A voyeuristic slide along the surface of Hong Kong's gay subculture. Beauty is about prostitutes, cops posing for gay photographers, gay pop stars... Presumably, there's more to HK's gay community than this, but that's not the concern of photographer Yonfan's new film. He is a very facile director, and easily offers lots of technical polish, glossy surfaces, pretty-boy shots of his stars. But that seems to be all the film is aiming for. Or at least that's all it reaches: it's hard to escape from the impression that we, as viewers, are made to stand on the outside, looking in, at a world that -- whether or not it has the sympathy of the filmmakers -- remains an object of curiosity, or pity, or sympathy. There's been a mini-explosion of gay-themed Hong Kong films of late: Happy Together (1997), Portland Street Blues (1998), Hold You Tight (1998), The Intimates (1997), or even Love and Sex Among the Ruins (1996) and Boy's? (1996) have more original and interesting things to say than Beauty. Yonfan described the film as having been made for women (presumably heterosexual) who wanted to watch beautiful young men: an odd goal, but perhaps he's succeeded at that. Redeeming features: well, Daniel Wu, in his first feature, as the strikingly Andy Lau-like police officer (the film goes so far as to restage a memorable Lau-as-cop shot from Wong Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild: hmm, Lau as gay idol?) is at the centre of the film, and manages to create a convincingly well-rounded character. And Hsu Chi turns in yet another memorable supporting performance.