Two Japanese variants of the absolute transvestite film

This essay compares two Japanese transvestite films from different generations-Black Lizard of 1968 and Summer Vacation 1999 of 1988. While Western transvestite conventions are usually exploited only to climactically reinforce heterosexual coupling, what binds these two films is their divergent tradition of what I call "permanent transvestism." That is, the films employ a cross-dressing which occurs extra-diegetically, is unnecessary to the plot, and which an audience may or may not be aware of depending on their geo-historical position. However, it is this non-Western tradition of cross-dressing that nevertheless imparts an aestheticization of sexual desire beyond fixed categories of "gay," "lesbian," or even our conventional ideas of transsexualism.