Film Society | Curatorial Statement of the Comedy Screening Series
Following the previous session dedicated to female directors, the Film Society now turns to a different but equally revealing terrain: Comedy. As one of cinema’s most enduring traditions and expressive forms, comedy persists not merely as an entertainment, but more as a cinematic language capable of revealing the contradictions, anxieties, and absurdities in everyday life. It is closely in alignment with another question—what happens when cinema chooses to laugh?
Across different cultures and decades, comedy has often served as a subtle form of critique. Beneath laughter lies a particular way of seeing the world: one that exposes power structures, social performances, and the fragile boundaries between sincerity and irony. Humor, in this sense, becomes less about punchlines than about perspectives—a shift in tone that allows the ordinary to appear strange, and the serious to become unexpectedly light.
Our selection spans continents and styles: from the youthful rhythms of Linda Linda Linda (2005) and the urban romantic wit of B for Busy (爱情神话, 2021), to the genre-bending satire of Sorry to Bother You (2018) and the offbeat philosophical humor of The Big Lebowski (1998). Films like He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (金枝玉葉, 1994) and Y Tu Mamá También (2001) reveal how comedy can navigate questions of identity, desire, and generational change. Meanwhile, works such as Punch-Drunk Love (2002) also explore the strange intimacy between awkwardness, vulnerability, and affection in an uncertain landscape of the new millennium world.
Rather than defining comedy through a single formula, we sincerely invite you to encounter its many registers—deadpan, absurd, romantic, satirical, or quietly observational. Together, these films will remind us that laughter is never purely trivial. Instead, it is often where discomfort, tenderness, and critique meet.
Please join us on this magic journey every week, as always.
Cordially,
Film Society
To be screened in no particular order are—
爱情神话 B for Busy (2021) by 邵艺辉 Shao Yihui
谋杀绿脚趾 The Big Lebowski (1998) by Joel and Ethan Coen
金枝玉葉 He’s a Woman, She’s a Man (1994) by 陳可辛 Peter Ho-sun Chan
你妈妈也一样 Y Tu Mamá También (2001) by Alfonso Cuarón
私恋失调 Punch-Drunk Love (2002) by Paul Thomas Anderson
琳达！琳达！琳达！ Linda Linda Linda (2005) by 山下敦弘 Nobuhiro Yamashita
抱歉打扰 Sorry to Bother You (2018) by Boots Riley
