As the Queer East film festival hits London this week, we pick out our highlights from the programme – from 90s Japanese cult classic Summer Vacation 1999, to ethereal Sichuan doc The Last Year of Darkness
(Film Still)THE RIVER (TSAI MING-LIANG, 1997)
Exquisite shot composition and pristine cinematography are a given with the contemplative work of 1994 Venice Golden Lion winner Tsai Ming-Liang, who remains perhaps the greatest proponent of slow cinema working today. But his third film, The River – the recipient of a Berlin Silver Bear for Best Director in 1997 – also factors in one of the most jaw-dropping shock moments of any of his many queer-themed arthouse works; a harrowing denouement that lingers long beyond the end credits.
In The River, Lee Kang-sheng, Tsai’s ever-present muse (reunited here with several other cast members from Tsai’s 1992 debut, Rebels of the Neon God), roams the narrow alleys and riverside streets of Taipei until a traffic accident aggravates his debilitating neck pain. As he waits for his injury to heal, Tsai’s cameras turn upon pink plastic stools in grey-walled saunas; the overflow of patrons at a busy McDonald’s food hall; and the pastel blue tiles and turquoise doors that line a long hospital corridor. Eventually, the young man will find some relief for his pain – but from an unlikely source.
(Film still)SUMMER VACATION 1999 (SHUSUKE KANEKO, 1988)
Receiving a rare 35mm screening at the BFI is this obscure boy’s school drama from Shusuke Kaneko – a Roman Porno graduate who went on to helm blockbusters like the 90s Gamera trilogy, a 2001 Godzilla movie, and the first two Death Note films. Unlike these later hits, Summer Vacation 1999 features no giant monsters nor killer notebook demons, instead offering an enigmatic and almost fantasy-like story with a palpable homoerotic undercurrent. It would win him the Best Director prize at the Yokohama Film Festival in 1989.
The plot concerns four androgynous students (all played by female actors) in an idyllic countryside boarding school, who have seemingly been abandoned by their classmates and teachers during the summer holidays. The effeminate boys stroll among the lush greenery and tranquil lakes that serve as their surroundings, and soon, strange emotions take hold. The youngest boy’s uncanny resemblance to a former student who committed suicide months prior, meanwhile, becomes the source of great suspicion.
With Yuriko Nakamura’s magical new age piano and synth score helping to foster an ethereal atmosphere (almost reminiscent of the cult films of director Shunji Iwai), this languid drama marks a contemplative example of the shounen-ai or ‘boys’ love’ sub-genre in Japan – elsewhere explored on the Queer East program via the episodic seriesIf It’s With You.
(Film still)I AM WHAT I AM (SHINYA TAMADA, 2022)
Whereas other films in this year’s line-up concern non-heterosexual relationships between men, women, and people of other genders, I Am What I Am offers a rare exploration into something altogether different: the frustrating social life of a completely asexual individual.
Drive My Car’s Tōku Miura is brilliantly understated as the protagonist, call centre worker Kasumi – whose mother wants to set her up in an arranged marriage with the local ramen shop owner; and whose male friends often don’t believe her when she claims to have no romantic feelings towards others. Her journey is gratefully light on the melodrama, with the use of bright, natural light and minimalist camerawork instead imbuing the film with a powerful sense of naturalism that brings poignancy to its earnest themes.