The Golden Pin (2009)

The Golden Pin (2009)

Director: Cuong Ngo 
Writers: Cuong Ngo, Matt Guerin Genre: Short movie 
Country: Canada 
Language: English, Vietnamese (English subtitles) 
Duration: 15 min 
Year: 2009


Stars: Ben Bela Böhm, Kris Duangphung and Quoc Ha Ho

Na moju nesreću ja sam jedino muško dijete u mojoj porodici. Otac me je uvjek smatrao njegovim naslijednikom koji će produžiti porodično stablo. Kod nas U Crnoj Gori tu čast imaju sinovi, za kćerke se računa da su promjenile prezime i njihova djeca pripadaju drugoj kući.
Tako je to na balkanu. A šta ako ste sin jedinac i pri tome gay? Treba li ispoštovati tradiciju, oženiti se i imati djecu ili prekinuti porodično stablo? Razočarenje za roditelje saznanjem da se nećete oženiti i da neće imati unuke je dio svake coming out priče, al je nekako lakše kada je tu u blizini brat koji će ispraviti stvar.
Postoje i mnogi primjeri da se gay oženi, ima djecu i time podmiri sve ono što od njega očekuje društvena zajednica i porodica. Većinom se nakon nekog vremena vrate svojoj pravoj prirodi balansirajući između porodice koju su stvorili i želje za muškom ljubavi.

Ovaj film nam govori o mladom vjetnamcu, sinu jedincu koji se našao u procjepu između ljubavi prema prijatelju sa kojim redovno trenira plivanje i porodice koja jasno pokazuje šta želi od njega.

The Golden Pin is a student short film focusing on the life of Long (Duangphung), a Vietnamese-Canadian young man who finds himself on the crossroads of following his heart or fulfilling his family’s expectations. Let me tell you, there’s no greater burden for traditional families (disregarding any ethnicity) than to have offspring follow in the “correct” footsteps, so when we hear Long’s father say that he wanted Long to continue the family line because there was no other family member to do so… it feels like a bucket of cold water.

What would you really do being the last one to carry the family name? Sure, there are other options for Long and Ryan (Böhm) to have children of their own and carry their respective family’s name, but to make such decision at that point in their relationship would have seemed rushed. Instead, Long’s mother (Nguyen) decides to tell her son about her own story… though, I feel she was giving me a bit of a mixed signal there.

In the end, The Golden Pin doesn’t really give you the answer Long or us are looking for, instead just poses the question.

Which one would you choose?

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