Canadian Premiere
The latest from Ash Mayfair (The Third Wife, VIFF 2018) tells the story of San (Trân Quân) and Nam (Võ Diên Gia Huy), two lovers in a dangerous situation. San is a nightclub dancer saving up for gender-affirming surgery and Nam is her macho boyfriend, a professional fighter with a quick temper. Financial need brings them both into the orbit of Mr. Vuong (Hajime Inoue), a powerful gangster who wants to exploit them both — San for sex, Nam for his fighting skills. Things get even more complicated when Nam’s side lover Mimi (Phan Thi Kim Ngân) finds herself pregnant with his child…
Skin of Youth features intense, deeply committed performances from its leads, and their portrayal of passion is elevated further by Mayfair’s direction and the vivid cinematography of Chananun Chotrungroj. This is a work that succeeds on multiple levels: as a social protest film, it’s forthright and fiercely moral; as a romance, it’s simmering, sexy, and poignant.
Oct 10 & 11: Q&A
Community Partner
Trân Quân, Võ Diên Gia Huy, Phan Thi Kim Ngân, Hajime Inoue
Vietnam/Singapore/Japan
2025
In Vietnamese with English subtitles
Graphic violence, self harm
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Trân Viêt Anh
Producer
Trần Thị Bích Ngọc, Ash Mayfair, Fran Borgia
Screenwriter
Ash Mayfair
Cinematography
Chananun Chotrungroj
Editor
Julie Béziau
Production Design
Dõ An
Original Music
Tôn Thât An
Ash Mayfair
Ash Mayfair is an award-winning writer and director based in Los Angeles and Ho Chi Minh City. In 2018, she wrote, directed, and co-produced her first feature, The Third Wife, which premiered at TIFF. The film won the NETPAC Jury Award and more than 20 awards worldwide, as well as three Spirit Award nominations in the US. Mayfair’s second feature, Skin Of Youth (2025), is one of four winners of the NYU Purple List for the best unproduced screenplays written by graduates. She is an alumna of the Sundance Film Two Lab 2020 and a recipient of the Berlinale Nipkow Fellowship 2020.
Filmography: The Third Wife (2018); Between Shadow and Soul (2020)
Photo by You-Wei Chen
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
Afternoons of Solitude
Pacification director Albert Serra turns his unflinching gaze on the subject of bullfighting, and in particular the famous young matador Andrés Roca Rey. The film challenges us to look its subject square in the eye and draw our own conclusions.
The Plague
At a water polo camp, Ben is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Terrified of incurring his campmates’ wrath, he joins them in tormenting a kid whose skin rash has been branded “the plague”. But then he experiences a breakout of his own...
