'Shi qi sui de tian kong' (FORMULA 17) is a very fine first venture into film making by two young Taiwanese women - Yin-jung Chen, director and Rady Fu, screenwriter - who are unafraid to take on a taboo subject in Taiwan and find some excellent talent and ideas that suggest that there will be more films from them in the future. Though the central theme and two characters of the story are excellent, the movie drifts into wide-eyed burlesque with its supporting cast, and thus the six rating instead of eight.Tien (Tony Yang) is a naive seventeen-year-old from the provinces who comes to Taipei to live with his old friend Yu (Chin King), a bartender in a gay bar, for a summer. Tien is gay, a virgin, and intends to stay a virgin until he is in a meaningful love relationship. Yu is suffering from a relationship that is tainted by distance, but he sees the need to introduce Tien into the active gay life in Taipei - and to put an end to Tien's virginity. Together with Yu's friends (way over the top flamboyant kids) Tien is introduced to gay bars, is set up with hunks, but he holds to his values - until he eyes 30-year-old playboy Bai Tieh-nan (Duncan Lai), a lothario famous for his one night stands. We gradually learn that Bai is a sensitive hunk with issues who is afraid to fall in love, hence his one night stand rule. The story at the core of this film is how the two ultimately fulfill each others' ideals and needs.Much of the film dawdles in stereotypical situations and poorly acted and directed excursions into the bar scenes, but the work of Duncan Lai and Tony Yang makes the film credible and well worth watching: both men are handsome, talented actors who develop a fine screen chemistry. For all its weak points, FORMULA 17 is a film with a big heart and a gay film that manages to deal with some important issues of fidelity and honesty instead of focusing on merely the superficial. In Mandarin, Cantonese, English with subtitles. Grady Harp

Innocent boy sees then meets jaded boy. Jaded boy becomes unjaded. Familiar story but with a sweetness that can make even a tired old queen believe (again) in the power of love at first sight.The supporting characters are truly funny and resemble many I've met in Asia. Even though the version I saw had 15 minutes of lost subtitles (?!?!?!?) the message was still clear.I saw this at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. There was an error in the program. This movie is from TAIWAN not Thailand. But a lot of the charm that was part of Iron Ladies (from Thailand) can be seen in this film.Not a deep film but certainly worth a see.

Director Chen Ying Rong debuts in an all-male movie that exposes a unique view of gays in Taipei. Perfectly cast for the role, Tony Yang Yo Ning plays a naive, 17-year old teenager (Tien) who ventures off to the big city in search of "true love". Courageous, honest and innocent in chasing his goal in love, Tien gets attracted to the popular 30-year-old playboy Pai (Duncan Lai) – who Tien fantasizes about giving his first intimately kiss to. A thoughtful movie that takes you into the streets of Taiwan, showing you its exciting nightlife into the famous gay bars Funky and Fresh. Formula 17 follows the success of the gay-themed movie Lan Yu - which won international awards for its artistic and realistic portrayal.This movie starts with the naive countryman Tien. He goes to Taipei to meet his friend who he met online. Believing in "true love", his friend really disappoints him by saying that he would like to have sex with him. "How can we make love if there is not love between us?" Tien asks.Then his 'the one' appears. This stud (Nan) was hurt by his ex-boyfriend, and thinks that he will never fall in love again. But later, he discovers that he's fallen in love with this cute guy. Scaring of getting hurt and hurting Tien, he decides to leave Tien after the romantic night. In fact, this can do nothing but hurts both of them. At this time, Nan knows he has to overcome his fear of intimacy because he has fallen in love with Tien. He prays to God, hoping God can give him one more chance, and getting Tien back. Then the miracle happens, and they two finally get together. This movie also records the pride parade held in Taipei in the late 2003.

FORMULA 17 (17 Sui De Tian Kong) Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Dolby DigitalEvents conspire to frustrate the budding romance between a naive country boy (Tony Yang) searching for love in Taipei, and a local stud (Duncan Chow) notorious for his sexual conquests.A smash hit in its native Taiwan, this breezy romantic comedy was the inaugural production of Three Dots Entertainment, an independent studio committed to the production of commercial genre movies, and was directed by first-timer Chen Yin-jung (aka DJ Chen), a 23 year old graduate of Yuan Ze University. To her credit, Chen tackles the film's subject matter head-on and refuses to cut away when the two guys at the center of Rady Fu's old-fashioned screenplay finally - inevitably - get it on. Yang and Chow maintain a respectful distance from one another at first, each afraid to make that crucial leap of faith, until Yang finally turns up on Chow's doorstep and sighs: "Let's stop pretending, it's tiring", leading to the film's central sex scene, a tasteful affair with lots of kissing and fumbling and raunchy good intentions. Much of the running time, however, is given over to various comic interludes involving Yang's newfound friends (Jin Qin, Dada Ji and Jimmy Yang), a trio of outrageous queens who insist on making a melodrama out of the tiniest crisis. Unfortunately, the comedy is forced and unfunny and a little too excessive at times, but the central love story yields its fair share of tender rewards.As a vehicle for its ultra-sexy leading men, FORMULA 17 is hard to beat: Yang and Chow (the latter billed simply as 'Duncan') achieved teen idol status in popular Taiwanese TV dramas, where they both played wholly conventional roles. Here, Yang is a childlike innocent searching for True Love, and Chow is a beautiful playboy whose reputation belies his own desperate search for emotional fulfilment. Standout scenes include a comic episode in which Jin and co. set up Yang with a hunky prostitute (Yang Zhi-long) who turns up at Our Hero's apartment posing as a plumber, in a scenario lifted wholesale from countless porn videos; and an early sequence in which Yang and Chow bump into one another while standing at a busy crossroads, where their hesitant overtures are kindled by an elderly gent standing alongside them, who despairs of their reluctance to acknowledge a mutual attraction (this scene has a *very* gay conclusion!). Chen allows the pace to slacken during dialogue exchanges (the bulk of the movie!), which takes some of the fizz out of proceedings, but the film has a virtuous heart and builds to a joyous conclusion which - along with the cute guys and up-front sexuality - probably bolstered its commercial fortunes at the Taiwanese box-office. Production-wise, Chen makes the most of her limited resources, and she's well-served by Chen Huei-sheng's imaginative cinematography, and Zack Gu's designer-label art direction/costume design (leading to the movie's biggest laugh, when Yang pronounces 'Gucci' as 'juicy'!).NB. Amusingly (or not, depending on your point of view), FORMULA 17 was banned in Singapore by the Films Appeals Committee for creating "an illusion of a homosexual utopia, where everyone, including passersby, is homosexual and no ills or problems are reflected... It conveys the message that homosexuality is normal, and a natural progression in society"! That same year, Singaporean authorities finally allowed the broadcast of popular TV dramedy "Sex and the City", gave the go-ahead for a small number of bars to open 24 hours a day, and partially legalized the sale and consumption of chewing gum...(Mandarin and Cantonese dialogue)