Leon Cheo | People Like Us, “Looking, Seeking, & Finding,” Season 1, Episode 6 / 2016

is find followed by stop?

by Douglas Messerli

 

Leon Cheo (screenwriter and director) People Like Us, “Looking, Seeking, & Finding,” Season 1, Episode 6 / 2016 [8 minutes]

 

Michelle (De Xin Chia) and Alvin (Aadam) are trying to cheer up Joel since Ridzwan has appeared to once again bow out of their friendship/relationship, whatever they want to call it. Joel wonders if he pushed too hard, while Michelle simply argues that Ridzwan wasn’t yet ready, and that he should look for another man. It’s time to dance the friends argue.

     So we find Joel back in the same bar dancing and drinking as we saw him with his friends in the first episode. Throughout, they point out other guys; but finally, Michelle points to a man at the far end of the bar. We follow Joel’s gaze as we recognize Ridzwan, and realize that he has taken a brave step, even if he does not continue in a relationship with Joel.

     Rai, meanwhile, has arrived at Isaac’s party and is sitting uncomfortably on a chair as various couples around him, mostly nude, having already sipped on white wine and the pills provided by the host, are engaged in sex. Dennis (Jon Shen), one of the guests, goes over to Rai and introduces himself, telling Rai that he looks very cute. And almost immediately the litany of questions about “What are you into?” follows: Fucking? Sucking? Chill? Do you top or bottom? Rai’s nightmare has come even more true.

     He quickly responds, “I don’t know, I’m new here.”

     That doesn’t stop Dennis. “Do you wanna drink?”

     “I’m really just looking for Isaac.”

     “Isaac’s busy. You wanna fuck?”

     Isaac finally does enter the room, half naked, telling Rai that he didn’t think he would come.

     He pulls Rai away to the balcony, putting on some clothes.

     “So it’s this sort of party, huh?”

     “I know it must be a shock.”

     “Do you do this sort of thing often?”

     “Yes.”

     Isaac tries to explain that after he left his previous married life he wanted to try everything given the new freedoms he’d discovered.

     Rai asks one the most important questions of the series: “Why is it that guys I like just ignore me, and the ones that are interested just want to fuck? And then I don’t hear from them anymore? Why doesn’t anybody want something more?”

     Isaac doesn’t even try to explain it, but simply tosses the queston back into a context that pretends to explain everything, but actually explains nothing. You guys, he argues, are so lucky now with the internet, smartphones. “I used to sneak around, behind my wife. Going around Plaza Singapura, Tanjong Rhu, Hong Lim Park”—apparently the hot public gay spots in Singapore—“and then with the Internet, I’ll be in IRC chatrooms and SGBoy.” Is he explaining what he prefers or what he cannot resist? What does he want from all of the sexual freedom he so blithefully outlines?

      Rai asks, “So how long will I have to keep this up?”

     Isaac’s answer seems equally glib: “I don’t know. Sometimes I think people like us will always be looking, seeking, and finding.” One must ask, however, what does he do when he finds someone, a special person like Rai?

     Joel and Ridzwan, meanwhile, have evidently made it up, as we watch them walking down a street behind Joel’s friends. Michelle turns to observe Joel take a selfie of the two of them, Ridzwan posing for the picture. Joel suggests he’ll post this picture in the morning, but Ridzwan asks if he might wait, if they might take things slow. And Joel finally agrees to his terms.

      But in the very next moment, Ridzwan grabs hold of Joel’s hand and, a few seconds later kisses him in full public view. Joel suggests that he’s beginning to like Ridzwan as the first season of this very brave adventurous series from Singapore ends.

 

Los Angeles, June 7, 2023

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (June 2023).