Until the 2018 discovery of a film negative in a warehouse, Bye Bye Love was long considered lost: a new print gives audiences a rare chance to revisit this radical work from 1974. 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. 

As part of Queer East On the Road 2024, a nationwide touring season taking place from September to December in 15 cities across the UK.

Queer East is 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.

Doors open 30 minutes before advertised start time. All film screenings are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with no more than a 10 min selection of trailers.