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
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Palace Raine Square, Perth
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Palace Barracks, Brisbane
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Palace Barracks, Brisbane
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Includes Lucky Door Prize
The Kino, Melbourne
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Palace Balwyn, Melbourne
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Includes Lucky Door Prize
Palace Norton Street, Sydney
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Palace Verona, Sydney
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Director: Yasujirō Tanaka
Cast: Kenichi Takitō, Shū Watanabe, Tomoya Maeno and Chieko Matsubara
Genre: Comedy
Language(s): Japanese with English subtitles
Format: DCP colour