She didn't expect such a big reaction from him. In her past life, she had downloaded and watched it on her computer herself, without asking the men around her if they had seen the movie.
Should she not have brought him along?
Just thinking about it, if it were her seeing two women kissing and caressing on the big screen... Well, she would also find it a bit hard to accept.
"Sorry, I won't bring you along next time. It was my oversight." She had only thought of it as a classic film and forgotten about how straight men might react to this movie.
But as soon as she said it in such a gentle tone, Roy's goosebumps subsided, and he obediently said, "It's okay, it's not that bad."
He was grateful that there was only light coming from the big screen in the cinema at this moment. Otherwise, he doubted if his expression would have any persuasive power at all.
Taking this opportunity, he glanced at Nolan on the other side and was surprised to find him enjoying the movie, occasionally jotting down something in a small notebook.
Well, now he understood why they were directors, while he could only be an actor. If he couldn't even focus on someone else's movie, how could he analyze and understand it well?
With this in mind, his restless heart calmed down.
And as he carefully watched the movie, he found it unexpectedly profound.
Apart from having some trouble accepting the intimate scenes between the two male leads, Roy thought the other scenes were well shot. Not only was the scenery attractive, but the emotional entanglement and inner release portrayed by the director through the lens told an astonishing love story.
Especially in the latter part, he could clearly hear the suppressed sobbing from the nearby audience. And sitting beside him, Laila kept gently wiping her cheeks with tissues.
This made Roy couldn't help but ponder, how the movie achieved this. Just by simple pathos?
No, it was the pain that everyone could empathize with. Through the movie, the audience seems to be placed in the movie, experiencing the struggles and loves of the protagonists. How could this be achieved? Obviously, besides the director's directing ability, the actors' performances were also very outstanding. The audience did not feel that they were playing roles, but that they were real characters.
Roy knew that everyone thought he had a talent for acting, but he knew even more that relying solely on talent would only keep him in one place forever, never progressing. His previous progress only made his talent more perfect, but there was no room for sublimation. So recently, he has been studying microexpressions and how to control them.
The day he was pondering over the role, Laila happened to return home. At that time, he did not make too exaggerated expressions, but still shocked her. That time, he used microexpressions, some rarely noticed but indeed useful microexpressions to achieve the expression he wanted to show.
Now it seemed that the actors in "Brokeback Mountain" had done a good job with their expressions. It made the audience successfully enter the movie and feel the same sadness.
Coming out of the cinema, Roy still had a pensive look on his face, until he saw Laila's red eyes, he couldn't help but feel both angry and amused as he took out a pack of tissues and handed it to her. "Fortunately, no one recognizes you now, otherwise your current image would be used in media reports, accompanied by a headline — Laila, with tears and snot all over her face."
Laila took the tissue and sniffled, "Director Ang Lee handled the plot so well." Even though it wasn't her first time watching, she still felt sad about the ending. "Why did I come to watch? Wasn't I looking for trouble?"
Roy was amused by her words, wasn't he the one who was troubled? Making him, a straight man, watch two men in love, when he saw the intimate scenes, he was so embarrassed that he didn't know where to put his hands.
"Alright, we won't watch this kind of movie next time. What else do you want to watch? 'King Kong' and 'Munich'?" He coaxed her gently.
"Yeah." Laila nodded with a nasal tone.
Seeing her like this, Roy's heart softened into a puddle of water. He reached out and hugged her, "Then let's go watch another movie to change the mood. How about 'King Kong'? 'Munich' sounds a bit depressing."
Laila nodded again, then turned to Nolan, "Christopher, are you going to watch 'King Kong'?"
Nolan was about to speak when he saw the man next to her staring at him with a look that said, "If you dare to agree, I'll tie you up and throw you into the river," so he wisely declined, "I won't go. I'm here to see Heath Ledger's performance."
Laila then remembered, "What do you think?"
"It's very good." Nolan gave a fair assessment, but then added, "If I hadn't settled on Roy, I might have chosen him. But now that I have the best, I don't need anyone else."
This guy still had some insight. Roy was touched by his use of the term "the best," deciding to forgive his earlier light bulb behavior.
Saying goodbye to the universal light bulb, Roy took Laila, whose eyes were still red, to buy tickets for "King Kong."
Looking at the movie ticket in her hand, Laila couldn't help but think of a joke that was circulating on the internet, which was that after watching "The Return of the Condor Heroes," you'd understand that age is not a problem. After watching "Brokeback Mountain," you'd understand that gender is not a problem. After watching "King Kong," you'd understand that race is not a problem. After watching "A Chinese Ghost Story," you'd understand that life and death are not problems...
Was it that this joke had left such a deep impression on her mind that she suddenly felt a bit embarrassed holding the ticket for "King Kong"? Just having taken her boyfriend to watch a movie where same-sex relationships were not a problem, now taking him to watch a movie where race was not a problem, was she setting herself up to return to being a single dog?
"Roy, the movies are all fake, you know!" She grabbed his hand solemnly, reminding him earnestly.
Roy was stunned by her words, "Huh?" Just now, she had cried so much from the movie, did she have the right to say such things?
"I didn't mean that!" Laila covered her face, really about to cry from her stupidity. She didn't know how she had come up with such a thing, actually suspecting that Roy would... with men, and even beasts... her imagination must have gone wild. Hopefully, he didn't understand what she meant.
"Okay, okay, I know what you mean, I won't take it seriously." Thinking of the movie just now, and her sudden seriousness, he seemed to suddenly understand something. Was she worried that he might start liking men too?
"In this world, you are the only one I love." What a good opportunity to express his love. Roy naturally wouldn't waste it. He grabbed her hand and kissed it before leading her back to the cinema.
Laila was satisfied. Having a boyfriend who always knew when to say sweet words to make his girlfriend happy was really great!