Taiikukan Baby (2008)

During the summer high school preliminary swimming trials, senior ace swimmer Shibahara Jun (Nakamura Yuichi) loses to his rival Murai Naoki (Takahashi Yuta). Jun's father (Watanabe Ikkei), who is the team coach, says that rather than swim, he should concentrate on studying for his college entrance exams instead. Naoki asks Jun to coach him in preparation for the Inter High, and Jun accepts the assignment. Though feeling disappointed and uncertain, Jun puts his heart into helping train swimming rival and teammate Naoki. They are attracted to each other. Spending countless hours together at the pool, the two form a close relationship. But their time together is soon cut short when Jun decides to quit the team, and Naoki plans to move to the United States. That night, at the swimming pool, Naoki suddenly kisses Jun.

This drama of forbidden love between two young men is an interesting coming of age film. Teenage love or infatuation is a strange, wonderful, frustrating experience, full of hope and despair, and we see it all in this movie. It has a nice ending. Based on the novel awarded the first prize at "The First Junon Love Novel Grand Prix", a Japanese magazine novel contest, youth romance films "Doukyusei" and "Taiikukan Baby" were released in Japan as a double bill. Set in the same world with the same cast and characters, the two films begin at the same point and spin into two different stories of young love. D-BOYS member Nakamura Yuichi of Princess Princess D and Kamen Rider Den-O leads both films as high school swimmer Shibahara Jun. Co-starring Prince of Tennis Musical star Takahashi Yuta and Kubo Sho. The boys love film "Taiikukan Baby" follows the confused and romantic triangle that develops between Jun and his two friends. The DVD includes a "making of", deleted scenes, outtakes, an interview, a press conference, and the trailer. Keiko Kanome and Yoshihiro Fukagawa wrote the screenplay, and Yoshihiro Fukagawa directed. In Japanese with English subtitles. The alternate titles are "Gymnasium Babies" and "Tai Iku Kan Baby".

Bob and Jack's 52-Year Adventure (2006)

In this 41 minute documentary, Bob Claunch and Jack Reavley, two men in their late 70's, tell the story of their life long relationship. In 1952 Army Sergeant Bob Claunch was cornered and then courted by his commanding officer Lieutenant Jack Reavley. Their romance grew and soon became too obvious. Rumors became anonymous tips to headquarters. They avoided court-martial by confronting the entire unit and have been together ever since. That moment cemented Bob and Jack together for the rest of their lives. 52 years later they share how they remained a couple: how one left his wife and children, and how both survived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest. Beginning a new life and starting a radio station in Raymond, Washington, they later moved to Los Angeles to work as extras in movies. Today they battle the stigmas of being gay, a successful gay couple, and an active gay elderly couple. Bob and Jack recount the challenges they faced keeping their relationship intact, the issues they face growing old in a gay relationship, and their need for equal rights. It's a true, self-told story about lifelong love.

With the help of old footage and recordings they take us back to when they met, in the US Army in Munich, and they then guide us through their whole lives, through sickness and health, the good times and the bad times. The interviewer mostly lets Bob and Jack talk, but when he intervenes, he asks daring and relevant questions. It's cute, it's beautiful, but most of all it's important. The story of Bob and Jack is more than just a tribute to Bob and Jack themselves, it's more than a film about homosexuality. It's also a film about sticking together, about making it through the rough times, and it teaches us the most important thing of all: that love can keep us together if we are willing to work for it, and if we are nothing is impossible.

This charming, compelling, and inspiring film charts the course of their love affair over a half-century and beyond. Despite the rather unimaginative title, the film weaves together archival photos, audio recordings and present-day interviews to tell a remarkably conventional love story that, because it involves two men, makes it all the more remarkable. Director Stu Maddux filmed the interviews with one man closer to the camera, allowing us to see each man’s facial expressions when reacting to the other’s comments. Just like all old married couples, these guys finish each other’s sentences--that is, when they’re not interrupting each other. With all the debate over whether gay marriage should be allowed, it’s great to see that it has really existed all along. The DVD includes a Photo Gallery, the theatrical trailer, and a 1961 anti-gay educational film, "Boys Beware". Filmed in California, produced and directed by Stu Maddux.