Leon Cheo | People Like Us, “Got Place,” Season 1, Episode 2 / 2016

in the dark

by Douglas Messerli

 

Leon Cheo (screenwriter and director) People Like Us, “Got Place,” Season 1, Episode 2 / 2016 [8 minutes]

 

By episode 2, Ridzwan has called Joel, and they meet up in a market, Joel establishing the fact that Ridzwan has never before been in a gay bar, and Ridzwan coming back with the recognition that his new friend has never before been to a sauna.

     Joel insists, however, that he try out the bar experience, telling him he’ll be fine there. But even at the rather posh bar to which Joel takes him, he finds everything a “little bright,” Joel correctly guessing that Ridzwan is not out to anyone. The farthest he’s gone, he explains, is to hint the fact of his being gay to a friend, nothing else.

      Joel admits to being out to nearly everyone, even his parents, “unofficially.” When Ridzwan asks for a definition of that term, Joel explains: “My parents saw my magazines and stuff. Then in typical Asian parenting fashion, told my auntie. My cousins overheard and told me.”

     Ridzwan, still performing his disappearing acts, responds to Joel’s question of whether or not he’s had a boyfriend with the word “Maybe,” even more mysterious than Joel’s “unofficial” parental outing. He only he admits is that he works in accounting, but will not even name the company.

     Joel works in what he describes as a very gay job, in a boutique PR (Public Relations) firm. And just as suddenly Ridzwan demands they leave immediately, having just seen someone he knows. “No one at works knows about me.”

     Rai is in bed connecting up, once more with Isaac, who reports he is listening to music. When Rai asks to whom he’s listening, Isaac suggests it’s a group before his time who we wouldn’t know, “The Carpenters,” but Rai surprises the elder banker, with the response, “I love the Carpenters!” For a moment the young man picks up his stuffed monkey and puts it upon his chest.

     Meanwhile, Joel takes Ridzwan to his home, his friend obviously worried about what will happen if his parents should hear them, Joel responding, cleverly if a bit flippantly, that he simply has to control himself. They begin to make love, and Ridzwan is ready to fuck Joel, asking if he has a condom. But as he begins to put it on Ridzwan’s cock, the ring breaks and he hasn’t got another one. But since Ridzwan reports that he’s HIV negative, Joel suggests it will be fine.

      As they begin, however, Ridzwan suddenly demands a stop: “I don’t think we should do this,” quickly dressing. “Maybe we should do this another time,” he explains as he exits, leaving Joel in the complete darkness of anticipation—not only sex but of the possibility of a new relationship.

 

Los Angeles, June 6, 2023

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2023).