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Queer East · 2025

Queer East 2025

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20 films · 3 reviews

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1 Girl Infinite

Review preview for 1 Girl Infinite

A beautifully played, character-driven story, 1 Girl Infinite explores feelings that have grown up in the absence of analysis, without any social framework through which to make sense of them.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
In Changsha, Yin Jia and Tong Tong have carved out a life together, but when Tong Tong begins a relationship with a drug dealer, the devoted Yin Jia is prepared to sacrifice all that she has.

(Country: US, Latvia, Singapore; Year: 2025; Director: Hu Lilly; Writer: Chen Xuanyu; Stars: Chen Xuanyu, Hu Lilly)

Full review

Batch '81

The story of seven neophytes striving to enter a Greek letter fraternity through a difficult hazing process. The entire experience is seen through the eyes of Sid Lucero, one of the neophytes.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 1982; Director: Mike de Leon; Writer: Clodualdo Del Mundo Jr., Raquel Villavicencio, Mike De Leon; Stars: Mark Gil, Sandy Andolong, Ward Luarca, Noel Trinidad, Ricky Sandico)

Bel Ami (Piao Liang Peng You)

In a sleepy town in China, a middle-aged man is unwilling to endure a stagnant existence, and experiencing true love, decides to come out of the closet.

(Country: France; Year: 2024; Director: Jun Geng; Writer: Jun Geng; Stars: Chen Xuanyu, Wang Qing, Wang Zixing, Xu Gang, Xue Baohe)

Come Dance With Me

Before it closed in 2018, Lai Lai Ballroom became famous amongst Shanghai’s gay community, and was popular with middle-aged and elderly gay men. This documentary examines this space of sanctuary, and the sense of community it created.

(Country: China; Year: 2022; Director: Yunyi Liu, Bozhi Wei)

Crazy Love (Kureijî Ravu)

A film documenting the radical spirit of Japan’s creative and artistic scene, especially around Shinjuku, in the late Sixties.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1968; Director: Michio Okabe; Writer: Michio Okabe; Stars: Mami Aoyama, Gulliver, Mitsutaka Ishii, Kenji Kanosaka, Tetsuo Koyama)

Extremely Unique Dynamic

Review preview for Extremely Unique Dynamic

Not everything here is successful, but the delicately handled character material pays dividends, and the real life chemistry between the two stars carries across well to their characters.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
During their final weekend together, two best friends test the limits of their friendship while making a double-meta film.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Katherine Dudas, Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu; Writer: Harrison Xu, Ivan Leung, Katherine Dudas; Stars: Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu, Hudson Yang, Nathan Doan, Lucan Liu, Kelly Lynch, Jason Sun, Valerie Yu)

Full review See: Interview with Harrison Xu and Ivan Leung about Extremely Unique Dynamic

Incidental Journey

After breaking up with her girlfriend, student Ching goes on a road trip around Taiwan, encountering Hsiang, a solitary artist. Travelling to a peaceful farm in the mountains, the women contemplate their pasts.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2000; Director: Chen Jo-fei)

A Journey In Spring (Chun Xing)

Review preview for A Journey In Spring

A Journey In Spring is one of the most impressive contributions to date in the new Taiwanese cinema.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
An old man has depended on his wife over the years, when she suddenly passes away, he puts her into an old freezer and goes on living a seemingly peaceful life. But the arrival of his son and daughter-in-law brings change.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2023; Director: Peng Tzu-Hui, Ping-Wen Wang; Writer: Yu Yi-Hsun; Stars: Kuei-Mei Yang, Jieh-Wen King)

Full review See: Interview with Peng Tzu-hui and Wang Ping-wen about A Journey In Spring

Looking For An Angel (Tenshi No Rakuen)

Takachi, a young porn star from a small town in Japan is found dead. His death provides the opportunity to show us his true emotions, and how his two best friends in Tokyo remember him.

(Country: Japan; Year: 1999; Director: Akihiro Suzuki; Writer: Jun Kurosawa, Akihiro Suzuki, Toshiko Takashi; Stars: Kôichi Imaizumi, Akira Suehiro, Hotaru Hazuki, Akira Kuroiwa)

Love And Videotapes

In the summer of 2001, in a small town in the Philippines, 16-year-old Andoy fanatically watches VHS tapes, which fuel his sexual awakening and emerging queer desire.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 2023; Director: Ryan Machado; Writer: Ryan Machado)

Murmur Of Youth

Two adolescent girls in Taiwan meet when they get a job in a cinema box office. The pair begin to bond as they chat about family, work and school; but gradually, their conversations become more intimate.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 1997; Director: Lin Cheng-sheng; Writer: Ko So-ching, Lin Cheng-sheng; Stars: Liu Rene, Tseng Jing, Tsai Chin-Hsin)

My Sunshine (Boku No Ohisama)

Drama centring on two kids with opposing personalities who become a figure-skating pair.

(Year: 2024; Director: Hiroshi Okuyama)

Pierce (Cì Xīn Qiè Gŭ)

After being released from juvenile detention, where he served seven years for killing an opponent in a fencing match, a young man begins to train his brother for a national competition.

(Country: Singapore, Taiwan, Poland; Year: 2024; Director: Nelicia Low; Writer: Nelicia Low; Stars: Liu Hsiu-Fu, Tsao Yu-Ning, Ding Ning, Lin Tsu-Heng, Rosen)

Rookie

Everything changes when an awkward teenager joins the volleyball team and falls for the volleyball team captain.

(Country: Philippines; Year: 2023; Director: Samantha Lee; Writer: Natts Jadaone, Samantha Lee; Stars: Pat Tingjuy, Aya Fernandez, Agot Isidro, Mikoy Morales, Alyssa Valdez)

Silent Sparks

A man and his former cellmate face difficult choices after leaving jail.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2024; Director: Ping Chu; Writer: Ping Chu; Stars: Huang Guan-Zhi, Shih Ming-Shuai , Cheng Chih-Wei, Ray Fan, Hu Wei-Jie)

Some Nights I Feel Like Walking

When an old man dies the sex worker he was with decides to fulfil his last wish.

(Country: Philippines, Italy, Singapore; Year: 2024; Director: Petersen Vargas; Writer: Petersen Vargas; Stars: Jomari Angeles, Argel Saycon, Tommy Alejandrino, Gold Aceron, Miguel Odron)

Under The Moonlight

At an Islamic boarding school in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, all the adult students are transgender women. Here, they can live the way they choose to, in stark contrast with the hostile world outside.

(Country: Indonesia; Year: 2023; Director: Tonny Trimarsanto)

Unmarried Mothers

Hsiao-Peng is sent to a maternity home for single pregnant women, where she slowly overcomes her depressive thoughts.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 1980; Director: Lee Mi-mi; Writer: Chiu Kang-Chien; Stars: Gua Ah-Lei, Lung Chun-Erh)

We Are Here

A documentary about the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which was hosted in Beijing and attended by 300 lesbian women from around the world; the gathering helped spearhead the birth of the queer lala movement in China.

(Country: China; Year: 2015; Director: Zhao Jing, Shi Tou)

Where Is My Love?

Taipei in the 1990s: Ko is a young gay writer who must decide whether or not to remain in the closet.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 1996; Director: Chen Jo-fei; Writer: Chen Jo-fei; Stars: Chiu An-Chen, Wen Chih-xing)