Sleeping Through Time: Analyzing Queer Temporalities of Southeast Asian Cinema in Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady (2004), Royston Tan's 4:30 (2005) and Tsai Ming Liang's I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006)

Abstract: Sleep, as depicted on screen, is a phenomenon that is intertwined with the body, time, and narrative structure of cinema. This article examines the queering of time through the visual representation of sleeping bodies in three Southeast Asian films: Tropical Malady (2004), 4:30 (2005) and I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (2006). It explores how the trope of sleep disrupts homogeneous and empty time, acting as a site that unleashes queer desires and embodies a profound yearning for human connection. By connecting the visual expression of sleep with the concept of queer temporalities, the article argues that sleep and its associated states, the gaze upon the sleeping body, suspension, slowness and the refusal of sleep, serve as sites of resistance against normative temporal structures.