films with gay asian main characters
Fire - (1996, dir. Deepa Mehta) Indian-Canadian drama centering around Sita and Radha, two indian women trapped in their loveless marriages. Sita is married to the cruel and unfaithful Jatin while Radha is married to his brother Ashok, an extremely religious and conservative man. When the women realize how similar their situations actually are, the begin to bond and grow closer. It was one of the first mainstream bollywood films to depict homosexuality!
Happy Together - (1997, dir. Wong Kar-wai) Hong Kong romantic drama following gay couple Ho Po-wing and Lai Yiu-fai as they travel to Argentinia in a last ditch effort to save their failing, turbulent relationship. Every time things seem to start looking up, they fall back into the same toxic, abusive patterns. The films stars Leslie Cheung, who was actually an openly bisexual man.
I can’t think straight - (2008, dir. Shamim Sarif) independent romantic drama about a london based Palestinian bride-to-be who falls in love with the British-Indian muslim woman currently dating her best (and male) friend. The two lead actresses also star in another lesbian film together, directed by the same woman, “The world unseen.”
Saving Face - (2004, dir. Alice Wu) American rom-com focusing on Wil, a young Chinese-American surgeon, her dancer girlfriend, and her single and pregnant mother. Wil is closeted and hasnt yet told her mom that she’s gay. While her mother makes plans to set her up with sons of friends, Wil is inexplicably drawn to a female dancer.
Spider Lilies - (2007, dir. Zero Chou) Taiwanese drama film following a webcam girl who develops an almost obsessive fascination with a female tattoo artist and the large spider lily tattoo splayed across her arm.
The Handmaiden - (2016, dir. Park Chan-wook) South Korean lesbian revenge thriller loosely based off the novel “fingersmith” by Sarah Waters. Definitely my favorite film on this, its stunning. Set in 1930s Korea, a Korean con man devises a plot to liberate a Japanese heiress out of her inheritance, and ropes an orphaned female pickpocket into helping him. But what happens when she grows closer to the gentlewoman than she originally expected?
Tropical Malady - (2004, dir. Apichatpong Weerasthakul) Thai psychological drama in two parts. Part 1 follows a romance between two men and part 2 tells that tale of a soldier lost in the woods, haunted by a shaman spirit. Keng is a soldier stationed in a rural Thai village. While out in the fields one day, he meets a local man named Tong.
Two Weddings and a Funeral - (2012, dir. Kim-Jho Gwangsoo) South Korean rom-com telling the story of two young doctors, a lesbian woman and gay man, that marry so the lesbian can adopt a child with her lover and to appease the gay man’s parents. When the parents begin to get too involved with their life, their scheme and the protection afforded to them because of it threatens to fall apart.
Yes or No - (2010, Sarasawadee Wongsompetch) The first Thai lesbian film with a butch/tomboy lead character! Pie is a respectable, conventional girl from an upper class family with conservative values. Kim is about as far from conventional as it gets, so much so that Pie initially requests a room change from her when she discovers they’ll be living together during college.
