What if you feel that your name doesn’t accurately represent who you really are and that you’re uncertain about your own sexuality? Will you make changes to discover the true you?
“Unnamed,” an award-winning Taiwanese short film starring Chang Chun Yu and Gao Hong, was selected for and won numerous awards in 2020, including the Taiwan Queer International Film Festival. The story depicts Zhang Ya-Ting, a girl whose name translates to “gracious and beautiful,” who feels that her name is too feminine. She asks Hong Jia-Hao, a boy who happens to be her best friend, for help. Her visit breaks up Hong’s unplanned sexual encounter with a man he met online. Hao responds by disclosing Ya-Ting’s previous lesbian tendencies. On the rooftop, these two troubled individuals dispute once more about love and self-identity.
WARNING: Spoiler alert. Read at your own risk.
The film opens with Ya Ting’s father teaching him how to drive. They went to a columbarium, where the remains of her grandfather rested. His father talks to his late dad like he is still alive and gives him updates about Ya Ting. He was telling him how bad she was at driving when she suddenly said that she wanted to change her name because it was too girly for her. Her father was surprised but ignored her, but she continued talking and asked his grandpa if he agreed to her changing her name, he should give her three yeses. She tossed three coins, but her father picked them up.
Her father apologizes and says that the old man should just ignore her, as her name matches the fortune-telling table and can help her find a good husband. She was distraught, so he left his father at the columbarium and walked away. Jia Hao was lying half-naked on his bed when Ya Ting knocked on his window. The girl immediately took off her clothes and took a shower in his bathroom. She asked him to go with her when she changed her name, but the other person refused as he would meet someone that day. Ya Ting tried to persuade him, so he promised to go with her the next day.
He was so upset when he found blood on his sheets when the girl stood up, as she was having her time of the month. Jiang Ho advises her to stay in the bathroom because his visitor is on his way. Ya Ting looked at herself in the mirror and started to touch her body. She was on the verge of climax when suddenly, Jiang Ho knocked on the door. She was shocked when her friend entered the bathroom naked and asked for her help. The latter says he can’t have sex with his visitor, but he doesn’t know what to do. She tells him to just ask him to leave, but Jiang Ho is scared, so she helps her friend.
