LOVELAND/EXPIRED

Australia, 2021, 105 minutes, Colour.

Ryan Kwanten, Jillian Nguyen, Hugo Weaving.

Directed by Ivan Senn.

This is not an easy cinema experience. There are aspects of science-fiction in a pre-apocalyptic world. There is personal drama and a search for identity. There is a sex club, the Loveland of the title, and one of the performers a refugee from a village in Vietnam. There is also a theme of life, genetic engineering, immortality, death.

The film was released in Australia as Loveland. However, at the same time, the Internet Movie Database lists it as Expired with a poster with that name.

While this is a film financed by Screen Queensland, with some of the interiors shot in Queensland, the setting is Hong Kong, generally Hong Kong by night, the vistas, the skyscrapers, the neon lights, the streets, dingy apartments, the corridors and rooms of the club.

And, this is a film of dialogue, philosophical dialogue, self-ruminating dialogue, rhetorical dialogue, often a succession of monologues by the central characters.

The word that kept coming to mind during the screening was portentous, portentous dialogue, portentous themes and treatment. So, it seemed a good idea before writing the review to check on what was exactly the meaning of portentous. There were some definitions: ‘of or like a portent; of momentous significance’ and ‘done in a pompously or overly solemn manner so as to impress’. 

The first definition applies to John, the central character, a hitman for hire (and we see him doing an assassination, without any sense of conscience), unsure of his origins, a white man in the Chinese context, often ruminating about the absence of his mother and his wanting her, going to the sex club, waited on by the management, watching the women rather than any physical contact, their performing and singing behind a glass. All these events were portentous for John, momentous significance for his life and his possible death.

However, the second definition pervaded, especially the solemn manner, maybe overly solemn, poetic, rhetorical, scientific, pre-apocalyptic, issues of life and death, outed as voice-over, as monologues, designed to impress.

The setting is exotic, the issues of life and death and genetic engineering are raised, John discovering a doctor, played impressively, as always, by Hugo Weaving, who has experimented in the past, has his regrets, looks to possibilities for rectifying the situation.

The other exotic aspect is April, the Vietnamese woman who performs at the club, whom John follows, gets to know, forms a relationship – which is partly good for her but partly disturbing, jolting her in her life in Hong Kong and desire to return home to Vietnam and to her daughter.

There is some explicit explanation towards the end of the film as to why John is as he is, his quest to find the doctor, to get an explanation about his mother, and the realisation that powers that be after him to destroy him.

While the release title focuses on the sex club, the alternate, Expired, title focuses on John and his quest – and his destination? Expired seems a better choice for title.

(Ivan Senn is, perhaps, best known for his films with aboriginal themes from Beyond Clouds to Mystery Road and Goldstone. Loveland is a far cry from these themes.)

1. Title? The alternate title? The emphases?
2. The Hong Kong settings, night, skyscrapers, neon lights, the streets, apartments, the club and corridors, the observation room? Atmosphere? Musical score? Songs and performance?
3. John’s story: Ryan Kwanten’s screen presence and performance, persuasive, a white man in the Hong Kong situation, his contacts, locals, migrants from Africa, Japanese…? The initial revelation that he was a hitman, the local police, money, address information, his confrontation of his victim, the pursuit, looking in the eye, shooting him? Conscienceless? The further contacts? His acceptance of himself as a hitman? Age, wandering the city, apartment? No origins? Puzzle about himself, the absence of his mother? Yearning for a mother?
4. His visits to the club, the corridors, the other clients shielding themselves, the management and waiting on him, the choice of the girls, lining up, multi-racial, his choice, the performance? The older woman, the physical contact? Discussions about his mother?
5. Seeing April, her performance, after which his following her, the conversations, her telling her story, the Vietnam village, her apartment, the talk, unburdening, the interactions, sexual, physical? His return to the club, the audience seeing her return to Vietnam and her daughter?
6. His physical health, ailment, concern, dying? The information about the doctors, experiments, life, healing, immortality? Getting the identity of the doctor?
7. Finding the dcotor, pursuing him, their discussions? The revelation about his condition, the company, the experiment, his condition? Powers-that-be wanting to control him? His wanting help?
8. The doctor, his work, the past, his office, discussions with John, self-recriminations? In his study, laboratories, the intrusions? His future?
9. The police, the contact with John, further commissions as a hitman? In the street, his pursuit, the range of characters, multiracial, refugees from Africa? His being ready to shoot, the potential victim with the gun, the men pursuing, the shootout and his surviving?
10. John, a future, returning to the club, April not there? His life, his health, possibilities of death, or not…?