PeterRS

I am presently in Taipei for a week. Normally friends and I will go to the gayish hot spring Huang Tzu on a Friday evening or occasionally a Sunday afternoon which are almost always busy times. Yesterday (Saturday) I had free time in the late afternoon before a late dinner. So I decided to go to the hot spring at 5:00 pm for a couple of hours. It was absolutely jam-packed! All the lockers were taken and the pools were full of mostly cute/handsome young guys in the late teens-40 range I guessed. 
I had assumed 5:00 pm would be a sort of intermediate time with the afternoon ‘shift’ getting ready to leave and those coming for the evening arriving around 7:00 pm. Not at all! Very few left and the sight of so many handsome mostly in-shape guys was as usual great. Even the steam room was packed most of the time, bodies glued almost to bodies!
With the weather becoming cooler, I guess it will be like this over much of the ‘winter’. Can’t wait for my next trip in February after Chinese New Year.

I don't know any of the 3 star hotels that have what I would call a good breakfast. These hotels mostly cater for Taiwanese and so best to look at a good western chain hotel. But I know none near Ximending. @a447 recommends the Westgate. Just looking at the photos of the dining area, it seems quite small and I suspect - and I hope @a447 will correct me if I am wrong - that the breakfast will not be similar to a tradional western breakfast, even though it has an egg station.
Wth comfort and a hearty breakfast as essentials, I would certainly give up the idea of staying in Ximending and recommend the Courtyard Downtown Hotel. You will absolutely adore the breakfast!! 

I believe poppers are illegal in Thailand. Not that this prevents some people sellng them, but can you be sure they are the genuine article or just a rip off? And if they are mailed to you, how do you prevent the possibility of the package being opened if the mail/courier company is suspicious of the content?

Silly question. I guess you are not aware that now all actors are called actors, including those we used to call actresses.

A continuation of my little Japanese story. The two nights I spent with the young Japanese I met on my first-ever visit were eye-opening. Japanese can seem so reserved and polite in general conversation. Get a young guy into bed and he can become a tiger. I was sorry my new friend had left Tokyo by the time I returned but just by visiting the bars I was able to meet several more, although none was as athletic in bed as my first.
A year later I was again in Tokyo after a trip to the US arriving on a Saturday afternoon. After dinner, this time I went straight to the Regent Bar which was packed with a nice mix of young Japanese and foreigners of various ages. I was with a young guy I had met on a previous trip and had arranged to spend the night in his small room. Masayuki was a lovely guy and I really enjoyed his company. But there was another young guy amongst the crowd who clearly spoke good English and seemed to be the life and soul of the party. He soon came up to me and said be had not seen me before. What was my name and was I new to Tokyo? He then asked what we'd like to drink and it became clear he was one of the bar tenders.
Over the course of the evening, I found myself drawn to him. He was not the most beautiful guy in the bar - Masayuki was definitely the better looker - but there was something about him. This bartender exuded massive charisma to the point where you almost had to look at him. Still, I had made arrangements for the night and turned my attention to my lovely date. Masa was much more gentle in bed, but still clearly eager and quite delighful. We had a lot of fun. As he had to spend Sunday with his parents outside of the city, I decided to return to the Regent in the eveing to see if i could have a longer chat with that bartender. It so happened it started to rain quite heavily and I was nearly soaked by the time I reached the Regent. Getting there about 8:30pm, there was only one other punter sitting at the bar. So I sat down, ordered a drink and was delighted that Yuji was on duty.
Over the next nearly three hours, we drank and chatted together - me on a stool and he behind the bar. That charisma, his sense of fun and the ease with which we chatted completely enveloped me. I really wanted to ask him back to the hotel but something held me back. I found myself totally backward in coming forward. Having been relatively free and easy during my previous visits to Japan, here I felt like a young teenager almost afraid I'd be rejected.
Finally around 11:20 it was time for him to leave to catch his train home. Having put on his rain jacket, he came around the front of the bar, said he'd really enjoyed meeting me and trailed his hand ever so lightly over my ass. Still I did not move. I should have recognised all the signals but it was like this was all way too good to be true and he'd just say 'no'. And so he left the bar and I was left with a host of memories and a feeling of utter stupidity. 
Since it was still raining and taxis were always expensive, I decided to stay in the area. Next door to the Regent up on the first floor was a small disco named New Sazae. I had never been inside. But I thought I needed another large drink to drown my sorrows. I hesitated at the door before opening it and looking inside. You walked in by a small dance floor. The bar was at the other end on the left. Whisky in hand, I looked around the dance floor, wondering if anyone could possibly be a companion for the night, even though I doubted he would match what could have taken place with Yuji.
And then I saw him. He had not gone home. He'd come to the disco and was dancing on the floor on his own. I was amazed - and then he saw me. With a smile on his face he stretched out a hand and beckoned me to join him. Thus we danced bodies pressed to bodies for some time, initially both reallising we were rock hard! I think I need say no more than we ended up in bed in my hotel where neither of us slept a wink. In the morning we had to part as we both had work. But this time we did promise to meet again - and we did. The following month I spent a week's vacation with him in Tokyo. I then visited for long week-ends once a month thanks in large part to very cheap air fares on Pan Am which was then still flying in the Pacific. Yuji even came to spend 3 weeks with me in Hong Kong. I knew I was in love, but I knew too that it was doomed never to last. Young Japanese needed sex much more regularly than once a month, as truth be told did I. Sure enough. By the time of my last visit when i stayed with him in his little room, he told me he had met a much older westerner who lived in Tokyo and was able to offer him a nice apartment and all the perks of expatriates then based in Japan. I will never forget that last night with him in his single bed as we hugged and cried as the hours slipped away.
One of the benefits of knowing Yuji was been being introduced to several of his Japanese friends. Later I was to have a smaller affair with one of those cute friends. But he made it clear soon after meeting that he was not looking for any form of longer term relationship. As @A-447A pointed out above, sex was much more on his mind, not that was any disincentive whatever.
Although my Japan adventures have continued ever since, there was one episode that I can never forget. Three of Yuji's friends happened to have birthdays over four days in October. A few years later, they decided to have a joint birthday party and very kindly invited me. I really wanted to join them, but another trip to Tokyo was going to stretch my finances, so I declined. As the date neared, I thought this is silly. They are dear friends and have been extremely kind to me. So I purchased a Pan Am ticket and decided to turn up unannounced. When the door to the apartment opened, there were wonderful smiles all round. I handed out small gifts and was introduced to many guys I did not know. As the evening came to an end, I paired off with one of the guests for another tigerish evening. What makes that evening such a special one is that within 5 years all three birthday boys were dead. AIDS! Like so many all over the world, I cried buckets when I learned.

There seems to be a readership for days gone by. This forum has several threads about gay Bangkok and gay Pattaya, but I do not recall one on Japan. As my first of many dozens of visits was in the summer of 1981, I will give a short outline. Some of the anecdotes have been included over the years in other threads. Apologies in advance to those who are reading them for a second time.
For reasons that I totally fail to understand, on moving to Asia the one country I had zero desire to visit was Japan. I have no idea why. It was certainly nothing to do with WWII. Perhaps it was more the fact that I knew little about the country, no idea how to get around, nothing of the language etc. So I was perfectly happy getting to know many South East Asian countries, their histories, cultures and not a few of their wonderfully beautiful young men.
Working for an international company which had links with Japanese companies, it was perhaps not surprising that my Chairman told me a visit to Tokyo could result in more business. So on the way home from a trip to the USA, I stopped over in Tokyo for 4 nights. I arrived in a Friday afternoon to give me the week-end to explore, find the gay area and help to get over jet lag. I can only recall the Spartacus Guide from those days, a thick publication covering the entire world and not infrequently inaccurate. I had chosen the large Keio Plaza Hotel in the middle of the Shinjuku skyscraper district as I imagined that somewhere in that forest of buildings I'd find Ni-chome, not that i knew then what a chome was! On a subsequent visit I found one of the bilingual maps of Tokyo which became my constant companion on my many future visits.
Friday night was a wash-out. After checking in, I was taken up in the lift by a beautiful bellboy. He explained everything in the room and placed my bag correctly on the luggage rack. I found some ¥100 coins in my pocket and offered them to him. The look of horror was such a surprise. I had not read about tipping being anathema in Japan. I learned my lesson! Later I looked in so many places but could find not one gay bar. Tired, I had an early night. Being interested in classical music and opera and knowing that Tokyo was a tour date for many western orchestras and opera companies, I found how to get on to the subway where I should have found the Bunka Kaikan close to Ueno station. Not many subway stations had names in English and of course i had got on at the wrong side of the platform. So I ended up miles fro my intended location. Moral: make sure you check and copy out the script of the Japanese names. Eventually I found myself at the Bunka Kaikan where I looked over the many posters plastered around the lobby area. And it was there that I saw the opera company from La Scala was to be visiting four months later. I was determined to return to see at least one of the operas. But how to get a ticket, for there was no box office in the lobby or anywhere in the complex.
And that is where serendipity came into play. Deciding that I would visit a hotel in the centre which had a great view of the entire city from its 40th floor, I got back on the subway. It was a bright, sunny day. Coming out of the subway meant climbing a long set of stairs from the relative darkness of the station to the brilliance of the street. As I was about half way up, I happened to notice a tall young Japanese guy wearing a white shirt that was gleaming in the sun going down on the opposite side. "Wow, he's handsome," I thought. As I passed him I thought I saw his eyes look at mine. Then what to do? So I turned and looked back. He had also turned and was looking at me. But the crowds on each side of the stairways were packed and there was no chance of stopping. So what to do?
Having reached the top, I turned around and looked back down into the darkness. Because of that shirt, I thought it must be him. Lust took over! I went back down and sure enough he was waiting for me. His English was limited but enough to make a rendezvous for that evening. Not only was he to show me the bars in Ni-chome, he came back to the hotel and stayed with me for the next two nights. As importantly he showed me where to get the opera ticket. As soon as I returned to Hong Kong I booked a package tour around that date - 2 days in Kyoto and 4 in Tokyo.
We kept in touch for a few months but he was leaving to spend 3 years studying in Paris. No doubt he quickly found a lover there and I lost my first Japanese friend. Others were to follow though - many! Having found the gay bars, on my soon to be regular four visits each year, I met a number of very cute young guys. Mostly in the Regent bar, long since demolished, or across the road upstairs in the Fuji bar. There was then still a tradition that young Japanese really wanted to meet foreigners. Perhaps it was a result of social conventions in Japan still making it difficult for young Japanese guys to be seen with other guys rather than girls.
As today, there were hundreds of bars catering exclusively to Japanese. A few would be open to westerners and Japanese who liked being with westerners. I once went with friends to one of the Japanese only bars. Maybe a dozen seats around a U-shaped bar and six tables for two patrons each. My friends were a couple - a Japanese and a westerner and they frequently visited this bar. So I was welcomed as a guest. Almost as soon as I walked through the door and introduced to the mamasan, he whispered in my ear, "Are you top of bottom?" I was not quite sure how to answer such a personal question. The reason soon became obvious. If you said top, he would rearrange the Japanese customers to make sure you were seated between two guys who were bottoms! Very practical!
It seemed to be that on each visit it was very easy to find company. But I had a craving to find a Japanese sauna. I had started reading a few photo books of Japanese gay porn and the saunas looked, well, interesting. Just as Japanese in general are very group-oriented and the individual is often frowned upon, so in the saunas sex took place in dark medium-to-large sized rooms with long mattresses on each side. Two guys could be enjoying a passionate encounter with half a dozen or so just kneeling around them watching the action. The first I was shown was Oban sauna in the Kabukicho (sex) entertainment district. Small and compact, I remember being pleasantly surprised when, having changed and made my way upstairs to the bathing and steam room area, out from the steam room came a gorgeous slim porn star! Anyone who has been to the popular 24 Kaikan in Shinjuku in recent years will also have seen these long mattresses, although it has added some bunk beds in the area. 
The most amazing sauna experience I had was in one in the trendy Shibuya district. I now have no idea exactly where it was and almost certainly it will have been redeveloped. I met a young Chinese in a small dark area. After a long time on a mattress, we moved to the roof where all sorts of activities were taking place. We continued there for what must have been another half hour of total pleasure. Again we swapped contact details - and again we lost track of each other.
I am not sure when hattenba were introduced in Japan. I suspect soon after gay saunas. These were much smaller, usually a one floor apartment than had been curtained off with sheets. They were there purely for quick sex. There might be small mattresses or occasionally a couch. When you were finished there could be one small shower. I only ever went to one - Treffunkt in Akasaka-mitsuke. I really did not enjoy it. I prefer the larger saunas where you can actually see guys as they walk around.
Inevitably AIDS changed the sauna scene - but not immediately. At first it was regarded as a foreign illness and as few foreigners attended saunas, nothing was done. Then foriegners were banned, although by then the horse had bolted. And if you were from another Asian country but looked a bit like a Japanese, you would still be let in. SInce then Promenade cruising saunas opened up although like some saunas and hattenbas you have to be on the look out for age restrictions. Body Breath is one of the most popular with young guys now but it not only has an Asian-only policy, you have to be younger than 40 and have short hair! 
Not that any of this should put you off. A lot has changed in recent decades and, although more Japanese now want to form relationships with their fellow countrymen, there is plenty for the visiting foriegner to enjoy. Over almost 4 decades I have rarely failed to have a good time - and I look forward to the next visit.

I am presently in Taipei for a week. Normally friends and I will go to the gayish hot spring Huang Tzu on a Friday evening or occasionally a Sunday afternoon which are almost always busy times. Yesterday (Saturday) I had free time in the late afternoon before a late dinner. So I decided to go to the hot spring at 5:00 pm for a couple of hours. It was absolutely jam-packed! All the lockers were taken and the pools were full of mostly cute/handsome young guys in the late teens-40 range I guessed. 
I had assumed 5:00 pm would be a sort of intermediate time with the afternoon ‘shift’ getting ready to leave and those coming for the evening arriving around 7:00 pm. Not at all! Very few left and the sight of so many handsome mostly in-shape guys was as usual great. Even the steam room was packed most of the time, bodies glued almost to bodies!
With the weather becoming cooler, I guess it will be like this over much of the ‘winter’. Can’t wait for my next trip in February after Chinese New Year.

Little wonder that Changi is consistently at the top of airport rankings. Whereas most major international airports are boring and make one long to get on to the flight, Changi offers a great deal to keep passengers interested and enjoyed, particularly if you have spend some transit time there.
Hardly surprising that Hamad Airport in Doha has been taking a lot of tips from Changi, especially in developing a garden-like atmosphere.

Isn't prostitution in one or other of its forms one of the reasons many gay guys visit Thailand? We all know that tips for offing from bars aren't tips; they are just fees for prostitution! Was Sunee's reputation for prostitution any different from Soi Twilight's? 
But another reason for Pattaya's slow decline as a gay go-go venue may be its having been much more a retirement haven for westerners, many of whom moved there quite a few years ago partly for the availablility of the bars and guys. Many are ageing given the length of time they have lived here. I'd guess there are many more retirees in Bangkok but Bangkok also has a vastly larger array of evening haunts apart from go-go bars and a great many expats who choose for whatever reason not to visit go-go and other bars. A bit like the new version of me! 
For a dozen years, I had living next to me a couple of elderly gay UK expats enjoying their retirement here. I once asked them of they read this forum. They did not read any gay forums and had no interest in them! In the evenings, only one of them would visit the then Telephone Bar about 4 or 5 times a week, but only to meet up and chat with fellow western expat friends. That was his only reason for the visits and they never went anywhere else. The other cruised occasionally in Silom Complex but no idea how successful or otherwise that turned out to be.
And isn't one basic problem for Pattaya that perhaps retirement options now in other parts of the world are a good deal greater than they used to be. I know several people who are considering Portugal before its existing easy visa access is changed, including Chinese guys from Hong Kong. For medical costs, India is now a good deal less expensive than Thailand with some very fine medical faciities. Of course Thailand takes some beating, but for those who read the American threads on this forum, several countries in South America have become/are becoming attractive.
As I know from my travels, there are also gay young Asian guys in many European cities very happy to meet up - although the numbers are small. In Asia, I expect Taiwan will eventually introduce a retirement visa and that Vietnam may change its previousy changed policy and reintroduce one. I certanly would find Vietnam very enticing. Just thoughts!

I suspect @Fred Joos is the owner or in some way connected with Adam's Apple. If that is the case, thank you for updating the information. Adam's Apple was always a great bar, although there was a time when it dipped a little at the same time as it and the downstairs lounge bar were taken over by a new owner probably a dozen or so years ago.
It was the variety of dancers and the helpful staff that made it the best of the few Chiang Mai gogo venues. The nude parade along the catwalk was always popular and the shows were fun, even though the boys were amateurs as performers. Drinks also were very reasonably priced. Hopefully little has changed.

As if the poorly designed 737-Max had not had enough problems, now another one has cropped up. 16 airlines have been told that they need to address an electrical issue before the a specific group of the planes fly again.
It the light of this development, I have to ask how on earth the aircraft was passed for flight again by both Boeing and the FAA. It has still not been approved by some of the world's airline regulatory authorities.
Boeing will not say which airlines are affected by the electrical problem, but Southwest in the USA has already announced that it is grounding 30 of its 58 737-Max jets.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/09/business/boeing-737-max-electrical-problem/index.html

The Steven Spielberg/Martin Scorsese co-produced movie Bernstein is due to open with much fanfare in cinemas at the end of the month and then on Netflix. This true tale about the love affair between the acknowldged gay orchestral conductor Leonard Bernstein and his wife will almost inevitably throw the spotlight on to other gay men and women partcularly in the world of classical music. That world has tradtionally been closeted when owning up to some of its personalities who are gay and still not out. It is almost as though the older generation who tend to make up the audiences for most classical concerts still do not want to believe that their idols are anything but average straight men and women.
They are of course wrong, and more and more classical musicians are coming out. We know that in his late teens and early 20s Bernstein mixed with a clique of American classical composers almost all of whom were gay. We know that some of those he mentored are gay - or at least bisexual. One, Michael Tilson Thomas, was Music Director of the London Symphony and for the last 28 years has been Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. Sadly he is now very ill with brain cancer. Marin Alsop recently MD at the Baltiore Symphony is one of the few openly gay women conductors. The Canadian Yannick Nezet-Seguin is openly gay and is Music Director at both the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York's Metropolian Opera.
Of soloists, the great super-virtuoso pianist Earl Wild who died in 2010 aged 94 was also openly gay throughout his long life and distinguished career. Another piano virtuoso, Vladimir Horowitz, had married conductor Toscanini's daughter.  But in the music business he was known by most to be at best bisexual although another great pianist Arthur Rubinstein said of him, "everyone knew and accepted him as a homosexual." Britain's finest pianist Sir Stephen Hough has been openly gay and happily partnered since his mid-30s. French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is also out and lives with his partner in Los Angeles.
The other day I was flipping through youtube videos for a recording of the little-known Pergolesi Stabat Mater conducted by that great - and not at all gay - conductor Claudio Abbado. I then discovered what I consider a far better and more modern version with as one of the soloists the French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky. Today the world seems awash with counter-tenors - that developed, mostly-falsetto head voice that replaces in many concerts and recordings a voice somewhat akin to the castrati of 300 years ago. Many are thought, wrongly, to be gay, although some are. I had heard of Jaroussky but never listened to the voice. He is openly gay and has lived with his partner for about 17 years. Now a superstar in the counter-tenor firmament, he his very good loooking and his voice has been described as "that of an angel". Perhaps this short excerpt of the Handel aria "Ombra mai fu" - popularly known as Handel's Largo - made at a ceremony marking his award as Opera SInger of the Year will give an idea.
I can recall only one instance where a gay counter-tenor has overstepped the boundaries of decency and morality. Back in 2007 I saw a glorious production of Handel's opera Giulio Cesare in Chicago. In it were no less than 3 counter-tenors, led by David Daniels as Caesar. Daniels was then arguably the finest singer in that genre. He and his partner were married in 2014 with Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg officiating. Counter-tenors almost invariably have a relatively shortish career if only because there are not so many roles for that voice. So it was not surprising that he also took up a teaching post as Professor of Voice at the University of Michigan Music School. Not only was he caught on a gay dating app offering students $300 for blow jobs, on a guest engagement with the Houston Opera in 2019, he and his partner were accused of drugging and raping a young singer. 3 months ago both pleaded guilty to sexual assault. The career of a once great singer is now dead. 

I had a very roughly similar experience on Grindr much closer to home - in Hong Kong. One morning I was clicked on several times by a guy who did not look especially enticing but I was horny. I was in a medium-priced hotel in the centre of the city and he said it would only take him 20 minutes to get there. I let my dick make the decision and said I'd wait for him in the hotel lobby. 40 minutes later he had still not arrived. I called him and he said he was almost there. In fact it took almost an hour. As I told him I just wanted to cancel the meet up, he suddenly appeared.
He was not particularly good looking and i suppose I should just have given him US$20 and told him to bugger off. I had made sure all my valuables and money were in the hotel room safe apart from US$20 which I kept in a back pocket of my jeans. I wanted to find out if that disappeared as I was having a shower (not large enough for 2 people!) The sex was routine, quick and boring. What later became clear was that he had also been taking photos. He also stole the $20 from my jeans. He then said he wanted $100 more. I told him I had none. He refused to move. So I said I would call security which I did. As he was being escorted to the lift, I became aware of his phone and asked to see his photos. I did not care one jot if the security guard saw them. I am sure he knew exactly what had been going on.
Sure enough, there were several photos on the phone, although thankfully none of my face. I insisted they be deleted. The security guard then took the phone and deleted them himself. I tipped the guard and the guy finally disappeared. The odd thing is that this jerk still clicks on me when I return to Hong Kong. I tell him he's been reported to the police, but of course I did not and could not do that. If anyone plans a trip to Hong Kong and wants his photo, I am happy to send it by pm.

Regretably it is not the cinema's choice to make. It is the studios and the movie distributors. But I can remember at least one time when there was an intermission 'built in' to a movie. When Ben Hur came out, it had a running time of 3 hrs. 32 minutes. Not surprisingly it did have an intermission and no doubt the cinemas were pleased, for it gave them a chance to sell tons of ice creams and soft drinks, as well as the merchandise which accompanied the movie. 
Today, as long as i know how long a movie will last - and I can't think of any that is as long as Ben Hur - I'm happy to avoid drinking for a couple of hours and then have a pee in advance before sitting through it. If in desperate need, there is usually a toilet somewhere nearby.

Apologies for getting Matthew Shepard mixed up with Key West. Unforgivable mistake.

Happy to confirm that I did indeed delete the post just after posting as I thought it inappropriate

Wow! There is so much in that post I do not know where to start with a response. Unfortunately, I have never heard of most of those individuals and movies you mention!
That aside, in principle it doesn't matter to me in the slightest if a gay part in a movie is played by a gay or a straight man. I see no reason why we should know. We are watching a movie, not a gay man acting in a movie. The case of Bernstein's nose is not quite the same. I don't care that the actor is straight when Bernstein was, as his wife acknowledged in a letter soon after their marriage, "a homosexual and will never change." The nose was an attempt to make Cooper look more like Bernstein, which to me it doesn't!
Going way back in time, were average (perhaps all) movie goers aware that matinee idol Rock Hudson was an out-and-out gay when away from the silver screen? Of course not, because these  were the times he lived in. Moving over to the general entertainment business, we can turn the quesion on its head. The highest paid entertainer in Las Vegas history for many years was Liberace. He did a lot to hide his status as a gay man, even suing and winning a law suit against a UK newspaper by telling lies. Yet those in his audiences were mostly middle-aged ladies who, if they did not know, surely all guessed that he was not straight. Did that affect his popularity? It probably helped it! 
Yet not many years earlier, the gay actor, singer, playwright, and general man of so many talents, Noel Coward, had told his biographer that he did not want to be known as gay - even though like Liberace he often seemed more gay than many gay men. His reason? He believed that most of the middle-aged ladies who would come in buses to see him in matinees - essential to the profitability of many plays in London at the time - would be put off if their suspicions were found to be true. This was the actor who had had a 20-year affair with a member of Britain's Royal Family, Prince George the Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V. George had started one letter, "Dearest, darling Noel." The government and society of the day were determined that no word of the relationship leaked out - and not only because under UK law at the time it was an offence to be gay. After George's death during WW2, Churchill himself authorised a break-in of Coward's home to steal the letters between the two men.
One of Coward's many quips concerned two other in the closet  UK actors, one gay and one very bisexual. With a friend he was crossing London's Leicester Square in the 1950s and noticed the cinema was showing a movie billed as Dirk Bogarde and Michael Redgrave in THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM. "Why ever not?" said Coward. "Everyone else has!"
You mention Asian movies. Given the cultures in Asian countries, the lack of gay-themed movies is understandable. I have seen neither of those you list, but am surprised that the movie made from Taiwan's most famous book about gay men Crystal Boys published in 1983 is not mentioned. This was penned during martial law at a time when there were no gay venues in Taiwan. It concerns a group of boys who sell themselves by being available in the famous New Park. This was made into a movie in 2003 and also a popular tv series. It's 20 one-hour episodes are avaiable on youtube. Now, of course, Taiwan has become arguably the most open country in Asia for the gay community. So it is hardly surprising that Your Name Engraved Herein was such a success. I find it interesting that it is set in 1987, the year when martial law was finally ended and slowly a gay scene began to emerge.
In some ways, Hong Kong cinema was further ahead than Taiwan. Arguably Hong Kong's best-known gay-themed movie is the gritty and very gay 1997 movie Happy Together starring gay Leslie Cheung and straight Leung Chiu-wai as a gay couple who travel to Brazil to try and reignite their relationship. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes and its director Wong Kar-wai won the prize as Best Director. It also received many accolades at Film Festivals. In 2016 it was ranked the 3rd greatest LGBT movie of all time by the British Film Institute.
Leslie Cheung finally came out as gay during a long run of concerts in Hong Kong in 1997 when he stated he had been in a relationship with an old schoolfriend for about 20 years whom he called "the love of my life". It had absolutely no effect on his fan base - other perhaps than to increase it. His earlier gay-themed movie hit Farewell My Concubine was also a major success. It was the first Chinese language movie to win the Cannes Palme d'Or and won the Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film. That Leslie died by suicide aged only 46 was tragic. But I suggest the knowledge of his being gay was not merely a result of his being effectively a mega-star. It was a realisation among his generally young audiences that gay/straight stereotypes were gradually changing.
Going back to your main theme, I am totally against outing anyone. As you suggest, the popular media will always want to know about 'stars' lives and who they are sleeping with. That's their business. If a gay man says "I have dated girls but am not ready to marry" it will do less harm to his career than "fuck off, it's none of your business."  Who are we to say he is being unfair to other, perhaps younger and struggling LGBTQ actors? Acting is a dog eat dog profession. Everyone knows that. If that was not the case, there would likely have been no Bill Cosby, no Harvey Weinstein, no Kevin Spacey and no Johnny Kitagawa Japanese movie mogul raping Japanese boys for almost 50 years (see the thread  Japan's Boy Band 'King' a Serial Sexual Predator under Theatre, Movies, Art and Literature).
We live in an increasingly unfair world. Those who fall into the LGBTQ category have to fight just like everyone else. We need understanding. We should not expect nor ask for favours.

Wow! There is so much in that post I do not know where to start with a response. Unfortunately, I have never heard of most of those individuals and movies you mention!
That aside, in principle it doesn't matter to me in the slightest if a gay part in a movie is played by a gay or a straight man. I see no reason why we should know. We are watching a movie, not a gay man acting in a movie. The case of Bernstein's nose is not quite the same. I don't care that the actor is straight when Bernstein was, as his wife acknowledged in a letter soon after their marriage, "a homosexual and will never change." The nose was an attempt to make Cooper look more like Bernstein, which to me it doesn't!
Going way back in time, were average (perhaps all) movie goers aware that matinee idol Rock Hudson was an out-and-out gay when away from the silver screen? Of course not, because these  were the times he lived in. Moving over to the general entertainment business, we can turn the quesion on its head. The highest paid entertainer in Las Vegas history for many years was Liberace. He did a lot to hide his status as a gay man, even suing and winning a law suit against a UK newspaper by telling lies. Yet those in his audiences were mostly middle-aged ladies who, if they did not know, surely all guessed that he was not straight. Did that affect his popularity? It probably helped it! 
Yet not many years earlier, the gay actor, singer, playwright, and general man of so many talents, Noel Coward, had told his biographer that he did not want to be known as gay - even though like Liberace he often seemed more gay than many gay men. His reason? He believed that most of the middle-aged ladies who would come in buses to see him in matinees - essential to the profitability of many plays in London at the time - would be put off if their suspicions were found to be true. This was the actor who had had a 20-year affair with a member of Britain's Royal Family, Prince George the Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George V. George had started one letter, "Dearest, darling Noel." The government and society of the day were determined that no word of the relationship leaked out - and not only because under UK law at the time it was an offence to be gay. After George's death during WW2, Churchill himself authorised a break-in of Coward's home to steal the letters between the two men.
One of Coward's many quips concerned two other in the closet  UK actors, one gay and one very bisexual. With a friend he was crossing London's Leicester Square in the 1950s and noticed the cinema was showing a movie billed as Dirk Bogarde and Michael Redgrave in THE SEA SHALL NOT HAVE THEM. "Why ever not?" said Coward. "Everyone else has!"
You mention Asian movies. Given the cultures in Asian countries, the lack of gay-themed movies is understandable. I have seen neither of those you list, but am surprised that the movie made from Taiwan's most famous book about gay men Crystal Boys published in 1983 is not mentioned. This was penned during martial law at a time when there were no gay venues in Taiwan. It concerns a group of boys who sell themselves by being available in the famous New Park. This was made into a movie in 2003 and also a popular tv series. It's 20 one-hour episodes are avaiable on youtube. Now, of course, Taiwan has become arguably the most open country in Asia for the gay community. So it is hardly surprising that Your Name Engraved Herein was such a success. I find it interesting that it is set in 1987, the year when martial law was finally ended and slowly a gay scene began to emerge.
In some ways, Hong Kong cinema was further ahead than Taiwan. Arguably Hong Kong's best-known gay-themed movie is the gritty and very gay 1997 movie Happy Together starring gay Leslie Cheung and straight Leung Chiu-wai as a gay couple who travel to Brazil to try and reignite their relationship. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes and its director Wong Kar-wai won the prize as Best Director. It also received many accolades at Film Festivals. In 2016 it was ranked the 3rd greatest LGBT movie of all time by the British Film Institute.
Leslie Cheung finally came out as gay during a long run of concerts in Hong Kong in 1997 when he stated he had been in a relationship with an old schoolfriend for about 20 years whom he called "the love of my life". It had absolutely no effect on his fan base - other perhaps than to increase it. His earlier gay-themed movie hit Farewell My Concubine was also a major success. It was the first Chinese language movie to win the Cannes Palme d'Or and won the Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film. That Leslie died by suicide aged only 46 was tragic. But I suggest the knowledge of his being gay was not merely a result of his being effectively a mega-star. It was a realisation among his generally young audiences that gay/straight stereotypes were gradually changing.
Going back to your main theme, I am totally against outing anyone. As you suggest, the popular media will always want to know about 'stars' lives and who they are sleeping with. That's their business. If a gay man says "I have dated girls but am not ready to marry" it will do less harm to his career than "fuck off, it's none of your business."  Who are we to say he is being unfair to other, perhaps younger and struggling LGBTQ actors? Acting is a dog eat dog profession. Everyone knows that. If that was not the case, there would likely have been no Bill Cosby, no Harvey Weinstein, no Kevin Spacey and no Johnny Kitagawa Japanese movie mogul raping Japanese boys for almost 50 years (see the thread  Japan's Boy Band 'King' a Serial Sexual Predator under Theatre, Movies, Art and Literature).
We live in an increasingly unfair world. Those who fall into the LGBTQ category have to fight just like everyone else. We need understanding. We should not expect nor ask for favours.

You should definitely go to 24 Kalkan in Shinjuku. Like almost everywhere in Asia, there are some younger guys who enjoy being with and having sex with older guys, especially if they are foreigners and like you in good shape. Tokyo is no exception. There is at least one University quite close by and so some of the students pop in after their studies. It will take a bit of time to wander around and get noticed, but that's part of the fun.
Getting there is easy wherever you are staying in the city. The ideal subway stop is Shinjuku-Sanchome on the red Marunouchi Line. Turn left at the exit and continue through the underground passage to the BYGS building exit (I believe that is Exit C8). That puts you right in the gay bar district and 24 Kaikan is only a short 2 block walk from there.
I once went on a Saturday afternoon and met a very nice 30ish Japanese guy who came on to me. It later turned out that he was married with two kids, but Saturday was his day away from the family and all he liked to do was visit 24 Kaikan and loved being a bottom!
One point to note is that it shuts the bathing area for about 30 minutes for cleaning. I think this is around 6:00 pm but somehow it's best to check, for that area also includes the warm pools, cold pool, shower stalls, sauna, rainshower room and a steamroom that usually has some activity going on. You definitely want to be there when it is open.
The 24 in Ueno is also worth a look, although it is further away from Ueno station. As @StickyRice35 points out in his post, it generally has a slightly older clientele and is a smaller facility.
There is also - or was - the original 24 in Asakusa (not to be confused with Akasaka) which is best reached by the Ginza Line. I do not know if it still exists. It was a much older facility and generally had a much, much older clientele, although I sometimes met young students there. It is located behind the famous Sensoji-Temple.

Happy to confirm that I did indeed delete the post just after posting as I thought it inappropriate

For what reason @reader? At my initiative, for which you'll recall you thanked me, we did so before. We came to an agreement. I would not criticise any of the multitude of posts you made by copying and pasting media reports. In return you would not comment on my choice for living in Bangkok when, unlike you and many others, I deliberately choose not to visit gay venues here. 
I have complied 100% with that agreement. Unilaterally you have totally broken it. You have shown you have zero integrity when it comes to agreements. So no more! 
I'm delighted that some of the younger generations are now making posting excellent posts. I wish them, the Moderator and other posters all good wishes. Goodbye!

For what reason @reader? At my initiative, for which you'll recall you thanked me, we did so before. We came to an agreement. I would not criticise any of the multitude of posts you made by copying and pasting media reports. In return you would not comment on my choice for living in Bangkok when, unlike you and many others, I deliberately choose not to visit gay venues here. 
I have complied 100% with that agreement. Unilaterally you have totally broken it. You have shown you have zero integrity when it comes to agreements. So no more! 
I'm delighted that some of the younger generations are now making posting excellent posts. I wish them, the Moderator and other posters all good wishes. Goodbye!

Yet another piece of trite nonsense. Grow up @reader! Not everyone is like your good self.
And that is precisely what you wrote when you were attacking my posts a couple of years or so ago by suggesting nobody lived in Bangkok and did not go to gay bars etc. You have obviously forgotten that I sent you a PM and suggested we bury the hatchet - as it were. You agreed and thanked me for suggesting it. But guess what? Now it all comes spilling out again. I am not like you, thankfully, and I do not try to live the sort of life you live! Similarly, although you may not like to admit it, you are not like me. Everyone on this Board is different and we should be relishing our diversity. But you just will not accept it and your method is to attack! So quit the name calling and the incorrect assumptions just because they do not fit your idea of what an older expat in Bangkok should be doing!

With few exceptions I usually agree with most of @macaroni21's posts which are well thought out with considered arguments. But the first one above seems to me to have many flaws.
1. When it comes to tourism to Thailand, frankly the average wage of a country basicallly means virtually nothing. Of the vast number of Chinese tourists who used to visit Thailand, it is fact that the majority were on these cheap zero-dollar packages, travelled around in groups and stayed in cheap hotels. Sure they pumped cash into the local economy, but on a per capita basis it was not high. Naturally there were some wealthy Chinese who were on individual packages. Some even purchased apartments and generally spent a great deal more in the up-market shopping malls.
But the situation now has changed very dramatically. Within China, there has been considerable negative publicity given to the murder of four citizens and wounding of others in Siam Paragon in October. One Chinese tourist was killed. According to the Bangkok Post, 60,000 Chinese then immediately cancelled their trips to Thailand. Chinese put a big premium on safety and Thailand generally had the reputation as a very safe destination. That has all quickly changed. The Chinese are avid social media readers and that frequently exerts a great deal of influence, especially in the rural areas whose population tended to feed into the zero-dollar tour market. The Paragon murder was very high on the list of posts on several major sites. Now hoteliers and tourism entrepreneurs in Chiang Mai have called for the government to enact stricter gun controls. For along with the murder in Paragon, the Chinese media has been giving a surprised public the facts about the huge number of guns in private hands in this country (some 10 million), by far the highest of any country in S.E. Asia. Suddenly Thailand seems a less attractive destination for many Chinese. And as the article on the OP states, making entry to the country easier will do precisely nothing to change that perception.
Then there is the present economic situation in China which is very bad and due to get much worse. Youth Unemployment figures are so disastrous China has stopped updating them. In the 16-24 yo bracket, the numbers were 21% earlier this year - and that was before this year's roughly 10 million university graduates were added in the summer. These young people were not on any list of regular travellers pre-covid. But now they are increasingly having to depend on family members to keep them financially afloat while they try to find jobs that no longer exist. These were kids born during the one-child policy. So naturally lower-, middle- and upper-class families must help.  Many family budgets are now stretched as never before in recent years.
Yet it is the economic woes of the property market - an industry which used to employ huge numbers and was one of the key drivers of China's economic growth as it amounted to approximately 29% of GDP according to the National Bureau of Economic Research - that are now so massive that all the main 30 - 40 developers have defaulted on their local and overseas debts. Worse, though, many millions of individuals who paid for apartments have discovered they are still incomplete because the developers have no cash. In China roughly 90% of properties are bought during construction. Throw in all the losses from this for all manner of contractors and the ending of the vast amounts of cash developers pumped into local authorities and you have what is already a near-perfect storm. It is estimated that local governments alone are now sitting on US$12.6 trillion of debt according to the IMF. No one yet knows what the central government will do. But the total amount of accumulated debt threatens the wealth of tens of millions - if not many more - of Chinese who no longer have the sort of cash reserves to travel as in pre-covid years.
2. I have absolutely no idea how the Indian economy compares. But from what I see in Bangkok, there are many more wealthy Indian tourists now than I have ever seen before. Go to Central Chidlom as I do weekly and you alweys see many Indian couples with several large shopping bags between them. Even though the average wage may be a fraction of that in China, it has to be a fact that there is a sector of rich and very rich Indians around the country who have both a desire and now an opportunity to travel. They also have money to spend. My guess is that like the Taiwanese mentioned in the OP, this group is certainly not going to stay in cheap hotels. They will opt for 4- and 5-star hotels. THAI alone now flies from 7 Indian gateways, with additional flights from 4 of them over the holiday period. These flights all seem to be on wide-body aircraft. And that's only THAI. Naturally in terms of numbers, there is no chance of India overtaking the numbers which used to come regularly to Thailand from China. But in terms of average spend, I am more than reasonably certain the average Indian will spend vastly more than the average Chinese.
3. I absolutely cannot agree that Thailand does not have the infrastructure for high spending tourists. I do wonder where @macaroni21 gets that idea. It's true that outside the main tourist hubs, the hotels may not have similar 5-star offerings. But the number of high quality hotels in the main destinations is certainly very high. And the manager of no 5-star hotel would ever consider employing staff unqualified for such a position. In fact, it is the quality of the staff in Thailand's top hotels that for decades has made them the envy of many in other countries. So the suggestion about too many low-paid unskilled workers simply does not come into the equation!
4. Ah! Pattaya! I wondered if that was what your post was basically about. As has been stated in posts on several forums, Pattaya is not a destination for high spending tourists. Yes, some may go to the Hiton or the Dusit, but for those seeking some time at a beach I am more than certain the travel agencies catering to these high spending tourists will be proposing Hua Hin, Phuket, Krabi or more out of the way destinations like Khao Lak rather than Pattaya. All have 5-star and luxury hotels. There is very little in Pattaya to attract high spending tourists. And mass market is definitely not what the Thailand government is concentrating on. 
5. I believe @macaroni21 is being extremely unfair on Taiwanese tourists. In a Paper issued in September last year, HSBC estimated that as a proportion of the population the number of millionaires in Taiwan would be the fourth highest in Australasia, reaching over 10% by 2030. Nearly 25 years ago I was engaged by the Hong Kong Tourist Association to work on an event project specifically targetted at the Taiwan market. Even in those days when the average wage in Taiwan was a great deal less than today, there were still many high spenders. For just one event promoted in Taipei by three travel agencies, roughly 10,000 visitors arrived from Taiwan over a week and spent more than the average tourist spend (which in Hong Kong was already quite high), with many staying in the 3-selected 5-star hotels - the Mandarin, Peninsula and Island Shangri-La. 
6. Just to repeat, high-end spenders have absolutely nothing to do with mass markets. They are a niche group which in many developing countries is getting considerably larger. @macaroni21 suggests concentrating on richer Asian markets, markets like Japan and Korea. The problem there is that in both countries you have a population where the work ethic is so strong the vast majority only receive what to us would be very short holiday periods. If you want a large regular flow of tourists from either country, it's not going to happen until the Japanese, as an example, start to give employees more than the short May Golden Week, August Obon Week and a week or so around New Year off. There will still be more regular rich Japanese toursts. but just because the Japanese are wealthier certainly does not mean they are going to do much for the Thailand tourism economy.

With few exceptions I usually agree with most of @macaroni21's posts which are well thought out with considered arguments. But the first one above seems to me to have many flaws.
1. When it comes to tourism to Thailand, frankly the average wage of a country basicallly means virtually nothing. Of the vast number of Chinese tourists who used to visit Thailand, it is fact that the majority were on these cheap zero-dollar packages, travelled around in groups and stayed in cheap hotels. Sure they pumped cash into the local economy, but on a per capita basis it was not high. Naturally there were some wealthy Chinese who were on individual packages. Some even purchased apartments and generally spent a great deal more in the up-market shopping malls.
But the situation now has changed very dramatically. Within China, there has been considerable negative publicity given to the murder of four citizens and wounding of others in Siam Paragon in October. One Chinese tourist was killed. According to the Bangkok Post, 60,000 Chinese then immediately cancelled their trips to Thailand. Chinese put a big premium on safety and Thailand generally had the reputation as a very safe destination. That has all quickly changed. The Chinese are avid social media readers and that frequently exerts a great deal of influence, especially in the rural areas whose population tended to feed into the zero-dollar tour market. The Paragon murder was very high on the list of posts on several major sites. Now hoteliers and tourism entrepreneurs in Chiang Mai have called for the government to enact stricter gun controls. For along with the murder in Paragon, the Chinese media has been giving a surprised public the facts about the huge number of guns in private hands in this country (some 10 million), by far the highest of any country in S.E. Asia. Suddenly Thailand seems a less attractive destination for many Chinese. And as the article on the OP states, making entry to the country easier will do precisely nothing to change that perception.
Then there is the present economic situation in China which is very bad and due to get much worse. Youth Unemployment figures are so disastrous China has stopped updating them. In the 16-24 yo bracket, the numbers were 21% earlier this year - and that was before this year's roughly 10 million university graduates were added in the summer. These young people were not on any list of regular travellers pre-covid. But now they are increasingly having to depend on family members to keep them financially afloat while they try to find jobs that no longer exist. These were kids born during the one-child policy. So naturally lower-, middle- and upper-class families must help.  Many family budgets are now stretched as never before in recent years.
Yet it is the economic woes of the property market - an industry which used to employ huge numbers and was one of the key drivers of China's economic growth as it amounted to approximately 29% of GDP according to the National Bureau of Economic Research - that are now so massive that all the main 30 - 40 developers have defaulted on their local and overseas debts. Worse, though, many millions of individuals who paid for apartments have discovered they are still incomplete because the developers have no cash. In China roughly 90% of properties are bought during construction. Throw in all the losses from this for all manner of contractors and the ending of the vast amounts of cash developers pumped into local authorities and you have what is already a near-perfect storm. It is estimated that local governments alone are now sitting on US$12.6 trillion of debt according to the IMF. No one yet knows what the central government will do. But the total amount of accumulated debt threatens the wealth of tens of millions - if not many more - of Chinese who no longer have the sort of cash reserves to travel as in pre-covid years.
2. I have absolutely no idea how the Indian economy compares. But from what I see in Bangkok, there are many more wealthy Indian tourists now than I have ever seen before. Go to Central Chidlom as I do weekly and you alweys see many Indian couples with several large shopping bags between them. Even though the average wage may be a fraction of that in China, it has to be a fact that there is a sector of rich and very rich Indians around the country who have both a desire and now an opportunity to travel. They also have money to spend. My guess is that like the Taiwanese mentioned in the OP, this group is certainly not going to stay in cheap hotels. They will opt for 4- and 5-star hotels. THAI alone now flies from 7 Indian gateways, with additional flights from 4 of them over the holiday period. These flights all seem to be on wide-body aircraft. And that's only THAI. Naturally in terms of numbers, there is no chance of India overtaking the numbers which used to come regularly to Thailand from China. But in terms of average spend, I am more than reasonably certain the average Indian will spend vastly more than the average Chinese.
3. I absolutely cannot agree that Thailand does not have the infrastructure for high spending tourists. I do wonder where @macaroni21 gets that idea. It's true that outside the main tourist hubs, the hotels may not have similar 5-star offerings. But the number of high quality hotels in the main destinations is certainly very high. And the manager of no 5-star hotel would ever consider employing staff unqualified for such a position. In fact, it is the quality of the staff in Thailand's top hotels that for decades has made them the envy of many in other countries. So the suggestion about too many low-paid unskilled workers simply does not come into the equation!
4. Ah! Pattaya! I wondered if that was what your post was basically about. As has been stated in posts on several forums, Pattaya is not a destination for high spending tourists. Yes, some may go to the Hiton or the Dusit, but for those seeking some time at a beach I am more than certain the travel agencies catering to these high spending tourists will be proposing Hua Hin, Phuket, Krabi or more out of the way destinations like Khao Lak rather than Pattaya. All have 5-star and luxury hotels. There is very little in Pattaya to attract high spending tourists. And mass market is definitely not what the Thailand government is concentrating on. 
5. I believe @macaroni21 is being extremely unfair on Taiwanese tourists. In a Paper issued in September last year, HSBC estimated that as a proportion of the population the number of millionaires in Taiwan would be the fourth highest in Australasia, reaching over 10% by 2030. Nearly 25 years ago I was engaged by the Hong Kong Tourist Association to work on an event project specifically targetted at the Taiwan market. Even in those days when the average wage in Taiwan was a great deal less than today, there were still many high spenders. For just one event promoted in Taipei by three travel agencies, roughly 10,000 visitors arrived from Taiwan over a week and spent more than the average tourist spend (which in Hong Kong was already quite high), with many staying in the 3-selected 5-star hotels - the Mandarin, Peninsula and Island Shangri-La. 
6. Just to repeat, high-end spenders have absolutely nothing to do with mass markets. They are a niche group which in many developing countries is getting considerably larger. @macaroni21 suggests concentrating on richer Asian markets, markets like Japan and Korea. The problem there is that in both countries you have a population where the work ethic is so strong the vast majority only receive what to us would be very short holiday periods. If you want a large regular flow of tourists from either country, it's not going to happen until the Japanese, as an example, start to give employees more than the short May Golden Week, August Obon Week and a week or so around New Year off. There will still be more regular rich Japanese toursts. but just because the Japanese are wealthier certainly does not mean they are going to do much for the Thailand tourism economy.