From the tenacious roars of 60s art subcultures in Tokyo, Japan to the spine-chilling, prayer-like whispers of contemporary Southeast Asian cinema, queer lives have always been found at the center of artistic reflections of cultures and histories. With this edition Asian Movie Night is exploring how to engage with our (queer) pasts and what we see in the (queer) stories told by those that came before us.
Who has been made present and who has been left wanting by the sidelines?
What happens at the intersections of queerness with national identity, culture, community and state?
Sanguine Specters Stick to the Skin is a reflection on past and contemporary cinematic depictions of queer lives and histories and the cultural heritages that we carry with us.
Before the screening in CAVIA, Ko-Yu (Sara) Huang, a Taiwan-born interdisciplinary artist based in the Netherlands, presents an intimate serving of nostalgia and relearning — Tied Beancurd Knots
and Seaweed Knots with homemade Sha-Cha Sauce (沙茶醬). This cold platter features soy-and-spice-braised beancurd and seaweed knots — ingredients that literally “tie” together, but whose meaning goes beyond the culinary. The word “結” (knot) can suggest connection, fate, or entanglement.
After the screening, Eastern Playgrounds keeps us tied up with a karaoke after party and a mahjong parlour at the cinema room of Cavia. Born from a desire for joy that centers Asian identities, their priority as a Queer/Asian-centered initiative is to carve out a space for a community to exist and grow while celebrating individual identities that never neatly fit into one way of being Asian.
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Drawing workshop Scene & Seen
‘Scene & Seen : A’ is a hands-on workshop that explores the concept of Asianness through the lens of Asian cinema, using film as a catalyst to examine and reinterpret cultural identity. Participants will engage with iconic scenes, objects, and moments from film to create experimental visual responses—doodles, sketches, and compositions—that reflect their impressions and lived experiences. As part of the Asian Movie Night Seasonal Festival, this session invites participants to reimagine the boundaries of Asianness through color, texture, and form, transforming fleeting cinematic images into personal visual definitions of culture.
PROGRAM of CAVIA Amsterdam
Saturday 30.08.2025
20:00 Doors open at
20:00 - 21:00
Eastern Playgrounds: Taiwanese food by Sara
21:00 - 21:15
Performance by Qiao Chu Guo
21:30 - 22:30 Asian Movie Night: A selection of queer shorts
23:00 - 03:00 Eastern Playgrounds: karaoke after party x mahjong parlour
TICKETS
Entry on donation (Cineville card valid)
CAVIA
PROGRAM of
FOCUS Arnhem
19:00 - 19:05 Introduction
19:05 - 20:00 Screening
20:00 - 20:15 Performance by Sol Enae Lee
TICKETS
€12.00 (Student €5.00)
Cineville card free
FOCUS
PROGRAM of
KINO Rotterdam
21:00 - 21:05 Introduction
21:05 - 21:10 Director’s introduction
21:10 - 22:35 Bye Bye Love screening
TICKETS
€13.20 (CJP/Student €10.00)
Cineville card free
KINO
PROGRAM of
FLORA Den Haag
19:00 - 19:05 Introduction
19:05 - 21:10 Việt and Nam screening
21:10 - 21:40 Workshop
Scene & Seen
TICKETS
€12.00 (Student
€
8.50)
Cineville card free
FLORA
ABOUT
Eastern Playgrounds is an Amsterdam-based Queer/Asian-led collective. Through hosting community events with Asian board games, mahjong workshops and karaoke sessions, they create space for connection and belonging through playfulness and joy.
Curator
Kleopatra Vorria is an artist that deals in stories. Her favorite movie last month was Flow (2024)
Supported by
Arnhem Gemeente, Het Cultuurfonds and Asian Pride
Bye Bye Love
Isao Fujisawa | 1974 | Japan | 85’
Japanese w/ English subs
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This is the
only full-length feature film made at his own expense by Isao Fujisawa, who was
an assistant director at Toei at the time, having worked on Hiroshi
Teshigahara's “Woman in the Dunes” and “The Face of Others”. Influenced by pop
art, and the French New Wave, this is a unique love story of an outlaw couple's
escapades when faced with the faded promises of their counterculture era. A
bizarre world created by the dazzling primary colors and psychedelic images of
the 1970s, Utamaro and Giiko wander in search of freedom, liberation and
transformation. Where will they end up?
With a
theme that was ahead of its time, this is a hidden gem of independent film made
on the tails of Japanese New Wave, showing the first traces of a new queer
cinema. The film had been long considered lost, but in 2018 the original
negative was discovered in a warehouse and a new print was made.
Việt and Nam
Truong Minh Quy | 2024 | Vietnam | 124’
Vietnamese w/ English subs
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In the underground coal mines, Nam and Viet, young miners, face danger and darkness. One prepares to leave for a new life, but they must find Nam's father's remains, a soldier lost in a faraway forest, retracing the past through memories.
If You See Something That Doesn’t Look Right
Wong Ka Ki, Vincent Ip | 2024 | Hong Kong, Ukraine | 5’
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Two girls from two different worlds - they meet in the underground and try to heal their wounds, both physically and mentally, via their fantasies towards one another.
Spring Will Come
Marion Hoang Ngoc Hill | 2024 | Vietnam, US | 15’ | Vietnamese w/ English
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Saigonese DJ Van Anh and her girlfriend Ly are struggling to end their relationship. Then a strange woman shows up to free the spirit of her long lost Father from their apartment.
Memori Dia
Asarela Orchidia Dewi | 2023 | Indonesia | 18’ | Bahasa Indonesian w/ English subs
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Triggered by an old family photograph, a young adult named Azka retraces their childhood - a sacred stage of life when they became aware of the external world around them and their inner self. While revisiting these long-forgotten memories, Azka discovers unresolved pains they never knew existed. This revelation marks a new beginning, one that unfolds the tapestry of profound self-embrace and acceptance, allowing Azka to move forward unapologetically into their truest essence.
The Deity Yet to Be Seen
Junn Zhou | 2024 | Netherlands | 14’ | Mandarin w/ English subs
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A re-enactment of the legend of the white serpent (白蛇传), an ancient Chinese folktale, the film traces a serpent spirit through its transformative states of gender and identity. It evolves from a formless being to a man, woman, both, and neither.
