Artemisia (2008)

A family centered story

Overall: this centers on Artemisia, a woman with a queer son, a daughter studying/living abroad who then returns with a surprise and a bigoted, penny-pinching mother

Content Warnings: the grandma is very bigoted but it is not shown in a positive way

What I Liked
- the m/m had an actual realistic conversation about thoughts on planning a trip together and whether or not to come out
- the kiddo is super cute
- showing challenges and working through them (Artemisia)
- the mom hanging up that underwear to dry was hilarious

Room For Improvement
- the boyfriend coming over unannounced felt like an ambush and was forcing the son to do something he wasn't yet ready for
- the ending feels a bit abrupt or too open ended, though you can infer what is happening with the son and his boyfriend and I liked the tai chi (I think that's what it is)

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Morning Mo (Tzu-Yi Mo), who we know as the main star of the beautiful movie Dear Tenant from 2020, played the character of Sung Hai's gay son x years ago. His partner was the likeable Gary Tang.
But the film is not only about a gay son, as written in the Details about the film. It is a psychological probe into a multi-generational and incomplete Taiwanese family headed by mother Ai-Tsao. She must gradually cope not only with the growing suspicion that her son is gay and with a greedy mother (grandmother, very well played) who pays attention to the social "conventions" of Taiwanese society in the first decade of the twenty-first century, but also with her daughter, who returns from studies abroad and, as a single mother, brings home a black girl (whom she conceived while studying with a dark-skinned man, with whom she then did not agree on living together). In fact, even the mother herself (Ai-Tsao) did not live a conventional life. Maybe someone will find the story slow and long-winded, but it didn't seem like that to me, and on the contrary, it nicely conveyed the not-so-simple fates of several characters through film.

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hmmm why did it just stop like that? that was a weird (unfinished) way to end this movie - but have to say, really enjoyed this - i laughed hard at a lot of parts that i'm sure weren't always supposed to be funny and that great-grand-mother is a hoot - yeah bigoted, tightfisted, grumpy and mean but also hilarious - the only time she smiled was when she was getting the red-envelops. what a character this woman is - really hard to dislike her even though i for sure couldn't get along with someone like this in real life -

the main character i loved here was Ai Chao, i loved her interaction with her son - she really is the embodiment of motherhood - loved how cause of her lack of education her trying to better herself with her son's help - how close she is to him and how loving and caring she is in general - her children really r lucky to have a mother like her. so seeing her getting blindsided by her daughter infuriated me - on a couple of levels.

first of she was unapologetic - and get angry at me if u will, but she deserved to be slapped hard at the way she dropped the bomb on her mother "surprise" my ass - and for anyone not getting it - its not on the mother's (grand-mother) behalf i'm incensed but that child's - why was she put in that situation?!? did that stupid woman who knew only how to act tough and talk big - not know what she was doing?!? she hid her child for how long? like a dirty little secret - if she was So!!!! proud of her decision to bring a child out of wedlock - why wait until she decided to come back home to revel the secret?!? like plz with the holier than thou b.s she was spouting always comparing herself to her mother marring an older man - she know how brutal it is to be the only person of color in a country where white is revered, and anything darker is treated like dirt?!? this woman is a stupid ass and living proof that not everyone should be given the right to have kids. but rant over cause there is not logic just spur of the moment decisions that someone else has to pay the consequence's for - i.e that kid - sad.

gonna backtrack the mother knows her son is gay - sad as the son has decided not to come-out cause of his mother. that's why this feels unfinished cause she is capable of accepting - and fighting for her kids even if they don't deserve it (like in her daughters case) but she softened cause of her grandbaby. considering with her son its not a matter of choice, she should be able to welcome his sexual orientation - he just needs to find the strength to have the talk... but the what if's r endless as this unfinished ?‍♀️ and that's why i can't give it a higher rating cause i think this deserves more of a closer on the son plot-line.

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