Know why I never post on fandomsecrets? I like sharing my shame.

[amanuensis1]

From the trailer, I wanted rather badly to see this film:



...and then I learned the one on the right is not a boy. Now I'm no longer interested.

Migod, could I get any more shallow.

Comments

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

They're not two girls?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Boy and a girl, so the summaries say. (The blond's the boy)

[aquila1nz.livejournal.com]

Nooooo!

Actually Eli is a boy - a castrated one. You have to see this film, I've seen it twice, it is brilliant! I guarantee you will love it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

But they say he's a girl in all the summaries??

[noveltynovelist.livejournal.com]

I still want to see that movie anyway, not just because it's Swedish and about vampires, but because I was promised violence. Bloody, bloody violence.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hee, you're comfortable with your genres!

(Why isn't Phoenix Wright a movie? Why do I have to PLAY it to get all the goody?)

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

According to the book this based on, the one on the right is a boy. In the film, this is never stated directly, but the one on the right explains several times to the other that "I am not a girl."

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Whoa, I'm starting to get interested again! Why do all the summaries of this film say the character's a girl?

[ladysorka]

Eli actually is a boy.

He/She (I'm honestly not sure on pronoun) has just been castrated. There's a brief scene were we see the results of this as Oskar looks through a door and watches Eli dress. Eli is played by a female actress, though.

So. Yes.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Ha, if I hadn't seen the email comment notification for this I wouldn't have realized you had hidden text in this comment!

Well, guess what's going back on my Netflix list right NOW, then!

[vissy.livejournal.com]

It actually still seemed quite slashy to me, in that unconventional relationship-type way.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I won't argue how "unconventional relationship" doesn't always equal "slashy" for me because you've seen it and I haven't and I can see how that would work.

From what I'm being told, though, the character actually IS a boy, so I want to see it now!

[ariadneelda.livejournal.com]

Oh, you have to see it! It's a great movie, dark and twisted and very, very slashy. I was confused about Eli's gender till the end and let me tell you I was disappointed, too, thinking he was a girl. But then I found out that in the book (which I haven't read) Eli is a boy and I was happy. *g*

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

If I can go into it knowing that, yes, it's a boy, I'm gonna be happy.

[breakism.livejournal.com]

LOL, the actress who plays that character is a girl, but the character is a boy who dresses like a girl, because he was castrated.

And the movie is great.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Top of the Netflix list, Ma! :D

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Eli, in the film, is played by a girl, but they dubbed the actress's voice over with a boy's to make her sound more ambiguous.

The character is definitely meant to be a castrated boy, which was a major plot in the original Swedish novel but is hinted at during the movie, but there's only so much they could get to in a film adaptation.

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Androgynous, not ambiguous. Yikes.

[christwise.livejournal.com]

I was indifferent to this movie until I read this and all the comments. MUST. RENT.

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh, it is very good. Combines horror with emotional nuances exquisitely.

[saturn92103.livejournal.com]

It's a fantastic film!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It looked good but I wasn't willing to watch it just because it's good; it has to be good AND the sort of thing I like, yanno? Horror isn't always my thing. (But now it's back on my list!)

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

This is an *excellent* film. You. Must. See. It.

(Interestingly enough I see parallels between this and Coraline... in a Big Picture sort of way.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Not having seen Coraline but having read the book I'm already intrigued by the idea of a parallel.

[waxbean.livejournal.com]

hahahah -- took me a moment to get it. I was wondering why you wouldn't want to see underage lesbian hotness on film...

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

There are clips of them in the same bed and I was okay with that (fond of that!) when I thought they were the same gender--when I suddenly had reason to think they were different genders I was all, "Oh, that's just wrong and shameful, where are the PARENTS?" Isn't that wacky.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Title, please? Thanks.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Let the Right One In. FANTASTIC book, and, I am told, a great movie, too.

[pumpkin-pantry.livejournal.com]

*de-lurks* lmao I honestly didn't know the whole 'twist' until I read the comments in your lj, and for some reason it makes the movie much less creepy. At first, I wanted to see the movie cuz I thought it was two girls and was disappointed when I watched it...but now this makes me want to watch it again! Oscar is the cutest thing ever, you should watch it just to see him swim/trying to be manly.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Two kids of the same gender foolin' around seems sweet and natural to me. Make them different genders and my brain goes OMG TEEN PREGNANCY WHERE ARE THE PARENTS NO NO NO WRONG.

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

And I forgot - there *is* a bona fide gay couple in there, but it's waaay subtle.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Now I'll be looking for that, hee!

[amalthia]

this was actually a rather good movie. :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

It always looked like a good movie to me but I don't necessarily see movies just because they're good, if that makes any sense. A film can be good but I might not be interested in that sort of thing and so I won't see it. I remember, years ago, going to see In the Bedroom with my mom because she'd heard it was good and wanted to see it. It was good. It was excellent. I hated it. So did she. It was depressing as hell, and we felt we'd wasted the day. I told her, "This is why I don't see films just because they're good."

[coell.livejournal.com]

AMAZING MOVIE! I'd use my favorite icon from it, but I don't want to spoil anything. ^_^

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're so good to me, thank you!

[jonna594.livejournal.com]

Actually, she is a he. You probably know it's a Swedish movie, and since I'm Swedish I have already seen the movie plus read the book. They are both awesome, I really recommend them both. They do describe Eli as a girl, because Oskar thinks Eli is one, but and this is a bit spolerish, Eli originally was a boy. Hope this will make you watch it :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

This is a spoiler I clearly needed because otherwise I don't think I would have seen it, and I would have kicked myself later for having the misperception which kept me away!

[geneticallydead.livejournal.com]

Eli's gender is very definitely questionable. I think it's supposed to be a bit of a twist, thus the statement that Eli is a girl.

It's an astonishing, amazing film. See it. Drop everything to see it.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I can understand why it might have been presented that way, but I still expect reviewers to couch those things subtly. "His friend Eli..." "the mysterious neighbor Eli..." :D

[lurkslikefox.livejournal.com]

The thing I like most about that film is that it parallels so neatly with Twilight. It's essentially the same story, only if the sparkly veneer of repressed mormon housewife/early teenager sexuality is scraped of. This is how creepy and squicky Twilight should be.

*SPOILERS*

It's got the protaganist being romanced by a much much older person who stalks them, lets themselves into their bedroom at night, does the whole 'Be friends with me... but keep away from me... but love me... but you're not safe with me...' thing and draws thr protaganist away from his family. We've also got a selfish (possibly to the point of psychosis) main character who can't relate to those around him/her and is 'dazzled' by the interest shown in them by this older person.

I give you a much better and Swedish version of Twilight (though it may have been written first).

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the spoiler warning--I don't think I'll read your spoiler text because I'd rather not know anything else! But clearly I needed the spoilers for the gender issue, otherwise I wouldn't see it. ^_^

[flamingsword.livejournal.com]

That is kinda sexist, yo.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm freaky that way. If it were two girls or two boys I'd find it intriguing but if it's a girl and a boy together I suddenly don't like it, hyperaware of all the intergender dynamics in the relationship and feeling it sour me.

[minavox.livejournal.com]

This movie is really brilliant. A fresh and interesting take on the whole Vampire topic - and not in the Twilight/i>-way of turning it into bad soap.
Worth a watch regardless of the gender question, imo - I didn't get it until relatively late into the movie.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Yup, I've got it on my Netflix list now!

[idlerat.livejournal.com]

The reason you know it's too boys is that you've pictured the scene a million times. It's Lucius and Snape. As lad. There's even snow

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

*cracks up* There you go!

[loony-lucifer.livejournal.com]

I saw this post this morning. Went and watched the movie. It was really good. Thank you. Wow.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Whee! I'm happy to have had a purpose, then! :D When I get the film from Netflix and watch it I'll post somethin'.