email Join our email list! divider Register Login cartCart
Icarus Film
Films from independent
producers worldwide.
32 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201divider(718) 488 8900
From The dGenerate Films Collection
Enter the Clowns: (Chou Jue Deng Chang)

A film by CUI Zi'en

 Text Size  Increase Font Size   Decrease Font Size   divider Printable VersionPrintable Version

film still

Straight, gay and in-between Beijingers unleash a whirlwind of transsexual mayhem in this groundbreaking, gender-bending debut by China's preeminent queer filmmaker.

Xiao Bo (Yu Bo) lives in a world where the lines defining men from women are constantly dissolving. He kneels at the deathbed of his father (Cui Zi'en) who has become a woman, and whose dying wish is to have oral sex with his/her son. His boyfriend Nana has also undergone a sex change, but Xiao Bo no longer finds her attractive as a woman. A sexual chain reaction ensues that wreaks havoc on traditional Chinese roles that govern male and female, parent and child.

Filmmaker, novelist and queer activist Cui Zi'en caused an international sensation with his shockingly transgressive debut, inspired by the likes of Andy Warhol and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, but set within a specifically Chinese context.

"Liberating! ENTER THE CLOWNS conveys a sense of cinema at the vanguard—Scott Foundas, Variety

"CUI's underground feature says that everything you know about sexual identiy and gender orientation is wrong...Playful, provoking and sometimes very funny, it gets Queer Chinese Cinema off to a heady start."—Time Out

"CUI may be unique as China's first gay filmmaker, but it is in the international pantheon of queer filmmakers that we must ultimately locate him."—Chris Berry, positions: east asia cultures critique

Jeonju International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Mardi Gras Film Festival
Rotterdam International Film Festival
San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

80 minutes / Color
English; Mandarin / English subtitles
Release: 2012
Copyright: 2002

For individual consumers (home video)

This title is available online from:

For colleges, universities, government agencies, hospitals and corporations

This DVD is sold with a license for institutional use and Public Performance rights.

Subject areas:
Asia, China, Gay Studies, Human Sexuality, dGenerate Films Collection - Narratives

Related Titles:
Home | New | Titles | Subjects | Ordering   
About | Best Sellers | Filmmakers | Screenings   
address
  Follow Us! On...
Facebook Follow Icarus Films on Twitter Instagram Vimeo YouTube
Copyright (c) 2024, Icarus Films
Last Updated January 25, 2024 [Build 3.0.a060-d7]
Privacy Policy