Kissing Game (originally titled Boca a Boca) is a Brazilian drama, available on Netflix since its release on 17th July 2020.
Creator, Ezmir Filho, presents the story of a contagious infection that begins to overrule a small town. An infection transmitted by kissing. The young people of the town are in danger, after attended a rave were the infection was rapidly spread.
Starting this series, I was under the impression it would be a teen drama. Though I believe the age rating is actually 18+. I can see why, as there is some graphic nudity at times and even the kissing scenes made me look away. I didn't appreciate the sheer amount of extreme close ups of kissing and tongues; I cringed every time they came up - however I am quite the prude when it comes to sexual themes in film and tv. Despite this, today I will be taking a deeper look at sexuality in this programme.
The themes of the programme are sexuality, family relationships and obviously disease. Although the infection isn't any form of sexual infection or disease, I feel that there was an underlying discussion of sexual transmitted diseases. This was particularly apparent when Chico's dad discovers his sexuality and says that he deserves to contract this disease because of this homosexuality. This is clear due to the terrible stigmas behind hom0sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases - particularly aids.
Although less likely, some STI's can be transferred through kissing, such as herpes and aids, if a cut or sore is present. This shows how easily something can spread when being in such close contact with multiple other people. Not only is it a good learning area in terms of STD's, it reminded me of the situation we are in today with the corona virus. Something as simple as hugging people wasn't considered wrong last year. Though now we are restricted, and can't even hug our family members in fear of spreading illness.
Also, it emphasises the importance of protection. When going to the second rave, they had created ('kissing condoms') clear masks so you could kiss without transferring saliva (ew) therefore preventing the spread of infection. Even using the word 'condom' to describe them was comparing this infection to sexual infections. Emphasising that a simple piece of plastic could prevent them from contracted a deadly illness.
Chico is shown to use an app similar to tinder/grindr which is used for hook-ups. There are pictures of all the men, and you set up your profile/age etc. He uses this app to meet with a man (Maurílio), and they sleep together. Maurílio then discovers that Chico had lied about his age on the app and is in fact 16-17 years of age, making him significantly younger AND underage. Maurílio is obviously angry about this and refuses to speak to Chico despite their time together creating what seemed to be more of a bond than a casual hook-up. This is obviously the correct thing to do. If you realise the person you are talking to is underage, it is unacceptable to continue the relationship. I did however feel bad about this as Chico was obviously having feelings for Maurílio.
I feel it showed the danger of these apps and the potential of meeting with someone who is lying about their age. On the other hand, it did romanticise meeting someone in this way. As Chico managed to find this lovely, handsome and caring man after matching with him on this app and getting into his car in the night. This is obviously unbelievably dangerous. This young boy meeting up with a man in the middle of the night, and entering his vehicle. Nobody knows of this encounter either due to the secrecy of their sexualities. This is an argument that if homosexuality was widely accepted, then people would be more open to communicate these encounters with friends and family. It is dramatically safer to have someone know where you are and who you're with, than to have nobody know if you're in danger.
Maurílio ended up continuing his relationship with Chico which was very immoral, and in real life I would have been disgusted by a person who can have relations with a young child/teen. But honestly, in the show they made it very romantic and almost tried to make you feel that it was acceptable because they were loving and caring of each other. After finishing the programme and digesting it I can see how this is still wrong and I feel the show shouldn't be presenting Maurílio as a good person when choosing to be with an underage boy. We don't see much of Maurílio and his personality, he doesn't talk much and we don't actually know his age or anything about him so I feel like we are less inclined to disagree with his choices.
After Chico's dad confronted him in this horribly homophobic way, Chico leaves home. It isn't discussed whether he chose to leave or was kicked out but everyone was aware he was going and it was clear he was unwelcome. Whilst leaving town, he is confronted by a group of masked men who beat him into a coma. It is only when something this horrifying happens that his dad feels bad for his response to his son's sexuality and blames himself for Chico's condition. He then reluctantly allows Maurílio to see him in hospital which was kind of nice but would have been a lot nicer if they were both of a more appropriate age.
This is a very interesting show and this theme specifically intrigued me. If you have any opinions of the show, do let me know. How do you feel about Chico and Maurílio's relationship?
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