Two Japanese variants of the absolute transvestite film

This essay compares two Japanese transvestite films from different generati ons-Black Lizard of 1968 and Summer Vacation 1999 of 1988. While Western tr ansvestite conventions are usually exploited only to climactically reinforc e heterosexual coupling, what binds these two films is their divergent trad ition 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 gee-hi storical position. However, it is this non-Western tradition of cross-dress ing that nevertheless imparts an aestheticization of sexual desire beyond f ixed categories of "gay," "lesbian," or even our conventional ideas of tran ssexualism.