- 2020
- Altered Innocence
- 1 h 39 m
SummaryTrailblazing artists, activists, and everyday people from across the spectrum of gender and sexuality defy social norms and dare to shine in this kaleidoscopic view of LGBTQ+ culture in contemporary Japan. From glossy pride parades to playfully perverse underground parties, Queer Japan pictures people living brazenly unconventional lives in the s...
Directed By:Graham Kolbeins
Written By:Anne Ishii, Graham Kolbeins
Queer Japan
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
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Available after 4 ratings
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
75
100% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Mixed
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0% Negative
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0 Reviews
Dec 10, 2020
91
Queer Japan serves as a series of lively snapshots of a multifaceted and shifting subject and comes up a little short on the issues of day-to-day experience of Japanese gay life.
Dec 16, 2020
80
A kaleidoscopic look at a marginalized community, Queer Japan is required viewing for anyone in the community as well as their allies.
Dec 14, 2020
75
The film is deliberately and at times deliriously scattershot, jumping from one subject to another and rarely slowing down to draw connections or make larger points.
Nov 19, 2020
75
There is nothing, simply nothing, to make you feel that you’ve led a sexually-sheltered life, that your understanding of the modern fluid, on-the-spectrum nature of sexuality is superficial at best, than Queer Japan.
Dec 16, 2020
70
I wish that “Queer Japan” had delved more into historical matters of fashion and androgyny, or into the life of someone like Yukio Mishima. It’s a very present-tense movie, but how did the movements on display evolve? Kolbeins would have done well to show us. Instead, he presents a snapshot of a revolution in midair, leaping to find a form for how to remake the future.
Dec 16, 2020
70
A cheerful spirit of open inquiry drives the documentary Queer Japan, in fact, which is tender, impressionistic rather than highly structured, and largely inexplicit — that amusingly candid vox pop notwithstanding.
Dec 16, 2020
70
There’s a lot to see and to think about here, all well-curated by a documentarian with a clear passion for his subject.
User score
Available after 4 ratings
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33% Positive
1 Rating
1 Rating
0% Mixed
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67% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
Dec 16, 2020
7
A colorful and flamboyant look at the burgeoning LGBTQ community in the Land of the Rising Sun, a long-sequestered segment of society that is now coming into its own in a big way and making a big statement in the process. The film's panoramic scope features interviews with an array of out, proud and self-aware representatives of the community, speaking about their lives, loves and contributions to not only its own culture, but also that of the nation at large. While the film tends to skew more toward the transgender segment of the community than others, it nevertheless provides an insightful look at a part of Japanese society that's aggressively seeking to make a mark and to reform longstanding closed-minded viewpoints, especially in the areas of civil rights, politics and social acceptance. A bit more balance in the overall content would have made for a better documentary, but it's an enlightening and entertaining view nonetheless.
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