At Asian Movie Pulse, friend of the Gutter Earl Jackson writes about gay male fantasy in Vietnamese film: “The English title for Hot boy nổi loạn (Vũ Ngọc Đãng, 2011), ‘Lost in Paradise,’ reflects the protagonist’s fantasy of Ho Chi Minh City as an chance to live as a gay man free from the pressures of his home village. The film, however, immediately shatters those dreams. Even the park where the sex trade occurs is no fantasy playground but a fraught battlezone where sexual marginalization is further compromised by economic inequality and class war.

There are two recent Vietnamese gay films, however, that locate specific fantasies within social reality: Song Lang (Leon Quang Lê, 2018) and Viet and Nam (Trong lòng đất Trương Minh Quý, 2024). Song Lang reinhabits a traditional stage performance, and Viet and Nam allegorize local geology to situate their respective love stories.”

Read more here.