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Mari Terashima: Exquisite Tastes + Introduction (18*)

Queer East Festival 2026

,Cinema 2
People dressed as dolls

Violent tendencies and good table manners intertwine in the films of Mari Terashima. 

Mari Terashima's work often plays on the double meaning of 'taste' – both a marker of refinement and class, and a violent expression of the desire to consume. 

From a bloodthirsty toy dog with a penchant for fine dining to a troupe of self-mutilating, tea-party-hosting aristocrats, the films in this collection, made between 1986-2009, combine eccentric characters with imagery at once abject and delicious.

A key cinematic voice from Japan’s subcultural underground, Terashima explores our postmodern appetites and the fine lines between propriety and the vulgar.

Tagged with: Cinema Queer East Festival 2026

This screening is preceded by a pre-recorded introduction from filmmaker Mari Terashima.

This programme is curated by Mia Parnall and presented in partnership with Collaborative Cataloging Japan.

Content Considerations: Depictions of dead bodies, medical images

Programme

Je t'aime
dir. Mari Terashima, Japan, 1986, 8 mins

The aesthetics of cheap romance take on a morbid character in this ero-guro video work. Electromagnetic visuals are intercut with images of partially-dissected corpses, accompanied by Psychic TV’s cover of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin’s 'Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus.'

 

Her Majesty the Queen’s Polyester Dog (女王陛下のポリエステル犬)
dir. Mari Terashima, Japan, 1994, 37mins

A young teacher rescues a lost toy dog, formerly owned by the Queen of England. The animal comes to have an increasingly powerful influence on the man’s life, infecting him with its tastes for fine dining, British mod culture, and bloody violence. A collage of iconography combining puppetry, mixed-media storytelling, and philosophical monologuing. 
 

Alice in the Underworld: The Dark Märchen Show!! (アリスが落ちた穴の中～Dark Märchen Show!!)
dir. Mari Terashima, Japan, 2009, 60mins

Set in an ambiguous world of gothic fantasy, this adaptation of Alice in Wonderland stars the 'emo-butoh' performance troupe Rose de Reficul et Guiggles. Terashima teases out the psychological unsettlement of Lewis Carroll's original story, drawing on the aesthetics of early cinema and the history of underground performance in Japan.
 

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