Queer Asian-American movies you should absolutely watch

These films put the queer Asian-American experience front and center!

Representation matters, and for queer Asian-Americans, these movies can mean the whole world.

Queer Asian-American filmmakers like Gregg Araki, Alice Wu, and Andrew Ahn have made some of the best movies of the last three decades, anc have done so while highlighting members of their own community.

There great queer Asian movies like Happy Together, The Handmaiden, and Your Name Engraved Herein, but for this list, we're going to focus on films that highlight the Asian-American experience.

Two directors, Wu and Ahn, each have multiple films on this list, and continue to make some of the best representation for queer Asian-Americans on screen.

Ahn's newest movie, a reimagining of Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet, releases in theaters April 18. It stars Han Gi-chan as a Korean immigrant who asks his lesbian friend (Kelly Marie Tran) to marry him so he can get a green card after his boyfriend (Bowen Yang) turns his proposal down.

Ahn says that Lee's version of the film was the first queer Asian-American film he saw, and helped inspire him to tell his own stories.

That's the power of representation and authenticity in film. When a person sees themselves on screen, they can become more and do more.

If you're looking for some inspiration or just a good movie, check out these nine films about queer Asian-American lives and love.

'The Wedding Banquet' (1993)

In Ang Lee's original version of The Wedding Banquet, bisexual Taiwanese immigrant Gao Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) has a boyfriend, but decides to marry a Chinese woman he knows to please his traditional parents and get her a green card. However, things go awry when his parents show up in the United States to throw a lavish wedding banquet.

This film is unavailable for streaming in America.

'Totally F***ed Up'

Japanese-American director Gregg Araki made this 1993 drama about the dysfunctional lives of six gay adolescents, four gay men and two lesbians, who form a chosen family. It's the first film in his Teenage Apocalypse trilogy, preceding the films The Doom Generation and Nowhere.

Streaming on Prime Video.

'Saving Face'

This 2004 romantic comedy-drama is the feature debut of filmmaker Alice Wu, and stars Michelle Krusiec as Dr. Wilhelmina "Wil" Pang, a closeted lesbian, and Joan Chen as her mother, Hwei-Lan. As Wil is beginning a new relationship with a woman named Vivian (Lynn Chen), her mother is kicked out of her home by her grandfather after he discovers that Hwei-Lan is pregnant out of wedlock.

Streaming on Fubo.

'Ethan Mao'

Quentin Lee's 2004 drama stars Jun Hee Lee as Ethan Mao, a closeted teen who is kicked out of his house and becomes a hustler. He teams up with another teen hustler, Remigio (Jerry Hernandez), and the two end up holding Ethan's family hostage on Thanksgiving.

Streaming on Tubi.

'Spa Night'

Andrew Ahn's debut film, released in 2016, is this coming-of-age drama about David (Joe Seo), an 18-year-old from Koreatown in Los Angeles, who gets a job at a spa to help his parents. While there, he finds out that the spa is a secret gay cruising spot, and explores his sexuality. (Read our review!)

Streaming on Netflix.

'The Half of It'

Alice Wu's second film is this coming-of-age drama, loosely based on Cyrano de Bergerac, about a teen named Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) who lives in a small town with her father and helps a jock at her school woo a fellow student, Aster (Alexxis Lemire), whom Ellie also secretly has feelings for.

Streaming on Netflix.

'Fire Island'

Ahn's queer retelling of Pride and Prejudice at the gay mecca of Fire Island was written by Joel Kim Booster, who stars alongside Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, and Torian Miller as a group of friends looking for fun, sex, and possibly love. It also stars Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, and Margaret Cho.

Streaming on Hulu.

'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

This trippy comedy-drama from the Daniels won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor and Actress (Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis). It stars Yeoh as Evelyn Quan Wang, a Chinese-immigrant who runs a laundromat with her husband and is trying to connect with her queer daughter (Stephanie Hsu). Evelyn then must travel through the multiverse to stop the sinister Jobu Tupaki from destroying everything.

Streaming on Max.

'The Wedding Banquet' (2025)

Andrew Ahn's new version of The Wedding Banquet adds a lesbian couple (played by Kelly Marie Tran and Lily Gladstone) and changes up the dynamics from Ang Lee's original. In this new version, Min (Han Gi-chan) is a Korean immigrant whose grandparents want him to move back to Korea unless he can obtain a green card. After his boyfriend Chris (Bowen Yang) turns down his proposal, he turns to his lesbian friend Angela (Tran) and offers her money to help her partner, Lee (Gladstone), pay for IVF treatment if she marries him. Things get complicated when Min's grandmother comes into town and wants to throw a traditional Korean wedding for the couple. (Read our five-star review!)

In theaters April 17.