in collaboration with the 82. Venice International Film Festival
A Dance in Vain Wo shi quan shi jie zui xing fu de bao bei
Directed by Lee Hong-chiChina 2025
Runtime 86'
Monkey has spent years working behind the scenes in a theatre company, barely scraping by in the big city. Day after day, her life feels stuck on repeat. In 2020, her boyfriend, Leo, returned to his hometown and took his own life. Since then, his absence has lingered like a shadow, haunting every street she walks, every breath she takes. Caught in the same routines, she tries to reach out, to share the weight of her exhaustion. But all she hears is: “You should be grateful. You’re already so lucky.”
Directed by
Lee Hong-chi
Screenplay
Lee Hong-chi
Cinematography
Lee Hong-chi
Editing
Tom Hsin-Ming Lin
Music
Bruce Su
Sound
Tu Duu-Chih
Production Design
Zhiyun Lin, Zongjian Hou
Costume Design
Cici Wang
Cast
Cici Wang (Monkey)
Artistic Advisor
Marco Müller
Production
Qi Ai (Southie Films Limited), Justine O, Lu Shan (Southie Films Limited)
International Sales
Parallax Films
Lee Hong-chi (1990) is a director and actor from Taiwan, China, and a graduate of Chinese Culture University. He won the Best New Performer Award at the 52. Golden Horse Awards and the Best Leading Actor Award at the 17. Taipei Film Festival for his role in Thanatos, Drunk. In recent years, he has starred in over 10 acclaimed art-house and commercial films, including Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018 Cannes), Cities of Last Things (Winner of Platform Prize, 2018 TIFF), Baby (2018 SSIFF), Tigertail (Netflix Original). Love Is a Gun, his feature directorial debut which he also wrote and starred in, premiered at the 2023 Settimana Internazionale della Critica and won the “Lion of the Future” Award at the 80. Venice International Film Festival. He will now present his second feature film as director, A Dance in Vain, receiving its world premiere at the Settimana Internazionale della Critica at the 82. Venice International Film Festival.
