No Rule Is Our Rule: Eiko Otake and Wen Hui

Asia Society presents a screening and discussion with the filmmakers and subjects of “No Rule is Our Rule,” a documentary film about friendship between the two fiercely independent, interdisciplinary female dance artists Eiko Otake and Wen Hui.

This event marks Wen Hui’s first return to New York since 2018. The screening will be followed by a discussion with both artists, co-editor Yiru Chen, and moderator Zhen Zhang, Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at NYU and founding Director of the Asian Film and Media Initiative.

“No Rule Is Our Rule” a story of friendship between two independent female artists and the body memories each willingly carries. In January 2020, New York-based, interdisciplinary performing artist Eiko Otake arrived in Beijing to visit Wen Hui, a Chinese choreographer and filmmaker. Eight years apart, Eiko grew up in postwar Japan and Wen, during the Cultural Revolution in China. They planned to visit each other for a month to converse and collaborate. The surge of COVID-19 abruptly cut off Eiko’s visit and the pandemic made Wen’s visit to the USA impossible, but not the collaboration. Looking back on the video diaries they shot without a script, Eiko and Wen continued their dialogue on Zoom, sharing past works that form a deeper understanding of their circumstantial differences and characteristic similarities.

“No Rule is Our Rule” was recently selected for the Munich New Wave Film Festival and won Best Feature Documentary at the Japan International Film Festival this year.