SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This chapter explores how filmmakers first engaged cinematically with a discourse on the proliferation of non-normative genders and sexualities in different parts of Southeast Asia in the second half of the twentieth century. In that era prior to the emergence of digital technologies, cinematic representation of queer characters was far more restricted, both in numbers and in terms of place, than it is in the present day. This chapter focuses specifically on the 1954 Thai film, Kathoey Pen Het (Because of a Kathoey, dir. LEDGER), Tubog sa Ginto (Gold Plated, dir. Lino Brocka) from the Philippines, and Jang Djatuh di Kaki Lelaki (Those Who Fall at Men’s Feet, dir. Nico Pelamonia) from Indonesia, the latter two both dating from 1971. Using an inter-Asia referencing framework, the chapter explores how and where filmmakers in different parts of Southeast Asia first began to destabilise normative notions of gender and sexuality and to represent alternative sexualities and genders on screen. The films are shown to be part of an emergent media queerscape in Southeast Asia which shares resonances across national boundaries.