Program 20
MONDAY
OCTOBER 12, 2:00PM

On Tiptoe
Japan / Drama / 9 mins
Director/Writer: Hiroki Kamada
Producer: Hiroki Kamada, Sky Maxine, Suyeol Jang
Cast: Annie Tanaka, Toru Uchikado, Seita
In a world where walking on tiptoe is the norm, a woman begins to question what it means to belong.

Graduation
Hong Kong / Drama / 12 mins
Director: Nayon Lee, Alicia Tang
Writer: Nayon Lee
Producer: Caitlyn Tang
Cast: Ryan Tang, Freya Bargo, Bianca Lau
Graduation is a 2026 Hong Kong drama short and the debut film of Nayon Lee and Alicia Tang. Set within an upper-middle-class Hong Kong household, the film examines the often-invisible labor of domestic helpers through the lens of a family disrupted by the sudden death of their helper during the week of their son’s graduation.
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Kyoumu (A Dream of One’s Home)
Japan / Drama / 21 mins
Director: Anshool Pradhan
Writer: Anshool Pradhan, John Kenta Ozai, Sam Woolf
Producer: Jinny Jin, Anshool Pradhan, John Kenta Ozai
Cast: John Kenta Ozai, Sam Woolf
Kyoumu is a bilingual romantic horror set in the small mountain town of Maebashi, Japan—the home of John, a Japanese-American boy obsessed with traditional values.

Break A Leg
China / Drama / 13 mins
Director/Writer: Jiaxin Xu
Producer: Lei Shi
Cast: Guanyu Lin, Yuchen Chen
​Under the heat of a summer basketball court, Jae, an ambitious teenage girl is eager to win every game before she moves away from her friends. However, the more she tries to control, the more likely she is to be influenced by others. Jae is repeatedly frustrated. Finally, her long suppressed dissatisfaction leads to a break out in front of her closed ones, forcing her to confront her the quiet cost of growing up.

The Greatest Joy in the World
China / Drama / 13 mins
Director: Yumiao Xing
Writer: Jeff Chiyang Zhang, Yumiao Xing
Producer: Xilong Wang
Cast: Yi Ding, Junhao Zhang, Jing Hu
An ambitious high school girl who loves drawing enrolls in an intensive art training program, where the pressure to become the best gradually transforms her passion into obsession.

The Mine
China / Drama / 14 mins
Director: Shijun Liu
Writer: Shijun Liu, Luwen Shao
Producer: Peter Hu, Jiahe Li, Ming Wu
Cast: Zhenjun Yang, Baoshan Song, Junqing Guo
In a small village near Xuzhou, an old Taoist priest, Ma Fugui, is asked by local villagers to find a boy lost in an abandoned coal mine. His ritual unexpectedly succeeds, bringing back not only the boy but also a fleeting sense of faith to the community.
