TV & Movie / Jan. 07, 2021
Last May, Taiwan celebrated its first anniversary of the passing of the same-sex marriage bill while GagaOOLala, the largest LGBTQ+ movie platform in Asia, launched globally, in the hope to bring more inspiring LGBTQ+ content to people all around the world. Now, in the wake of 2021, our editor has hand-picked 10 of the most popular and inspirational lesbian films/series of 2020 for all our readers.
No. 10 | Huajiang Girls
K, a senior high, gets close to her every once a week in the tutoring class. Her tutor, Xian Xian, is a college student majoring in English Literature. During the class, Xian Xian asks K to practice her reading comprehension and also leads K to her inner-self.
No. 9 | Bao Bao
As same-sex couples, Cindy and Joanne, and Charles and Tim want to help each other have a baby. When Cindy learns that the baby she is having was secretly agreed to be given away, her relationship with Joanne faces a serious challenge. Pregnant, Cindy returns from London to her hometown, Taiwan, where her best childhood friend, Tai, pledges to take care of her and raise the baby with her.
Confused about what a family should be like, Cindy finally plucks up her courage to face Joanne as well as Charles's and Tim's family. Although it is not generally acceptable in many places in Taiwan to be same-sex parents, Cindy still believes that day will come.
No. 8 | Perfect One-Night Stand
I don't want to be a 21-year-old virgin! Ji-hye looks for a faithful lover, but it is not as easy as she thinks. Who is her perfect one-night stand?
No. 7 | Handsome Stewardess
Three girls from Singapore come to a bar along the beach in Taiwan. They have just finished a contest held in Taiwan, and today would be their last night heading back to Singapore. Holly, the tomboy bartender, makes a mixed drink called ‘Love in the Cloud’ and send it to Meng Lian, the Singapore national karate player. All of a sudden, two customers have a fight in the bar. Meng Lian stops the fight before it gets any worse, and Holly experiences love at first sight. The two girls fall in love.
Holly decides to become a Singapore stewardess to be able to visit Meng Lian more frequently. She is indeed smart but she resists on putting on make-up, and wearing a pencil skirt and high heels for the interview. Luckily, their steward friend, Jerry from Hong Kong, is willing to help her in her transformation.
No. 6 | My Days of Mercy
Sisters Lucy and Martha Morrow are regular attendees at state executions across the Midwest, where they demonstrate in favor of abolishing the death penalty. At one such event, Lucy spots Mercy, daughter of a police officer whose partner was killed by a man about to receive a lethal injection. Mercy is there to celebrate justice served.
Lucy and Mercy could be bitter enemies, yet they share an undeniable connection. Their relationship grows from hostility to curiosity to intense, physical passion. But eventually, Lucy must confess her reasons for getting involved in the cause: her own father was convicted of murder and now waits on death row. Can Lucy and Mercy overcome their intense differences, or will these differences consume them?
No. 5 | White Lily
Tokiko, a renowned ceramic artist, and her husband encounter Haruka, a teenage runaway, and take her into their home, where Tokiko teaches her about ceramics. When Tokiko's husband dies, Haruka promises to remain with her teacher and to do anything that she asks. They develop a lesbian relationship but Tokiko drowns her sorrows in alcohol and has a serious of meaningless sexual encounters with a variety of men while Haruka can hear them in another room.
*only available on GagaOOLala, Taiwan
No. 4 | Fantasy of the Girls
Upon helping her friend audition for their all-girls high school’s production of Romeo & Juliet, freshman Sun-Wha is unexpectedly cast as Juliet. To her surprise, Romeo is played by the über-cool and stunning senior Hanam, whom all the girls seem to have a crush on. As the two would-be thespians grow closer, Hanam takes Sun Wha under her wing in more ways than one. However, this sparks the jealousy of the play’s director, Su-yeon, who, it turns out, is more than friends with Hanam. The fantasy of the girls is a disarming tale of first love. That it just happens to be between high school girls is presented with a refreshing naturalness. The story is not one of provocation, or the stigma attached to coming out, but simply about what it’s like to discover the burgeoning feelings and emotions of adolescence.
No. 3 | I Can't
Ji-sun and Chae-yeon have beeb a couple since high school and they are now attending college. At the end of the class party, the student president, a male classmate, asks Ji-sun to hook him up with Chae-yeon.
No. 2 | Albino
Yashima is a plumber confused about being a "woman". She has slept with men but never found herself satisfied. One day, Yashima goes to an uncanny house to work and meets Kyu, who gazes at Yashima with seemingly desperate eyes. Baring her own secrets, Yashima and the broken-hearted girl Kyu soon find themselves lost in each other’s souls as if it was meant to be. As the desire for possession increases, the binding of their bodies and hearts allow Yashima to gradually accept herself. She soon discovers that Kyu is desperate for a reason, and as love, lust, envy and hatred explode simultaneously, their worlds will never be the same again…
No. 1 | Portrait of a Lady on Fire
In the 18th century France a young painter, Marianne, is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of Héloïse without her knowing. Therefore, Marianne must observe her model by day to paint her portrait at night. Day by day, the two women become closer as they share Héloïse's last moments of freedom before the impending wedding.
*Only available in Taiwan
