Well that movie was kind of gay.  No seriously, 'Endless Summer' was gay.  Not gay as in lame, but gay as in homosexual.  I didn't even know that gay Chinese movies even existed. Say like in Islam which doesn't even have a word for homosexuality because as far as they're concerned it doesn't exist.  So in almost all of Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Dearborn Michigan, Pakistan and Afghanistan there are no gay people.  Go figure.

'Endless Sumer' started out simple enough but did end on a bit of a confusing note for me though.  As our story starts we meet Jonathan as a young boy, the best student in his class, and all around teacher kiss ass pet.  Another boy, Shane is just an out of control A.D.D. boy who can't seem to focus on anything.  The teacher suggest that Jonathan befriend Shane, who no one wants to be around, in the hopes that his excellence will rub off on Shane and help the boy focus. Well as it often happens in these occasions it does just the opposite, But Jonathan and Shane have become friends for life.

Ten years later Jonathan (Bryan Chang) and Shane (Joseph Chang) are seniors in high school and the very best of friends.  Or at least Shane thinks so as Jonathan is seriously struggling with some sexuality issues.  Shane is a handsome boy, stud on the basketball team, still can't concentrate on anything worth a lick, but can always count on his boy Jonathan.  A pretty new girl shows up at school from Taipei named Cassie (Kate Yeung) and she takes a shine to Jonathan, even going so far as to offer herself to him.  Jonathan tries, but it's at this moment that Jonathan discovers he has no sexuality issues at all, he's gay for real.  Cassie seems okay with that as Jonathan will just be her friend then, but she's not so blind to recognize that Jonathan is obviously in love with his 'best friend' Shane, which makes her starting to date Shane a little suspect.

Well whether you are in China, Burbank or Zimbabwe, teen angst is teen angst wherever you go as Jonathan just becomes a totally depressed downer, sad wherever he goes, trying to distance himself from the friend he loves and the friend he likes.  It’s this middle part where the movie sags and slows to a crawl, and it wasn’t moving all along that briskly to begin with.  Watching Jonathan mope around depressed for what seemed to be an eternity got a little tiring after a while.  Eventually everything has to come to ahead as these tortured teens confront their feelings for each other and resolve absolutely nothing.

Young director Leste Chen certainly has talent and skill behind the camera as the depressed color palette he shot his film in matched perfectly with the depressed disposition of his characters.  The characters were certainly well formed and very well realized as real people with real emotions behaving as real people, albeit real young people, should behave in a given situation.  But as his film moved along it seemed to become more of a showcase of the director showing us his talent and not properly servicing his story.  With the odd framing and the incessant music score along with the tortured actors speaking in allegory, ‘Endless Summer’ stopped being a regular film and turned into exercise existential philosophy of some sort.  Chen’s three young actors were very good in their respective roles however with Kate Yeung definitely being an actress to keep an eye on as she possess and unconventional elusive beauty to match her considerable thespian skill.

The rest is suppose is SPOILERS so you can stop reading now if you give a damn about what happens next in the movie.  There is a fairly graphic love scene between Jonathan and Shane which only served to confuse me more in that it ended up only making Jonathan even more depressed, as if that were possible, and calls into question Shane’s sexuality.  Of course men having sex with men usually equals homosexual, but I suppose that’s just semantics because Shane still has no intention of giving up his girlfriend either.  Cassie is exasperated by the gayness of her boyfriends, comedically so even, but to her I can only suggest that if she is looking for a boyfriend in the future, it may be wise to make sure that said boy likes girls.  Almost exclusively likes girls I would think.  Not a lot of wiggle room there ladies.  I’m not saying the relationship is going to work, but not having your boyfriend run out and screw other dudes is one less headache to be concerned about.  I guess Shane, who has a fear of being alone, always knew Jonathan had a jones for him and fearing the probability of losing him, considering how he had been behaving lately, he went ahead and had sex with him.  That’s a fear of loss for your ass right there.

I guess.  Hell I don’t know.  Endless summer was nice looking movie with very good acting performance that ultimately turned into a confusing art film that made little sense.  But then I’m not the brightest bulb in the box so you may get more out of it than I did.  Good luck with that.