''Girlfriend, Boyfriend'' (also stylized as ''Gf*Bf'') is a 2012

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

ese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by

Yang Ya-che Yang Ya-che (; born 17 July 1971) is a Taiwanese film and television director. He was nominated for Golden Horse Award for Best Director Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in t ...

. The film was released on August 3, 2012. Of the film, director Yang stated that while he did not intentionally set out to make a "gay movie, but a political one, one which happened to include a gay character"., he further stated that

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

"both in fact represent the theme of freedom".

Synopsis

In the 1980s, high school students Aaron, Mabel and Liam are best friends and also caught in a love triangle. As the three friends go through the turbulent times, when social revolution takes hold over martial law, their relationships go through many ups and downs.

Cast

Gwei Lun-mei Gwei Lun-mei (; born 25 December 1983) is a Taiwanese actress. She started her acting career in 2002, with the film ''Blue Gate Crossing''. Gwei then appeared in a few more films before achieving wide recognition for the film ''Secret'', direct ...

as Mabel *

Joseph Chang Joseph Chang Hsiao-chuan (, born 28 December 1983) is a Taiwanese actor. He is best known for his role in the critically acclaimed 2006 Taiwanese film '' Eternal Summer'', which earned him two Golden Horse Awards nominations for ''Best Supporti ...

as Liam *

Rhydian Vaughan Rhydian Vaughan (born 10 March 1988), also known by his stage name Feng Xiaoyue, is a Taiwanese-British actor, best known for his performances in the films '' Monga'', ''Girlfriend, Boyfriend'' and '' Winds of September''. Early life Vaughan is ...

as Aaron *

Bryan Chang Bryan Chang or Chang Shu-hao (; born 22 October 1988) is a Taiwanese actor. He won the award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film at the Golden Bell Awards The Golden Bell Awards () is an annual Taiwanese television and radio ...

as Sean *

Serena Fang Serena Fang () is a Taiwanese actress and model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the Plan_(drawing), plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French ...

as Hsiao-bao, Aaron's wife *

Russell Tang Russell may refer to: People * Russell (given name) * Russell (surname) * Lady Russell (disambiguation) * Lord Russell (disambiguation) Places Australia *Russell, Australian Capital Territory *Russell Island, Queensland (disambiguation) **Rus ...

as John Hsu, Liam's boyfriend *

Ding Ning Ding Ning (; born 20 June 1990) is a former Chinese table tennis player. She was the winner of women's singles in the 2011 World Table Tennis Championships. At the 2015 World Table Tennis Championships, Ding won her second world title in ...

as Hanako, Mabel's mother * Nita Lei as Hsiao Yun *

J.C. Lei JC may refer to: Airlines *JC International Airlines, Cambodia *Japan Air Commuter (IATA code: JC) * JAL Express (1998–2014; IATA: JC), Japan *Rocky Mountain Airways (1965–1991; IATA: JC), United States Arts and media * "JC" (song), a 1996 s ...

as Hsiao Shu

Reception

Critical reception for ''Girlfriend, Boyfriend'' has been mixed to positive, with review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

giving the film a rating of 67%, based on 12 reviews. The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' cited the performance of Gwei Lun-mei as a highlight, saying that she was "by turns brazen and uncertain, fragile and steely". In comparison, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' panned the film, stating that it " ailedto connect" and that it "can't balance its story lines of romance and societal change".

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{Golden Horse Award for Audience Choice 2012 films 2012 drama films Taiwanese drama films 2010s Mandarin-language films Taiwanese-language films Taiwanese LGBT-related films LGBT-related drama films Gay-related films 2012 LGBT-related films Films shot in Tainan