52nd edition of New Directors/New Films
Festival&Award
A Dance In Vain
我是全世界最幸福的宝贝
China | 2025 | Drama | 86 min
Director: Lee Hong-Chi
Screenwriter: Lee Hong-Chi
Producers: Qi Ai, Justine O.
Cinematographer: Lee Hong-Chi
Editor: Tom Hsin-Ming Lin
Art Directors: LIN Zhiyun, HOU Zongjian
Sound: Tu Duu-Chih
Music: Bruce Su
Cast: Cici Wang
导演：李鸿其
编剧：李鸿其
制片人：齐艾、王思静
摄影指导：李鸿其
剪辑：林欣民
美术指导：林芷芸、侯宗戬
声音：杜笃之
音乐：苏柏玮
演员：王紫璇
Synopsis
Monkey has spent years working behind the scenes in a theater 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."
Festival&Award
2025 Venice IFF
- Settimana Internazionale della Critica
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2025 Busan IFF
– A Window on Asian Cinema
Director's Notes
There was a time when the city I lived in suddenly felt strange to me.
Even familiar friends and places I used to visit felt distant, in a way I couldn’t explain.
That feeling fascinated me. So I grabbed my camera and started filming. Sometimes people I knew, sometimes strangers I met on the street, just capturing their lives as they were in that moment.
I knew it wouldn’t last.
If I hesitated, the feeling would disappear.
Lee Hong-Chi
LEE HONG-CHI is a director and actor from Taiwan, China, and a graduate of Chinese Culture University.
He won the Best New Performer Award at the 52nd Golden Horse Awards and the Best Leading Actor Award at the 17th 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 Film Festival)
- Cities of Last Things (Winner of Platform Prize, 2018 Toronto International Film Festival)
- Baby (2018 San Sebastián International Film Festival)
- Tigertail (Netflix Original)
- FUXI
- The End of Endless Love
- Last Suspect
Love is a Gun, his feature directorial debut which he also wrote and starred in, won the "Lion of the Future" Award at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.
He will now present his second feature film as director, A DANCE IN VAIN, receiving its world premiere in the International Film Critics’ Week section of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.