
North American Premiere
In the heart of New York’s largest Chinatown, three working-class immigrants eke out a meager living. Taiwanese Amy (Wu Ke-Xi) and mainlander Didi (Xu Haipeng) work at a seedy massage parlor, hoping to save up enough to eventually open a restaurant in Baltimore. In the meantime, Didi spends her off-hours with Cheung (Tsai Ming-liang regular Lee Kang Sheng), a middle-aged construction worker who sends money back to his family in Taiwan. When together, there’s an easy intimacy—until tragedy strikes, leaving a painful absence in its wake.
Directed with remarkable assurance by writer-director Constance Tsang, Blue Sun Palace is an absorbing exploration of the liminal, in-between spaces of its immigrant subjects. Daringly divided into two temporally distinct segments, the film derives its power from the characters’ attempts to bridge the gap, to find comfort amid grief, guilt, and loss. Featuring textured 35mm compositions by Norm Li, a spare score from composer Sami Jano, and a distinctive slow-cinema aesthetic, this is a film that finds beauty in transience, reveling in the evanescence of the everyday.
French Touch Prize, Critics’ Week 2024
Media Partner
Lee Kang Sheng, Ke-Xi Wu, Haipeng Xu
USA
2024
In Mandarin and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Sally Sujin Oh, Eli Raskin, Tony Yang
Screenwriter
Constance Tsang
Cinematography
Norm Li
Editor
Caitlin Carr
Production Design
Evaline Wu Huang
Original Music
Sami Jano

Constance Tsang
Constance Tsang is a Chinese American filmmaker based in New York. She graduated from Columbia University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Directing where she received the Robert Gore Rifkind Launch Fund. Her work is supported by Starlight Stars Collective and Tribeca Film. Blue Sun Palace (2024) will be her first feature.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
A Streetcar Named Desire
"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.
Giant
This was the Yellowstone of its time: a big, sweeping modern Western built around an imposing ranch and family dynamics -- except Giant is much more subversive. James Dean strikes it rich as Jett Rink, much to the disgust of his former boss, Rock Hudson.
Familiar Touch
A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."