FestivalsFilmReview

XX + XY – BFI Flare 2023

Reviewer: Maryam Philpott

Writer: Sung-Yeun Hong

Director: Soh-Yoon Lee

Is identity really a choice? For intersex teenage Jay, their gender is presented to them exactly that way. In filmmaker Soh-Yoon Lee’s charming comedy written by Sung-Yeun Hong which screened at BFI Flare 2023. The health and puberty changes affecting Jay’s body are couched in a transfer to a new school and two romantic options, one with a woman and one a man, who both fall for Jay. Can sexual attraction determine what gender Jay wants to be or is it all far more complicated than that? Hong and Lee’s film is a call to be whoever you are and not let binary notions of gender define you.

Hong and Lee sets Jay’s story in a really well realised broader context that notes social restrictions that seek to reduce and confine individual in various ways across XX + XY. First it examines Jay’s parents, a doctor who marries a gay man to protect him and is open to sharing their relationship with a long-term male partner who Jay thinks of as an uncle. Jay’s close groups of friends must also deal with highly gendered expectations placed on them by their parents and peers, especially love interest Wooram whose parents want him to play basketball, something that they have made a number of sacrifices to facilitate. Friend and fellow love interest Sera has a similar pressure from her circle to turn Jay from old friend to boyfriend without knowing Jay’s true self. Writer Hong has a good grasp of the pressures and expectations placed on everyone not just Jay to define who they are and conform with external ideals about who they all should be.

The heightened tone of XX + XY creates a rom com feel but looks to subvert the genre as often as possible. The focus on physical characteristics and reactions in Jay’s search for identity is sensitively handled but also creates freedom to explore the fears and worries a that Jay has, trying out different options and sometimes pushing themselves too far in order to force a choice. Yet, Lee and Hong takes the audience along, always sympathetic to Jay’s perspective while creating space to make mistakes, be hurt and develop new boundaries around what they want.

The shape of the story also includes development space for both of Jay’s friends to examine their own reactions to Jay, some of which challenge them. Sera becomes a little possessive but knowing that Jay is intersex is reassured that they will be kinder and more understanding if they share their first time together. Wooram by contrasts runs away from his feelings initially, trying to work out if an attraction to Jay makes him homosexual without knowing more about Jay’s true self. And there are reactions from classmates and even teachers that reinforce prejudices experienced by all of the characters, although the whole school finale will warm your heart.

At two hours and five minutes XX + XY is overlong and arguably its broad attempt to look across so many characters means it sometimes loses focus and could arrive at its destination a little more quickly, but performances from Hyun-Ho Ahn as Jay, Ji-in Kim as Sera and Woo-Sung Choi as Wooram are engaging and the tone of Lee and Hong’s XX + XY carries the audiences along. A positive and affirming film and an all too rare examination of intersex experience.

XX + XY was screened at BFI Flare from 15-26 March.

The Reviews Hub Score:

Positive and affirming

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The Reviews Hub Film Team is under the editorship of Maryam Philpott.

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