FILM

Pleasure. Love. (also titled “Male Joy, Female Love”) tells the two stories of a young man and a young woman experiencing passionate love for the first time. Each story begins with its protagonist meeting an older lover at a dance hall and embarking on a sultry affair. The younger characters are immature and stubborn while the older ones look for innocence and sincerity, yet they all long for pure emotions and love in a materialistic society. Having left their hometowns for the big city in search of a brighter future, they learn that what is important resides in the heart.<br />
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At what point do we shift from learning how to love to teaching others how to do so? This question is thoughtfully examined in writer/director Yao Huang’s intricate puzzle of love, sex, and time.Pleasure. Love. concocts an intertwined narrative of characters and emotions where the enjoyment comes from tracing the connected lines through the cycles of love.