Left Hand Turns into a Rainbow

受一批关注早期好莱坞恐怖片中酷儿形象的纪录片的启发，本片追溯早期中国电影中的酷儿身影，从传统戏曲与武侠小说出发，寻找那些潜藏的酷儿意象。上世纪二十年代兴起的左翼文学中已出现了酷儿叙事，但这些叙事登上银幕后则愈发隐晦：在相关影片中，部分女性角色展现出微妙的酷儿特质，形成一条常被忽视的暗线。这一影像​​风格​​延续至今，并逐渐演变为当代中国酷儿电影的重要脉络。

Inspired by documentaries on queer figures in early Hollywood horror, this project traces the hidden presence of queer characters in early Chinese cinema. Drawing on traditional opera and martial arts novels, it uncovers images that carried queer potential into film. In the left-wing literature of the 1920s, queer narratives had already emerged, though once adapted for the screen, they became more veiled. Within these films, certain female characters reveal subtle queer traits, shaping an undercurrent often overlooked in history. This ​​tradition/strain of imagery​​ ​​has endured, quietly evolving into a vital thread running through contemporary Chinese queer cinema.

导演：侯弋、郭舟
编剧：侯弋
主演：郭舟、高习男
类型：纪录实验短片
时长：21分钟
完成时间：2025年
对白语言：汉语普通话
地区：中国 英国 日本

Director: Yi Hou, Zhou Guo
Screenwriter: Yi Hou
Cast: Zhou Guo, Xinan Gao
Genre: Documentary Experimental Short Film
Length: 21 min
Year: 2025
Dialogue: Mandarin Chinese
Region: China, UK, Japan

侯弋，作家、编剧、影评人、策展人。曾任北京国际电影节大师班策展人、北京国际电影节公号主编，上海国际电影节短片评审。电影剧本《倾城》《明月孤照我》入选国家青年剧作计划。编剧、制作多部戏剧作品，新作《不要回头》参与深圳戏剧大会。出版作品《马王堆考古手记》。

Yi Hou, writer, screenwriter, film critic, and curator. Has served as curator of the Master Classes and chief editor of the official account at the Beijing International Film Festival, as well as a short film jury member at the Shanghai International Film Festival. His screenplays Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing and Into the Moonlight were selected for the National Youth Screenwriter Program. He has written and produced several stage plays, with his latest work, Ingrid Bergman flies to Rome, featured at the Shenzhen Theatre Conference. He is also the author of Archaeological Notes on Mawangdui.

郭舟，先后毕业于北京大学艺术学院及伦敦大学金史密斯学院视觉文化部门，伦敦大学玛丽皇后学院电影研究实践型博士在读中，专注于女性论/散文电影研究与创作。多年来为电影媒体与电影节展工作。

Zhou Guo, graduated from the School of Arts at Peking University and the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, is currently pursuing a practice-based PhD in Film Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. Her research and creative practices focus on essayistic films about, by, and for women. She has worked for many years with film media and film festivals.

本片尝试通过图像与文学的细节，重新梳理中国电影史中女同性恋者形象的流变。画幅的序列以实验方式彼此呼应，深蓝色的结构营造出失语的忧郁，并回应房惠晴对血液与海洋的思考。实拍段落借鉴萨迪·本宁录像日记的质感，其中幽灵性的时刻显露出被忘却、被腐蚀、被压迫的文化语境，同时唤起温柔的自我探索。蝴蝶作为隐喻，以光影反复出现，象征着游荡于霸权档案之外的存在，并最终化为骨骼与标本。“怪物”的形象不断被负片强化，有时由旁白叙述补充，有时通过证言档案转写。本片构建了一个话语空间，用以分享历史、图式与思想，探索性别身份的电影语言。

This film seeks to retrace the shifting images of lesbians in Chinese cinema through the subtle details of image and literature. The frame sequences echo each other in experimental form, while the structural use of deep blue evokes a speechless melancholy and responds to Richard Fung’s reflections on blood and the sea. Live-action passages draw on the textured style of Sadie Benning’s video diaries, where ghostly moments reveal forgotten, corroded, and oppressed cultural contexts, while also awakening tender emotions of self-exploration. The butterfly, as a metaphor, recurs through light and shadow, symbolizing presences wandering outside hegemonic archives and ultimately rendered as bones and specimens. The figure of “monster” is reinforced by negative imagery, at times supplemented by voice-over narrations, and at others re-inscribed through testimonial archives. The film constructs a discursive space—a medium for sharing histories, patterns, and ideas—while probing the cinematic language of gender identity.