Happy turn of the year!!
Join Chantelle Lin (Director, Dream Flare Film Festival), Ellen Chang (Director, UW Taiwan Studies Arts & Culture), and Naoyuki Ikeda (Director, Japan Film Festival Los Angeles) for an after-hour party with Director Hiroshi Okuhara and Producer Xiaoguai Wang of Hotel Iris (2021).
During this holiday season, you’re invited to watch the behind-the-scenes conversation about Hotel Iris and the issue of “cross-culturality” the film poetically evokes, PLUS, a special 3-day online screening of Hotel Iris. The exclusive screening and conversation will take place on the streaming platform, Asiania, from January 1 to January 8, 2022.
- Watch the Roundtable here (Jan 1 – Jan 8): https://2021hotellris.asiania.me
- RSVP to receive your full access to the film (Jan 6 – Jan 8): https://forms.office.com/r/Wh5heQu8Am
About Hotel Iris
Somewhere on the coast of Taiwan is Hotel Iris, a mouldering seaside establishment run by a cold and thrifty Japanese woman (Nahana) and her lonely half-Taiwanese daughter Mari (Lucia). One night, Mari hears the cries of a woman from the upper floors. Heading up to investigate, she witnesses a distraught woman in a red camisole dress escape an impeccably dressed but violent man (NAGASE Masatoshi) whose cold voice is entrancing. Mari’s initial shock turns into a strange fascination which drives her to follow the man to discover more about him. He is a translator who lives on an isolated island one can only reach by boat and rumours swirl around him and recent murders. The closer she gets to the man, the more a hidden layer of Mari’s personality awakens as she allows herself to be engulfed by his strange passions…
OGAWA Yoko’s disturbing tale of sadomasochistic love and twisted desire is brought to the screen in an appropriately minimalist adaptation that features the same psychological examination and elegant violence and disturbing eroticism but brought to the screen by stirring performances from NAGASE Masatoshi and Lucia.
Language/subtitles: Japanese & Traditional Chinese with English subtitles available.
Watch trailer here: https://vimeo.com/560261281