Tian xia wu shuang (2002, Hong Kong)

An entertaining romantic comedy, with some beautiful photography. A young emperor of China and his sister are effectively imprisoned and dominated by his mother. They decide to escape but only the girl succeeds. She goes wandering in China disguised as a boy.

She ends up at an inn run by a man and a woman, and the woman also seems to exhibit a male style of dress. She doesn't think so, but everyone else assumes she is a boy.

The emperor's sister strikes up a friendship with a village man called the Bully, and his sister. She is sexually attracted to the man, and his sister is sexually attracted to her, taking her for a young man. The confusions surrounding this are drawn out for ages, and after about 40 minutes of the film it suddenly becomes rather repetitive -- you start to think, "Why doesn't the Emperor's sister just tell the Bully she is a girl?"

The woman from the inn eventually gets her man; he too took her for a man, and there is a strange scene when they dedicate themselves to one another, in which he says he is really a woman. This was only allegorical, and the allegory was a bit too complex for me at this point.

The film is also known as Chinese Odyssey 2002.

HF December 2002

This Page: Tian xia wu shuang (Chinese Odyssey 2002) Return to Alphabetical Index Page Return to Home Page

Hazel Freeman's International Transgender Film Guide is maintained by

Jenni Olson

and hosted at

Visitors from the US and Canada can help support this site by shopping for LGBT DVDs using this WolfeVideo.com affiliate link. The commission we earn from your purchases will directly support the continued existence of this website. Thank you!