During the New York City pandemic lockdown, Ling is trapped in her apartment in Chinatown. Her partner Zhang has disappeared. Feeling left behind and uncared for, Ling gets through urban life feeling extremely alone. Leo is a photographer who feels detached from his life. He travels to New York for a photo shoot and decides to stay here at the last minute before his flight back home departs. On a windy night, the two lost souls meet in a park and share a magical moment together.

Director’s Vision for ‘Windy Day’

Windy Days was conceived and made during the COVID lockdown in NYC. At the time, while everyone was greatly affected by this pandemic, our Asian community suffered not only because of the disease, and the economic halt but also the racism stemming from the faulty information regarding the origin of the virus. During that time, my family, my friends, and I all went through a turbulent period of despair and loneliness, as many of us were quarantining alone, forced to separate from our loved ones, counting on the day that all these would end. That whole experience is an important collective memory for us all, not just because of the suffering and pain we endured, but because at the end of it all, we are reminded again how important love, connection, and hope are in our lives. These sentiments are what we were channeling into Windy Days. It’s an experimental film nature, not necessarily following a linear storyline. Rather, we are focusing on the slices of life of two characters who spent time in New York during the pandemic. Through the most personal storytelling experience, we are trying to reach something universal by penetrating the external shell of the human body, in an effort to reach an internal gentle spot in our hearts, where our ability to relate to and sympathize with others comes from.