1983 · drama · lgbt · queer
Drifting
Directed by Tod Browning1h 11m1983
In Shanghai, an American girl who helps run an opium ring meets an American agent disguised as a mining engineer. The two fall in love, and she has to determine where her loyalties lie.
Our read: Drifting (1983) reads as a heavy, measured, inventive drama · lgbt · queer entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook.
Heavy, measured, measured drama / lgbt, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, measured.
- heavy
- measured
- intimate
Watching Drifting tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
More info & search links
How Drifting feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want a silent Tod Browning tale of opium crime and redemptive love in old Shanghai.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if silent films with intertitles move too slow or old-fashioned.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Drifting, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →