Leo & Nymphia

Twenty-five-year-old Leo is a drag queen who supports himself by performing for tips in nightclubs. Yet he’s also a creator. In his role as drag queen Nymphia, he shows his heart’s criticisms and desires to the public. His work is bizarre, constantly challenging social boundaries and norms, like a newborn baby, full of primitive curiosity about the world.

Pan Hsin-an is a 25-year-old filmmaker who likes to transmit energy through his camera lens, speaking out for society’s disadvantaged. A winner of the Outstanding Youth Award who once posed for a photo with the president, he’s a promising young man who strongly identifies with mainstream values. When he accepted the task of filming Liou, he never imagined how deeply he’d go into it.

Hsin-an found that Liou had no inhibitions. He was like a sapling that had sprung up from freedom’s soil and grew into his own unique form and appearance. Seeing Leo, we’re amazed: How can he live like this? At the same time, we’re puzzled: How can he stay so pure? How can he be so free?

The film focuses on Leo Cao, a 25-year-old drag queen. The explosive creative energy he delivers is stunning, but at the same time, he also displays his egotistical nature and wanton lifestyle. Director Pan Hsin-an is the same age as Liou. He peeps into Leo’s life through a camera lens, questioning and exploring. During the filming process, the two often fail to understand each other, and each has his doubts about the other. But in the end, at opposite ends of the scale, they find the same desires behind huge differences.