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A gay influencer in Taiwan who became famous dancing in high heels, and the filmmaker who trained his camera on him for nine years, both stare down middle age in “My Silly Flirty Boys.”
The documentary from Taiwan-based
Hong Kong filmmaker Frankie Sin is at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei.
Sin followed Fufu from 2017 to 2026. Over that stretch, Fufu built a following with racy dance routines, performances in high heels and his online channel “FJ234,” where he talked openly about desire and helped bring drag queens and other LGBTQ+ performers to mainstream audiences. Not everyone approved. Critics who wanted gay men presented in a more respectable light branded him a “cancer of the gay community.”
Away from the spotlight, Fufu talks frankly about what fame has cost him and about the loneliness that sets in once the persona comes off. Now nearing 40, he is coming to terms with a face and body that are getting older.
“It began with my own anxiety over my queer identity and feeling out of place within the community’s mainstream standards, which led me to point my camera at a maverick who dared to challenge sexual taboos,” Sin says.
More than 10 years ago, Sin swapped one of Hong Kong’s conservative outlying islands for Taiwan, hoping its reputation for openness would give him a place to belong. What he found instead was a local gay scene that prized hyper-masculinity and a “model gay” image.
“This triggered a second wave of anxiety about my body and identity,” Sin says. “In 2016, I met Fufu, an influencer famous for dancing in high heels. His bold, confident display of desire stood in sharp contrast to my own insecurities and repression. He became a mirror for me.”
The shoot spans the years around Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage and charts how queer entertainment grew and was then swallowed up by the mainstream market.
“As two gay men approaching 40 – one losing his spotlight, the other confronting his deepest insecurities – we both face a midlife crisis, learning how to make peace with aging, loneliness, and ourselves,” Sin says.
Fufu’s channel is shutting down this year, and with nearly all the key footage shot, the team is logging nine years of material ahead of a rough cut. Color grading, the sound mix, an original score and music clearances will follow, with picture lock targeted for the third quarter of 2027.
Stefano Centini and Chuti Chang serve as executive producers, with Henry Leong and Peter Yam producing. The producers say the film takes an honest look at the pecking order and shared anxiety inside Taiwan’s gay male community.
“By placing the personal changes of both men alongside the rise and fall of Taiwan’s queer entertainment industry, the film offers a rare, honest perspective with strong potential for cross-cultural resonance,” they say.
In Taipei, the team is looking for gap financing to finish post. It also wants to meet co-producers and sales agents from abroad, plus festival programmers, to help plan a worldwide release.
Sin is also developing two more feature documentaries about belonging and family. “An Island Boy” follows a young Hong Kong fisherman, while “Nomads of the Island” explores Sin’s own family history.
The Taiwan Creative Content Fest, organized by the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), runs Nov. 6–9 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center.
