qacs


Queer Asian Cinema - S -

	Sausalito Release year: 2000 Country: Hong Kong With such attractive leads, beautiful locations, and dazzling cinematography, SAUSALITO cannot help but be diverting on a rudimentary level. Unfortunately, all of this eye candy fails to hide just how superficial it is and Lai's routine performance is certainly no help. Richard Ng Yiu-hon is largely able to transcend his stereotypical role as Mike's gay landlord (will any of us live to see the day when HK cinema finally matures to the point where its homosexual characters are more than just mincing, self-deprecating embarrassments?).

	Sexual Harassment Release year: Country: Japan Boku no Sexual Harassment (My Sexual Harassment) is another one of those "coworkers take advantage of the underling" series. As the story goes, Mochizuki is your average Joe salary man, working in a computer firm, who catches the eye of Honma, his boss. Honma is very very blunt with his advances, and though it seems Mochizuki is uncomfortable with how quickly Honma progresses their relationship, he aims to please. In short time Mochizuki becomes Honma's repeated play thing, to the point where he complies to his every command. Though Mochizuki is taken repeatedly in the series by various people (including the nasty old vice president from a partner company)..he has the odd thing that he feels discomfort with every penetration, so that every time is like his first. As such all you ever see and hear Mochizuki do is blush, whimper and moan like a girl. No, literally. He is so extremely uke, that even his clients top him, and boy does everyone move fast on the poor guy. He barely meets someone for the first time before they are taking some sort of advantage of him.

	Shanghai Boy/The Snake Boy Release year: Country: Shanghai was once an international playground, until the Cultural Revolution pulled the plug on foreign interest and dismissed homosexuality as "Western decadence." It is against this backdrop that we visit Shanghai's thriving gay subculture and meet jazz singer Coco Zhan. Born to musician parents in a small village, Coco was initially drawn to Chinese opera. But his life and direction changed when he moved to Shanghai. It was here that he first heard jazz-a music of passion and intimate expression almost entirely unknown in the small towns of China. And it was here that he came to understand his identity. Coco's androgynous appearance and feminine voice have gained him many accolades. Celebrated by other artists for both his voice and vibrant flamboyance, he has also met with resistance from a general public still disgusted by any openly gay behavior. A paean to Coco, and to Shanghai itself, THE SNAKE BOY takes us inside the city's underground gay clubs, where we find a supportive and growing community within a largely conservative state.

	Shopping for Fangs Release year: 1989 Country: USA In this amalgam of comedy styles and genres, a young man believes he may be turning into a werewolf; meanwhile, a lonely housewife is confused by her mysterious blackouts, and meets an irreverent and brash waitress who leads to an unusual and unforgettable relationship. All these quirky characters and more interact in this crazy comedy in which anything can happen.

	Summer Vacation: 1999 (1999- Nen No Natsu Yasumi) Release year: 1988 Country: Japan Romantic and beautifully realized, this film tells the story of four boys who experience the adolescent birth pangs of romantic love, sexual awareness and jealousy. Left behind at boarding school during their vacation, the teenagers' summer idyll is disrupted by the arrival of another youth who seems to reincarnate a dead friend. Delicate and provocative, Kaneko's film creates a haunting image of youth suspended between innocence and experience, androgyny and sexual maturity.

We hope you have found the Long Yang - Denver's Queer Asian Cinema informative. If you know of a film with a gay Asian character that is still available to rent or buy, please drop us an e-mail and tell us about it so we can add it to our list!