Directed by: Yasujirō Tanaka
2023
/ 97 minutes
/ Unclassified all ages
Three queens on the road trip of a lifetime!
A drag queen and owner of a gay bar in Tokyo’s vibrant Shinjuku, Natchan carried her gender identity to the grave and hid it from everyone outside her community – including her own mother. Left to mourn are her family of queens, now faced with an unforeseen reality: they have no clue of her address, origin, or legal family. Virgin, Morilyn and Zubuko find themselves bickering their way on the road to Natchan’s funeral in a remote town in the mountains, determined to keep their identities from posthumously exposing her.
Japan harbours both a beautiful cultural history of gender-bending performance (such as in traditional Noh and kabuki theatre and the women’s theatrical troupe Takarazuka), and like many countries, a contemporary social stigma around it. Grappling with an all-too-common reality of the LGBT+ closet, this comedy has an underlying sense of cultural complexity, and is a heartfelt road trip into self-expression, family and reckoning with loss and acceptance.
Palace Electric, Canberra
Palace Raine Square, Perth
Palace Barracks, Brisbane
Palace Barracks, Brisbane
Includes Lucky Door Prize
The Kino, Melbourne
Palace Balwyn, Melbourne
Includes Lucky Door Prize
Palace Norton Street, Sydney
Palace Verona, Sydney
Director: Yasujirō Tanaka
Cast: Kenichi Takitō, Shū Watanabe, Tomoya Maeno and Chieko Matsubara
Genre: Comedy
Language(s): Japanese with English subtitles
Format: DCP colour