Queens of the Qing Dynasty

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Queens of the Qing Dynasty

2023

2h 2m

Drama

LGBTQ+

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Popcornmeter

84%

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19 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

In a remote small town, a neurodivergent teen forms an unlikely rapport with an international student from Shanghai volunteering at the hospital where they are a patient. Between the two, a bond forms, cemented by their candid conversations, nightly text messages, and exchange of their deepest secrets. The boundaries of their friendship quickly expand into something special, altering their inner alchemy. Queens of the Qing Dynasty is a queer story that breaches the absurd and poetic, the platonic and the romantic. Both intimate and intense, it explores the intrinsic beauty and innate flaws of what it is to be human, the profundity of connection, and the vortex of mental illness. The electronic music score blurs between cinema foley and sound design to create a feeling of an alternate plane. Queens of the Qing Dynasty is an affectionate ode to women, asexuals, and neurodiverse and genderqueer individuals who exist beyond the norms of society by writer and director Ashley McKenzie (Werewolf, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival).

Cath Clarke

Guardian

11/14/2023

3/5

It’s a disorientating, unrelaxing two-hour experience, but rewarding.

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Beatrice Loayza

New York Times

05/04/2023

The wonderfully bizarre Canadian drama “Queens of the Qing Dynasty” understands queerness the way that bell hooks did: as a “self that is at odds with everything around it.”

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Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

AWFJ.org

05/01/2023

An emotionally intelligent portrait of two lost souls who find each other, Queens of the Qing Dynasty is a charming work of subtle power.

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David Bax

Battleship Pretension

09/27/2024

Those moments that do stand out are often accompanied by the squelchy, almost otherworldly original electronic music on the soundtrack, provided by Cecile Believe and Yu Su.

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Katelyn Nelson

Daily Grindhouse

08/01/2024

Watching Queens of the Qing Dynasty is a transportive, almost out-of-body experience. There is so much of these characters laid bare on the screen—not all of it good or comfortable—and played so effectively.

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Matthew Creith

IN Magazine

07/25/2023

By the end of Queens of the Qing Dynasty, we are left with a transformative relationship that unravels to a haunting electropop score.

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Ashley McKenzie

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Sarah Walker

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Ziyin Zheng

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Synopsis

In a remote small town, a neurodivergent teen forms an unlikely rapport with an international student from Shanghai volunteering at the hospital where they are a patient. Between the two, a bond forms, cemented by their candid conversations, nightly text messages, and exchange of their deepest secrets. The boundaries of their friendship quickly expand into something special, altering their inner alchemy. Queens of the Qing Dynasty is a queer story that breaches the absurd and poetic, the platonic and the romantic. Both intimate and intense, it explores the intrinsic beauty and innate flaws of what it is to be human, the profundity of connection, and the vortex of mental illness. The electronic music score blurs between cinema foley and sound design to create a feeling of an alternate plane. Queens of the Qing Dynasty is an affectionate ode to women, asexuals, and neurodiverse and genderqueer individuals who exist beyond the norms of society by writer and director Ashley McKenzie (Werewolf, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival).

Director: Ashley McKenzie
Producer: Ashley McKenzie, Britt Kerr, Nelson MacDonald
Screenwriter: Ashley McKenzie
Distributor: Factory 25
Production Co: Hi-Vis Film
Genre: Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 5, 2023, Limited
Runtime: 2h 2m