Gentleman Spa, a new film about massage parlors and gay culture, releases today on GagaOOLala
Gentleman Spa, a new Taiwanese gay short film, premiered globally this Friday, October 18th, on the streaming platform GagaOOLala. The title, very well-received in the festival circuit, depicts the daily life of an overweight janitor (Hao-Zhe Lai) at a Taiwanese gay massage parlor who falls in love with one of their customers.
Gentleman Spa, GagaOOLala Originals.
The film also co-stars Wang Ko-yuan, who recently played a murderer on the Catchplay and HBO Asia original series The World Between Us, in the role of a skillful gay masseur who will advise Lai’s character on his love life. It was a big change for the actor coming from such a dark role to play such a sensual role. Wang confessed to have visited several massage parlors while research for the role. He also revealed what is the trick for a good “gay” massage: “when you press someone in a sensitive spot, release, and press again, the masseur’s upper body will get very close to the other person. You can feel each other’s temperature, breath… without making direct contact. It is in that uncertainty where the best fantasies live.”
Wang is not the only who researched into his role, Hao-Zhe Lai gained 12 kilograms to play Hao. “I like to get close to my characters,” he explained. In the film, he accurately conveys the shyness and sense of inferiority caused by the social stigma towards overweight people. When he was asked if he had any personal experiences linked to this topic, Hao explained that before he used to meet friends online and when they would finally meet each other in real life, the other person stood him up and unfriended him saying, “you are much fatter than what I imagined.”
Gentleman Spa is the third short film by the newcomer Yu Jhi-han. The inspiration for this film came from a good friend of his, a gay masseur, who shared many “interesting” stories with him. Based on them, Yu started to wonder, what kind of conflicts would arise for an unattractive person working on a place like this? The film had a stellar festival run being selected in international venues like BFI Flare, Frameline, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Outfest, and more. During one of the screenings, Yu said, one girl from the audience started crying and said that she felt completely identified with the main character’s struggle being an overweight person. The director said he did not expect to change the current body culture but he definitely hoped that he can bring people closer to accepting themselves.
Gentleman Spa: Synopsis
Hao, a chubby gay man, works as a janitor at a gay spa. For him, romantic relationships are an unreachable dream. One day, an attractive customer, Kai, walks in and gives Hao the opportunity to massage him. As they talk and get to know each other, they bond. However, things do not go as smoothly as Hao expected...
Gentleman Spa: https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/1324/gentleman-spa-2019