Hard to Give Up (2016)

Story is OK. The actor who played the painter veered between detachment (for his 'girlfriend') and affection (for the boy). The attention he paid towards the boy as the plot unfolded would indicate beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was in love. Which makes the ending monologue spoken by the painter rather confusing and leaves the viewer guessing whether he loved the boy or he did not? Why the sudden u-turn? I don't understand Mandarin and maybe the subtitles was badly translated, but he said something like "We are not lovers". So what exactly did he mean by that and how did it add to the conclusion? I would have preferred the movie ending either with the two becoming lovers or becoming friends. Yes, life can be simple. It's only in movies when things become unnecessarily muddled.

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The film suffered greatly from the intervention of Chinese censors (kissing scenes, the rape of Er Meng were cut). Otherwise, a very solid story with an unusually attractive "professor" for me. I searched for the name of this actor for about an hour, the world servers do not list the cast, except for the character of Er Meng.

I rate most scenes highly (even the "memorable" ones with nice music). Only a few were more amateurish, mainly fights and cut-up rapes. The very end may lead most viewers astray that it is embarrassing (due to the cut scenes and perhaps not quite accurate translation from Chinese). But I think that the final sentences of the painter Su He are his rehearsing the prologue to the exhibition of his works (he looks in the mirror), he will not present publicly how things are in China.

"An ornate act full of luxury", as the previous reviewer assessed the film, I didn't see the film like that at all. The main character is a simple Chinese burdened by his father's debts, and the story takes place in the ordinary environment of Chinese homes, a studio and the streets of Chongqing.ulic.

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