Tracey (2018) - Freedom of Individual? Gender Deception is Spontaneous Deception for Family
Updated: Aug 4, 2021
Ceoi3 Si1 (Dir. Jun Li; 2018) is a rarely made Hong Kong transgender film which starring Philip Keung as its titular protagonist Travis Tung / Tracey. It is a well-made film as an art film however its topic is something messy with the way of mixing gay issues and transgender issues at the same time.
In general, it would be better if the wife of Travis Tung (played by Kara Hui) recovers their family relationship with Tracey at the end of this film as a happy ending. It can be cinematic magic and unprecedented.
However dir. Jun Li separates entire ending into 'Seven Months Later' episode pieces twice. One of them shows Tracey's wife's ideological transformation from strictly traditional Chinese ethical values on LGBT issue into passively and gradually accepting Tracey's transgender tendency due to her strong love that had lasted for decades since their traditionally 'normal' marriage.
This emotional reaction of the wife of Tracey proves this film's ideal ending and direction. It should have fully developed as an ending sequence if they want it to be a cult movie.
There are two dramatically important elements; one is that LGBT people's strong desire to come out as LGBT and their seeking for social acceptance; the other one is that LGBT coming out or transgender tendency suddenly splits traditional family relationships, especially married couple.
The most dramatical point is the latter in terms of Poetics of Aristotle, LGBT's unethical nature is deception on marriage and man-and woman relationship before coming out. It explodes everything as a gender tendency deception. This phenomenon is typical that a wife thought her husband had 'normal' sexual tendency, on the contrary, a husband deceived his wife for social benefits. Is there true love between Tracey and his wife? No. The answer is clear that Tracey had deceived his wife from the beginning because Tracey is highly conscious about his true 'sexuality' since his childhood.
Gender Tendency Deception is a spontaneous deception. Tracey's sin is not solved by any karma. Tracey wants to be 'Tracey'. He forgets his wife. This film is actually one sided. Tracey's gender individualism wins over everything he wants.
I shall recommend you to see the greatest gender film classic Tootsie (1982) instead of this.
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