Chou Tung-yen

An impossible kiss in an era when physical contact is strictly forbidden.

Meet four Taiwanese women, the actual "leftover ladies" fighting to stay breathing in a somewhat stifling society. Since 2012, their friend in common, Chou Tung-yen, has been "stalking" them, capturing on film moments of these women's daily lives.

In the mist room, in the dim light, the steaming heat is floating and overflowing. The flickering male bodies, sucking each other's desire and loneliness, the more squeezed, the thirsty. You seem to have entered the forbidden area by mistake in formal attire, falling between dream and waking, staring, and being stared at. You can't remember how you came here or how to get out. Theater and video director Zhou Dongyan once again touched the life experience of gay men’s community culture that is hard to articulate but difficult to cut. This time, he moved the poetic lens language into VR, taking you and me to the male sauna, peeling off the layered desires, and exploring the hidden love in some kind of lovelessness.

In this documentary, 60 men living in 7 cities were interviewed to see what they were looking for, revealing their experiences of love, lust, and lost as gay people in modern times.

Ming-Cheng started his ambitious plan about takingself-portraits of himself hand standing in different placesaround the world at the age of 26. In less than 3 years, his first voyage is accomplished with a series of breathtakingphotos featuring various picturesque Taiwanese locales. His one-man show Transparent Kingdom inspired by his journey is then awarded the prestigious Taishin Arts Award.

Step into the body of a young Taiwanese man to roam the steamy rooms and red-lit corridors of a surreal gay sauna—with thin mattresses, shared showers and lockers holding secrets.