Blue Sun Palace

French Touch Prize of the Jury, 2024 Critics Week, Cannes Film Festival
Official Selection, 2025 New Directors/New Films

Didi and Cheung share the kind of puppy love best experienced in the diaspora: a Taiwanese construction worker and a Mainland masseuse, stealing free hours to sing Faye Wong songs in karaoke. Meanwhile, Didi and her co-worker Amy share a different kind of love: a friendship bound by dreams of moving out of the shadow economy and starting their own restaurant together. A tragedy derails all plans though, and the unique numbness of being in between homes, families, friendships, and life stages envelopes those who remain.

As performed by Taiwan cinema veterans Wu Ke-xi (of Midi Z’s films) and Lee Kang-sheng (of Tsai Ming-liang’s), that numbness is never devoid of feeling. Their characters are yearning, romantic, and quietly proud, seeking nocturnal pleasures and never passing up the communal joys of a Chinese meal together. Director Constance Tsang finds these moments in stairways and backrooms, the makeshift palaces of Flushing immigrants with much self to discover despite much to lose.

–Brian Hu