Queer shows and movies I’ve watched recently (gay gods, sapphic meet cutes and more!)

Welcome to another post in which I talk about queer stuff I’ve watched recently! Well, it was mostly back in June and then I got busy with uni and exams so only now I got some time to draft this post.

I guess I didn’t really notice until now how much canon queer stuff I’ve watched during lockdown (it’s not even that much…but I had never watched anything queer besides some of the stuff that’s on netflix! and now I feel like I watched a good bunch of them! and they’re all available to watch online!), but looking back this is already the third post I’m making in the span of just a few months, so… yay!!???

All of these are in the order in which I watched them, overall I’m sharing them because I would recommend watching all of them in some capacity even when they’re not perfect (and I point out the issues I had with them even if these aren’t full reviews). Please also check out my previous recommendations/reviews: reviews of two queer Thai shows and more queer Asian shows.

Brown Girls is a web series about two best friends, a South Asian sapphic woman and a Black woman navigating relationships and the general mess that life can be in your mid twenties, particularly as a young woman of color, or in Leila’s case a queer woman of color too. I really liked how instead of having something you’d call plot this was more like opening a brief window on their lives for a bit and being let in on their experiences.

It was really enjoyable and each episode well crafted and with its own little arc. Once I started I couldn’t stop watching (it only took me one evening) and I think it’s definitely worth watching!

Status: complete
Episodes: 7
From: United States
Watch: here

Kiss of the Rabbit God (兔兒神, Tu’er Shen) is the only one out of these that has a supernatural element to it. It’s a 14 minutes long movie that packs a punch and draws from the Chinese legend of Tu’er Shen, literally the rabbit god appointed to protect homosexual relationships.

It needs a big trigger warning for self harm and blood but if you think you can handle it I really recommend checking it out, especially after you’ve read a bit about the original legend. I just find the idea of mortals falling in love with gods so cool and I loved how it mixed the mundane (the Chinese restaurant) with the supernatural (Shen). This is one of those things that probably takes watching it a few more times to really try to give your own interpretation and I’ll make sure to do that in the near future because it left a big impact on me.

Also make sure to check out the extra scene (that could stand as a trailer, so you could watch it right away) where Shen tells the legend of cutsleeves!

From: United States
Watch: here

Where Your Eyes Linger is a short Korean drama that was recommended to me by the lovely Aina (thank you!!). It’s abut two boys who are friends even though one is technically the other’s bodyguard, supposed to be with him and protect him at all times. I fell deeply in love with it because of how I immediately felt the love they have for each other, despite the episodes being very short and the story moving along quickly.

I think within the first two or three scenes between them the love they felt for each other felt palpable, more than in other similar series, and even though the protagonists have known each other for many years and you as the spectator are only let into their life in their late teens, you feel like you have such a clear picture of the relationship they have with each other and you can easily imagine their friendship throughout the years as they start to (unknowingly) fall in love.

I only didn’t like that there was a side character (an adult woman at that….yikes) that was sexualizing them and their relationship from the first time she saw them. That felt just…wrong.

Status: complete
Episodes: 8
From: South Korea
Watch: here

Touch (触碰) is a Chinese movie produced/sponsored by the sapphic dating app Rela (which I think got shut down in China a while ago? I’m not sure). It follows three girls on a road trip and despite it feeling a little awkward at times it was also really good and validating to see their relationship and friendship develop and it being widely accepted (still TW for some homophobia towards the end).

Something worth mentioning as a fair warning is that one of the girls has Lupus and I really don’t know enough about this to know if the rep was realistic or good, but I did feel like the way they talked about chronically ill and disabled people was a little ableist, so keep that in mind.

From: China
Watch: here

The Girls on Rela (season 1) is a collection of a lot of 3-5 minutes episodes all about different couples of sapphics, it’s mostly about them having a meet cute and it’s really just a feel good sapphic series you can binge for serotonin or savor slowly.

It’s basically a concentrated feel good sapphic juice that has all the Good you want to find and see in a wlw series but in a bite-sized format so it’s all Extra Cute and I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to watch this?? The girls are so cute and there’s a good mix of butch/femme and femme/femme representation and aaaaaaaahhh this is easily the show that made me feel the most feelings out of the shows/movies I’ve mentioned in this list. The episodes all have English subs so it’s really nice and easy to watch for everyone.

There’s a season two that as far as I could tell is one single story instead of different ones but I haven’t checked it out yet, but the Rela YT channel seems to have more sapphic content and I’m curious to consume it all in due time.

Status: complete
Episodes: 15 (season 1)
From: China
Watch: here

Have you watched any of these? What are some of your favorite queer shows or movies from outside the US?