Hidden (2021)

About coming of age and to raise awareness about coming out and social problems

If contemporary audiovisuals have taken one function seriously, it has been to raise awareness about social problems that harm certain people or groups. Among the themes that fiction increasingly explores is pedophilia and violence against minors.
Many times, the stories that the viewer sees in front of the screen are not a mere result of narrative creation, but of real faces and names that suffer daily from the actions of sexual predators.
Although there has been a worldwide tendency to address these issues through fiction, especially that directed at girls, there is still an interest in making such attacks visible also on children and, as a society, reflecting on it.
That is precisely what 'Hidden' is about, the third short film and also the graduation production, by Taiwanese director, screenwriter, editor and producer Hsuan-Chi Kuo.
From the first frames, the creative and aesthetic seal of the director who graduated from the National University of the Arts in Taipei, known for focusing his films on the problems of growing up and sexual aggression of homosexual teenagers, is evident.
In just under 30 minutes, the film addresses a story about coming of age, self-discovery, first crushes and gay dating apps, through which Xiao-Wei (You-Lun Lin, known for his role in 'Wo men yu e de ju li', 2019), the young protagonist of only thirteen years old, must grow up, although to do so he must face childhood sexual abuse, this type of traumatic experience that can interfere with the proper development of the attacked, as well as having a negative impact on both the physical and psychological state of the person who suffers its consequences.
It is not the first time that the experienced director approaches the universe of childhood and adolescence, since his name has become a reference in terms of gender perspective, exploration of sexuality, gay identity, sexual curiosity and the perplexity of growing up.
Hsuan-Chi Kuo knows well the themes addressed in his filmography, with their evident complexity, when it comes to bringing them to the screen; but also with a beauty achieved from the visual and a particular workmanship that immediately reveals its authorship.
The name behind 'A Boy's Mind' and 'Fly' turns on this occasion to tell a story about a young boy who little by little has been understanding his sexuality and has begun to use dating applications to explore the sensual world, but in his case with a crude setting as a backdrop.
Xiao-Wei, who hides his true self in real life, has complicated and indescribable emotions for his best friend Pin Rui (Chih-Hsuan Wu, known for his role in 'No Strings Attached' (2023), 'Shiba San and Meow Chan' (2018). When Pin Rui confessed to his friend that he has a girlfriend, the friendly relationship between the two gradually drifted apart and made Xiao Wei feel distressed and depressed.
Will the protagonist, who musters the courage to meet netizens in search of solace, get answers, or will he become even more confused?
Presented at the Frameline San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, the International LGBTQ Film Festival, nominated for student narrative short films at the Golden Harvest Awards for Outstanding Short Films, and the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, all in 2021, and at Wicked Queer Boston's LGBTQ Film Festival, 2022, this short film offers good camera focuses and very excellent cinematography.
As a man highly committed to reality, Hsuan-Chi Kuo sought a thoughtful treatment that would connect with the recipients. With a marked and conscious distinction between explicit and suggestive scenes, the film constitutes, among other things, a call to denounce a clinical, legal and social problem called pedophilia, to destroy the myth of good or bad victims, to understand that child sexual abuse is a type of abuse that has no face or specific social stratum, to internalize that it continues to be a taboo subject that is not talked about enough and, above all, to recognize all forms and not remain silent.

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