Following two young people, Utamaro and Giko, on a doomed summer road trip through Japan, Isao Fujisawa’s poetic, surreal work reflects on the dissipating promise of 1960s counterculture and free love. The film is stylistically influenced by the French New Wave and American New Cinema, notably Jean-Luc Godard and Arthur Penn. Yet the main character’s name – Utamaro – also suggests a rethinking of Japanese artistic traditions, especially male perspectives on feminine beauty.

Here, romantic love transcends gender, sexuality, and even the body; a queer challenge to conventional understandings of relationships that adds to the political charge of this rediscovered classic.

This screening is presented in partnership with Queer East, a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ cinema, live arts, and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities.