Great Queer Films

A painful, melancholic, heartfelt, and healing dramedy about love and grief in a homophobic society.

A minimalistic - even austere - art-house meditation on urban loneliness and isolation as it follows two characters, one of whom is queer.

A subtle, beautiful, and minimalistic film which covers similar narrative and thematic ground as His (2020), but  this quiet drama has a more unflinching representation of homophobia and its consequences, a more ambivalent emotional tone, and a more artistic and meditative experience.

A classic exploration of queer diasporic loneliness - though it's also really heavy and intense (showing a toxic relationship and how it ends). I'm really glad I watched it, but I don't think I'd watch it again.

A leisurely, tender, and beautiful story about rural gays, societal pressures, and acceptance - though the latter half of the film is a bit blatant in attempting to litigate homophobia through courtroom arguments in a child custody battle.

Okay so there isn't a same-sex relationship in this story. But this movie does a lot to queer the relationship in the context of the depicted community, its patriarchal religious order, and its militarized nation. In a significant departure from previous cinematic interpretations of the Mae Nak Phra Khanong ghost story, this story features an alternative vision of masculinity within the context of military conscription and a heterosexual relationship, along with an unconventional happy ending with the two main characters proudly loving each other in a non-reproductive, unnatural/supernatural relationship counter to the heteronormative demands of the Thai nation - an ending in which the characters create their own kind of belonging in the community which had shunned them as grotesque and monstrous. This story invites some really fascinating queer readings (further discussed in chapter 1 of Pahole Sookkasikon's PhD thesis, Bangkok is burning: queer cultural productions of Thainess in diaspora), and also some interesting thematic linkages and contrasts with Marry My Dead Body (2022) and He's Coming to Me (2019).

This hilarious comedy of errors plays with themes of patriarchy, filial piety, transnational mobility, reputation, tradition, secrets, and language.

A fluffy and healing romantic short film in a rural setting. Unlike most other films on the list, this film doesn't really engage with homophobia; though it does show two queer people quietly finding connection in a world which makes that difficult.

A devastating yet quiet film about yearning for love and family, about death and grief, about still choosing to love despite the inevitability of loss.

A sad movie about homophobia, pain, and teenage angst during martial law-era Taiwan. Strong concept, though my expectations were unrealistically high from all the hype around the movie so I was a bit disappointed by the execution.