, what Chen leaves us with is a celebration of the pursuit of love.
There are a couple of standout scenes; in one, Weicheng suddenly lets loose on the dance floor at a gay club. He is surrounded by gyrating young men, and he is 20 years older than everyone there, but it doesn’t matter. He is free, he dances with abandon and joy. It’s beautiful. In another, Feng goes out to do karaoke with her colleagues, and gets very drunk. She begins singing the classic Shirelles song, written by Carole King, which gives Chen’s film its title, and suddenly the dark bar disappears, and the scene transforms into a glittering music video, with glamorous backup singers, choreographed gestures, and the camera swooping around Feng, highlighting her own quest for love.
In these moments, the film transcends, showing the fantasies and dreams keeping us going in life, keeping us in touch with who we really are. The acting is wonderful, with Richie Jen as Weicheng turning in a sensitive and humorous portrayal of a repressed man, unused to standing up for himself, and unaccustomed to questioning the traditional traps he submits to. It’s a deeply compassionate performance.
There are no villains here. Even Mandy, whose treatment of San San is brutal, comes off as an adorable wreck, rather than a malevolent narcissist. She, too, cannot turn her back on the dreams she once had for herself, and she has a hard time reconciling those dreams with the reality of the boring San San (who, eventually, finds the gumption to start a campaign to win Mandy back).
The image of gay men getting married because they fear societal repercussions is a depressing one, and the film does not soft-pedal the emotional fallout. Weicheng is not the only victim of these circumstances. Feng is a victim, too. A couple of encounters with her concerned boss (who seems to have a crush on her) ignite in her the realization that she is not getting the attention and love she needs. She aches for connection, for closeness. The film’s tragic underbelly notwithstanding, Chen leads us through the shoals of these troubled relationships with a light grip, an affection for every character, and an acceptance that romantic possibility can make the world magic.
Carole King’s song is one of the most poignant expressions of the sadness that, in matters of love, goes hand in hand with hope. Everything is uncertain. We do not know what the future holds. There is a glorious pain in the pursuit of love. Yes, tonight you’re mine completely, but will you still love me tomorrow? Chen’s beautiful film is a successful and often joyful attempt to not answer that question, but to live it.
Goffin and King go everywhere!
Indeed they do!