75
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Original-CinLiam LaceyOriginal-CinLiam LaceyQueer 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.
- 80Film ThreatNorman GidneyFilm ThreatNorman GidneyA kaleidoscopic look at a marginalized community, Queer Japan is required viewing for anyone in the community as well as their allies.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreThere 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.
- 75TheWrapSteve PondTheWrapSteve PondThe 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.
- 70Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayThere’s a lot to see and to think about here, all well-curated by a documentarian with a clear passion for his subject.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterHarry WindsorThe Hollywood ReporterHarry WindsorA 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.
- 70VarietyOwen GleibermanVarietyOwen GleibermanI 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.