Eternal summer is a sweet and bitter love triangle between guys and one girl. Johnathan, the shy and reserved, fell for his best friend, Shane, the outgoing and sporty. Carrie who initially fell for Johnathan then became in love with Shane. Not sure if Carrie was really in love with Shane or just used Shane to get close to Johnathan. It is very hard to believe that Shane had spent one intimate night with Johnathan and still see him as his best friend. I think Shane also has some feelings for Johnathan more than friendship. It seems to me that these two developed feelings for each other over the long period of their friendship. Shane is prob. bisexual but he probably doesn't realize it. The film has a lot of implications that Shane seems confused, lost, and even edgy without Johnathan around more so than without Carrie. There is no explicit ending for these 3 at the end. I can understand how Johnathan felt when he found out his "best friend" had a girlfriend, the hurt and rejection he felt yet he couldn't tell the others. I can understand how Shane felt when he could only watch Shane fall asleep and control his reactions all because this is not acceptable by the society and not knowing how Shane felt about him. At the end, Shane said that he is really lonely and sees Johnathan as his truly best friend. I really have doubts about what he said. I really believe that Shane sees Johnathan more than a best friend but he is prob. in denial and confused, too.. Only if Johnathan can ask Shane if Shane loves him, too... The music is great, very touching. Both Johnathan and Shane gave strong performances. Carrie is good, too but didn't shine as the other two. I wish the movie has a really ending..

Well I think this film pretty much sums up the notion that love transcends time and gender. A bittersweet tale of childhood yearning for a best friend that has taken a new direction as the two friends grow up to find the meaning of love and life when a girl threatens to upset the status quo.The two lead male actors, Bryan and Joseph, give a sensitive and insightful performance as two best friends whose friendship is more than just ordinary. Kate plays the girl who comes between them and the girl shows grown-up sensibility beyond her age.Heartwarming, poignant and ultimately heart wrenching. Watching it is enough to make any grown man want to cry.

I agree with the other review that this film is very moving. It is not a perfect film but I enjoyed it very much. The music is rather syrupy which lends to the film's tear jerking nature. But the story is very well done and the performances of the leads are very strong and they do have very good chemistry. I'm not sure that the sex scene really made a whole lot of sense to me and there seemed to be a fair amount edited out of the story which might have made the film better and fleshed things out a bit more. I think the characters are rather relatable for most gay guys. I certainly had my share of straight friends who I was in love with over the years. And I liked the way the story is told from the beginning of their friendship. I wasn't sure if Carrie was supposed to be the same girl as the one at the beginning who gets her hair cut by Shane. Definitely worth seeing.

Movie Review: Eternal Summer (2006) By Ken LeeThis movie was a box office success in its native Taiwan when it was released late last year, garnering 4 nominations in Taiwan's Golden Horse Award along the way, and an eventual win for one of its male leads (Bryant CHANG Jui-chia, or ZHANG Ruijia in pinyin, who plays Jonathan KANG Zhenxing in a nuanced performance repletes with all the requisite repressed troubled mood), though a nod for its other male lead (Joseph CHANG Hsiao-chuan, or ZHANG Xiaoquan in pinyin, who plays the other-worldly Shane YU Souheng with tremendous vigour and enough *bling*), for the role of the high school jock and the object of desire of Jonathan, will be just as pleasing. But the movie's success is less sterling in HK, where it just opens, presumably because movie-goers here typecast it with yet-another-melodramatic-Taiwanese-film association, and one with GLBT-theme at that, which is a shame, for it deserves a wider audience, even as it's one that isn't without minor flaws of its own, as befits the fate of most coming-of-age films helmed by relatively young directors (in this case, Leste CHEN, all of 25).The plot is decidedly simple, and the narrative mostly linear, tracking the friendship and love of its 3 main protagonists ("best friends" Jonathan, Shane, and Carrie, played by Kate Yeung who shines in limited screen time) in their youth, from age 11 in a school in rural Hualian (in 1991) to age 18 (1998) to the college year in Taipei (2005), with all of their ensuing majesty, glory, anxiety, complicity, confusion, pang, angst, and a dreamy quality thrown in. The film will benefit from some minor editing for a more even pace. Original music by Jeffrey CHENG is intrusive at best. These minor quibbles aside, cinematographer Charlie LAM's rendering of the rural locations is thing of pure magic and the theme song by Ah Xin (of the "May Day" rock band fame) blends in magnificently with the direction to which the film eventually takes. A friend asked if this is a tear-jerker to avoid at all costs. My answer to which is that hot and bitter tears may flow, not necessarily because of the inherent sadness of the human conditions, but may be because it deepens our understanding of those who are perceived to be "different" and living on the fringe. And if the measure of a film lies in whether the audience connects with the characters towards the end, and whether it leaves you with the sudden urge to be young and fell in love all over again, then it isn't to be missed; and so it seems "Eternal Summer" is a welcome addition to the growing list of Taiwanese films with GLBT content. Recommended.