Bye Bye Love Screening

Working with Kani Releasing, Signal Otter Films presents this landmark of Japanese queer cinema, the only feature film from Isao Fujisawa!

Lost and nihilistic drifter Utamaro chances upon Giko, a female-presenting shoplifter who immediately catches his eye. One thing leads to another and the couple soon find themselves on the lam for murder. This provides a delightful pretext to explore notions of societal malaise, free love, and gender fluidity in a rapidly evolving 1970s Japan, as both Utamaro and Giko begin to know each other on the road by way of a variety of encounters, alternating between surrealistic, psychedelic, and sexual.
The sole feature film directed by Isao Fujisawa, who learned his craft on New Wave classics such as Woman in the Dunes (1964) and the Face of Another (1966), Bye Bye Love is a deeply personal reckoning with sexual identity. Bridging the distance between Pierrot le Fou (1965), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) with an impeccable sense of style, splashes of Godardian color as well as strong anti-imperialist and existentialist themes, this iconic jishu eiga (self-produced film) was long-thought lost until the negatives were found in 2018 and restored for screenings – facilitated by director and programmer Akihiro Suzuki. With a runtime of 85 minutes, a new landmark in the history of Japanese queer cinema, this is the first screening of Bye Bye Love in Pittsburgh!