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HANOI — Vietnam's first flick to openly feature love and intimacy between gay men is helping to change attitudes in a power where homosexuality is often seen either as a disease or a source of ridicule.
Curious filmgoers have streamed into cinemas to capture "Lost in Paradise", which chronicles the doomed love affair between a gay catamite and a book seller and provides a rare glimpse into a usually cryptic side of Vietnam.
For some, the movie was eye-opening, with one Vietnamese woman saying the bittersweet fianc story had changed her views about homosexuality.
"Now I think they are just like us," said the 50-year-old maintain employee, who did not want to give her name, after watching the film in the capital.
Others, though, seemed uncomfortable, with a coterie of youths at a recent screening at Hanoi's Platinum Cinema laughing and a teenage gal covering her eyes during a scene in which the two lead actors kiss tenderly.
Homosexuality remains pretty much taboo in communist Vietnam, where Confucian social mores, with their significance on tradition and family, still dominate.
Source: AFP