M+ Cinema spring edition

This April, M+ and the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) co-present a series of special programmes to celebrate the festival’s 50th anniversary. Highlights include the world premiere of the newly restored Cageman (1992) by Jacob Cheung, which is the fourth title to be conserved through the M+ Restored initiative. As part of the first touring programme from the M+ Asian Avant-Garde Film Collection, Private Revolutions, Public Spaces features Untitled 77-A (1977) by Han Okhi, Dysfunction No.3 (1983) by Chen Chieh-Jen, and Revolutions Happen Like Refrains in a Song (1987) by Nick Deocampo. Filmmaker Mary Stephen’s early experimental works will be featured in Mary Stephen: Ombres de soie (Shades of Silk) and Shorts. Accompanied by a roundtable discussion on film editing, these programmes reflect on the legacies of Hong Kong and Asian avant-garde cinema while highlighting current practices in film restoration, experimental moving image, and cross-cultural collaboration.  

Rediscoveries will continue to bring exceptional films back to the big screen. Two masterworks, A Summer at Grandpa’s (1984) by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Syndromes and a Century (2006) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, trace the divergent yet intertwined worlds of rural and urban life respectively—an important thread in late twentieth century Asian cinema. Special Screening highlights Éric Rohmer’s light-hearted comedy A Summer’s Tale (1996). Directed by the French New Wave Auteur and edited by Mary Stephen, this film captures the melancholy of youth and their awkward entanglements, set against the lush colours of a French summer. Stair in the Dark—Big Leap Forward returns to feature acclaimed breakthrough films, such as Saw (2004) by James Wan, Battle Royale (2000) by Kinji Fukasaku, and The Truman Show (1998) by Peter Weir.  

Contextualising the recently launched M+ Special Exhibition Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now, the screening programme Lee Bul: Early Performances offers a rare glimpse into the pioneering artist’s formative performance based works from the late 1980s to the 1990s. Featuring  Abortion (1989), Cravings (1989), Sorry for suffering —You think I’m a puppy on a picnic? (1990), and Untitled (1993) the programme exemplifies Bul’s original engagement with popular culture and contemporary discourse.  

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Music in Film presents an energetic selection of films that shed light on the composer’s diverse collaborations in his early-to-mid career, including Elizabeth Lennard’s Tokyo Melody: A Film about Ryuichi Sakamoto (1985), Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels (1991), and Masanori Hata’s The Adventures of Chatran (1986).  

Sakamoto’s collaboration with Carsten Nicolai on ENDO EXO (2024) and PHOSPHENES (2024) are shown in the Art at the Stair exhibition series. Each moving image work features a soundtrack from Sakamoto’s final studio album, 12 (2023) and form two of the twenty-four chapters in Nicolai’s ongoing film project 20,000 (2014–present). While ENDO EXO contemplates the human impulse to collect, catalogue, and preserve once-living creatures, PHOSHENES explores the boundaries between dream and reality, consciousness and unconsciousness.   

Avant-Garde Now: Wayfinding will set the scene for the upcoming Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival in May 29–31 2026. Through screenings, performances, talks, and discussions, this one-day programme invites feminist collective AFSAR and artists HeeSue Kwon, Li San Kit, and Tulapop Saenjaroen to offer their perspectives on how space is revealed through processes of wayfinding, acts of return, and the simple act of defining a way forward.