There's not a single "no homo" moment in Promare it almost looks like there might be one when Galo acts embarrassed by the kiss, but he makes it's clear he's only grossed out as a firefighter starting a fire and not as a man kissing another man. This isn't "queerbaiting" of the kind you see in Sherlock or Supernatural either, where hints of chemistry fans glom onto are then undercut by "no homo" moments.
In contrast, Promare and The Lighthouse's characters aren't officially queer, but it's impossible to watch those films and not come away with the impression that they are without some serious denial. (Though thankfully, it seems Thor: Love and Thunder will be less vague in regards to Valkyrie's bisexuality). In the latter cases, the characters' sexualities are officially stated by the writers, but you could barely get a hint of that from reading or watching the source material. Rowling handled Dumbledore in Harry Potter or how the MCU handled Valkyrie in Thor: Ragnarok. In a way, films like Promare and The Lighthouse are doing the opposite of how J.K.
LIO AND GALO MOVIE
RELATED: The Lighthouse Movie Cast & Character Guide I’m not saying they're not either." Dafoe, in contrast, calls the film's queer subtext a "no-brainer," and Pattinson says the film is "really a love story." Pattinson's also compared the film to 50 Shades of Grey. Eggers offers a similarly noncommital response about The Lighthouse's queerness as Wakabayashi did about Promare's, saying: "Am I saying these characters are gay? No. When interviewed about The Lighthouse's heavy homoeroticism by The Huffington Post, it's interesting to note the big difference between the actors' responses and director Robert Eggers'. When Ephraim attacks Thomas in a fit of madness, his visions of Thomas are intercut with the mermaid from the earlier fantasy, and before burying the old man alive, Ephraim walks his former master on a leash, ordering him to bark like a dog. The two of them almost kiss before wrestling with each other. The most logical interpretation of that scene is that Ephraim as bisexual, and the most natural interpretation of the film as a whole is to see it as an intense sadomasochistic relationship between him and the old sea captain Thomas (Willem Dafoe).Įarly in the film, Ephraim stares through a peephole at Thomas' butt. When he masturbates to a mermaid figurine, however, Ephraim's fantasies jump back and forth between a mermaid and a male lumberjack. Unlike Lio and Galo in Promare, The Lighthouse's main character Ephraim (Robert Pattinson) does seem to have some sexual interest in women. RELATED: Promare Is The Best X-Men Film In Years At the Scotland Loves Anime festival screening in Edinburgh on October 19, Wakabayashi described reactions to the scene as "interesting." At the US premiere at Anime Expo, he initially insisted "it's rescue, not gay," but then proceeded to say that if the fans think it's gay, then it could be.
Creative producer Hiromi Wakabayashi has had the most to say about the Kiss of Life scene. The creative team behind Promare, however, has been somewhat coy about their intentions with Galo and Lio's relationship. The soundtrack is filled with love songs ("So spend some time with me/I really like your company!" go the lyrics to "NEXUS"), and without a single heterosexual couple in the whole film, there's only one romance they could possibly be about. The main visual motif of Lio and his fellow Mad Burnish is pink triangles, a design choice with obvious symbolic meaning. The emotional climax of the film involves Galo giving Lio the Kiss of Life, which you could argue is just magic CPR but is presented more like Snow White. Promare, though, is hard to watch and not read it as a romance. Of course, shippers are quick to jump on any signs of chemistry between characters, so fandom embracing a gay pairing doesn't generally mean it's canon. Galo and Lio, the main characters in Promare, have widely been embraced by anime fans as a couple. Should they be considered "queer cinema," and if not, are they at least exemplary of different directions that actual "queer cinema" should be taking? Two of this Fall's most talked-about arthouse hits, the action anime, Promare and the psychological thriller, The Lighthouse, weren't advertised as "queer cinema." However, even without officially stating romantic or sexual feelings between their male leads, these two very different films both share a very explicit and intentional sense of homoeroticism. WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Promare and The Lighthouse.
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