Tokyo's LGBTQ+ Hub Inspires Intimate Cross-Border Film

A new Japanese-Taiwanese co-production, "Polaris," is seeking financing at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market. Directed by Seta Natsuki and produced by Twenty First City in partnership with Taiwan's Volos Films, the film is based on the novel "The Night of the Shining North Star" by Li Kotomi.

"Polaris" unfolds over one winter night at a bar in Ni-chome, Tokyo's LGBTQ+ hub. The film centers on women of different ages, nationalities, and sexualities who gather in the titular establishment, sharing drinks, laughter, and fragments of their lives under soft blue light. As their stories intersect like stars in a constellation, the film explores themes of self-identity and human connection before the women part ways at dawn.

For Seta, the project represents a meditation on authenticity and understanding. "This film is a reflection on what it means to be yourself and how hard it can be to understand one another," the director says. "It's also about how we define our sense of self and how we can begin to rethink what we once thought of as 'normal'."