YELLOW PERIL is an upcoming supernatural erotic horror short film by Jess X. Snow starring Poppy Liu (I Love Boosters), Chinese arthouse darling, Huang Lu (Blind Massage) and Jin Ha (Pachinko). Our production was supported by Philadelphia's Peoples Media Fund, but we need your help to get us through post production, sound design, mixing, and editing.

Our film follows HELEN, a Chinese American PHD student straining under model minority expectations and a failing relationship with her overbearing partner Mark. To escape, Helen goes on a retreat in a Monterey Bay vacation home, where she is haunted by a woman (LULU) who was killed during the Chinese Exclusion Era. Helen is slowly lured into a psychological confrontation of her repressed queer sexuality. YELLOW PERIL humanizes both the contemporary Asian American model minoritarian woman and the unseen women of the Chinese Exclusion era. Challenging the stereotype that Asian American women characters are one-dimensional and obedient citizens, it brings them to life as morally gray characters with their own agency.

YELLOW PERIL is also a proof of concept for a feature film. It is a personal attempt to bring a healing journey of sapphic liberation to the big screen.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

As a queer Chinese-Canadian American raised by immigrant parents, like our protagonist Helen, I know the pressures of assimilation intimately. I have performed for mothers, partners, and professors to be the good student, the good child, the good girlfriend, becoming an example of the American dream. It was only through the help of community and love that led me to a queer and political awakening that helped me embrace my true self. Like the unravelling of a lie you believed your whole life; confronting one’s repressed sexuality is painful and scary. The weight of what Asians and queer people are conditioned to repress eventually haunts us, and if unaddressed–leads to devastating consequences.

This journey led me to YELLOW PERIL, my first attempt at horror. Continuing the surreal language of my past shorts, audiences are taken on a visceral journey of suffocation, fear, sexual awakening, and ultimately catharsis. Helen’s suppressed desires take the form Lulu–a ghost woman from Chinese Exclusion Era haunting her. Beneath her fear of Lulu, is a psychological fear of her own true self.

YELLOW PERIL brings a much-needed Asian feminist gaze to horror and erotic romance; two genres dominated by the white male gaze. Instead of relying on jump scares, the film will embrace eerie long takes inspired by the patiently earned scares of Japanese horror.

The Asian female body has been historically exoticized and objectified. In our film, viewers are immersed into Helen’s point of view; giving language to how the horror of repression cages us, and the courage it takes to embrace one's true desires.

- Jess X. Snow

THE TEAM

Jess X. Snow is an Academy Award-Shortlisted filmmaker and artist. Exploring the Asian immigrant unconscious through surrealism, fantasy, horror, and drama, their short films are currently on the Criterion Channel and the National Film Board of Canada. They screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, BFI London, BlackStar, SFFilm, and elsewhere. They were a producer and cinematographer on WE WERE THE SCENERY, which won the Sundance Short Film Jury Award - Nonfiction.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS

Poppy Liu (also lead actress) is a first- generation bilingual Chinese American Actor most known for playing Kiki in the critically acclaimed HBOMax series HACKS, for which she was SAG-nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in Comedy Series. Poppy has recently starred in I LOVE BOOSTERS (NEON), written and directed by Boots Riley), which premiered at SXSW and is currently in theaters.

Su Kim is an Academy Award-nominated, two-time Emmy and Peabody-winning producer committed to illuminating the cinematic poetry of people marginalized by imposed boundaries. Her acclaimed feature films include Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Academy Award nominee), Free Chol Soo Lee (Emmy winner), Bitterbrush (Telluride), and Midnight Traveler (Emmy Winner).

SUPPORTING ACTORS

Huang Lu 黄璐 is a bilingual Chinese actress. From her breakthrough role as Bai Xuemei in BLIND MOUNTAIN (2007 Cannes Un Certain Regard), to the love interest, Xiao Man in Luo Ye’s BLIND MASSAGE (2014 Berlinale) and to a mother searching for her son in DOG DAYS (2016 Berlinale), Huang Lu dares to take on complex and diverse roles, constantly pushing her limits and earning her the title “queen of Chinese arthouse film”.

Jin Ha’s Stage credits include Proof (Booth Theater), Hamilton: An American Musical (Richard Rodgers). Ha can be seen on screen in Pachinko (Apple TV), Only Murders in the Building (Hulu), Poker Face (Peacock), Civil War (A24), Love Life (HBO Max), DEVS (FX). He co-produced and starred in Kogonada’s Sundance Festival-selected film zi (2026),

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Felipe Vara de Rey (A.E.C) is a Madrid-born, LA-based director of photography. A Fulbright Scholar and Emmy Award–winning cinematographer, he has collaborated with leading directors including Spike Lee, Andrew Ahn with credits on acclaimed projects such as Hulu’s Fire Island, Netflix’s See You Yesterday, the HBO docuseries NYC Epicenters, and PBS SoCal’s Emmy-winning Ten Days in Watts.

EDITOR

Christopher Radcliff is a mixed Chinese American filmmaker based in New York City. His work has screened worldwide including at Sundance, SXSW, and online via Criterion Channel, Short of the Week, and Vimeo Staff Picks. His documentary short, We Were The Scenery is winner of the Sundance Short Film Jury Award - Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and the Motion Picture Editors Guild. His editing and post-production credits include Palm Trees and Power Lines (2022), After Yang (2021), Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020).

SOUND DESIGNER

Daniel Timmons is an Emmy-winning sound supervisor and mixer who started his career in live sound before transitioning to post-production. His post-production sound credits span live action and documentary features, including Nickel Boys, I Saw the TV Glow, Strong Island, Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, and many more.

PRODUCERS

Frisly Soberanis is a new media artist and film producer from Guatemala, now based in Detroit via Queens, NY. He has produced numerous short films that have premiered at TIFF, SXSW, SFFilm and BFI London Film Festival and streamed on The Criterion Channel, HBO MAX, Focus Features and Short of the Week.

Fran Zayas is a Puerto Rican independent filmmaker and producer based in New York City. He’s been awarded the BAFTA BBC Diversity Scholar, Spike Lee Production Film Fund, Cary Fukunaga Production Fund, and Jeff Lima Production Award for Hispanic and Latino focused films. His film Entre Tormentas premiered at SXSW 2025:

Helix Zhang is a filmmaker and producer from Long Island, New York. Their short films as writer/director, TYPHOON DIARY, DOG STORY, and SNAKESKIN have screened internationally, including the Criterion Channel, Argos Arts (Brussels), Prismatic Ground and NOWNESS Asia. They are a 2025 Sundance Trans Possibilities Intensive Fellow.

CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER/SCRIPT CONSULTANT

Kit Yan is a writer for stage and screen and a recipient of the Kleban Prize, Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, The Vivace Award, ASCAP Harold Adamson Lyric Award, and Jonathan Larson Grant. Kit's plays have been produced by Lincoln Center, the American Repertory Theater, East West Players, Mixed Blood, Weston Playhouse, Keen Company, and New York Repertory Theater. Kit's short film is written with Jess X. Snow, is now available on Criterion Channel.

PRODUCTION PARTNERS

Lunette Films is a US-based film distribution and sales agency for filmmakers seeking a bespoke approach to the release of their films. Our first year slate includes both features and shorts, embracing a diversity of forms and visions, to uplift filmmakers and reach audiences underserved by existing distribution infrastructure.

Tierra Narrative is a film and literary production house dedicated to counternarratives emerging from the Central American isthmus and its diaspora.

Philadelphia Asian American Film Foundation (PAAFF) is a proud fiscal sponsor of this project. PAAFF has showcased Jess X. Snow's short films over the years, where they received several top honors at the annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. PAAFF's Festival and Programming Director, Arzhang Zafar, co-wrote Yellow Peril with Jess X. Snow.

Thank you so much for reading. In a time when funding for films by marginalized creators is being cut, and the labor of our film crews are being replaced by AI, the support of our community is crucial to sustaining our stories and our future. We are dedicated to bringing this sapphic horror story to as many audiences as possible through festivals, theaters, streamers and classrooms.

The stories we tell are love letters that outlive this lifetime. We hope this one will continue to be watched, inspire critical thinking, quiet revelation, tenderness and bravery—things that our community needs in this moment—for generations to come.