Macaroni Soup (通心粉湯)

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Now playing at a film festival near you (maybe)!

screenshot of macaroni soup, with a lady looking blankly forward with the backdrop of a restaurant front entrance. the text “macaroni soup 通心粉湯“ is to the side alongside several festival laurels
film poster of macaroni soup with a large bowl of soup. the waitress is sitting on the rim, back facing the front. her head is turned looking at the lady. the lady is standing in front of the bowl, hands to her chest, turned away from the waitress but eyes turned to her direction. the waitress is smiling but the lady is nervous looking. the text says “Macaroni Soup (通心粉湯), a film by Alayna Y”

A young woman falls in love with a waitress in a greasy-yet-nostalgic Hong Kong-style cafe, but a language gap divides the two – or is there something more?

Macaroni Soup was my senior film for Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2021. It's about tasty food, a budding love, and a wide language gap. It's something like nostalgia for Hong Kong, yet not really, as someone who was born in Canada. It was a distillation of things I loved, girls, girls loving girls, food, languages... It all ended up bring a film nearly entirely in Cantonese (and I nearly wanted it to be without subtitles!) with a bit of vagueness and a floaty plot and ending, so maybe it might not mesh with everyone... But, it's a film I made for myself. I hope you'll try a sip!

I was stressed the entire process of making this film, and knew at the end that I'd surely forget my process/progress due to my head being full at all times. So that's why when the school told us to make a page on our film, I went all out! My prof even thought I was being interviewed by how lengthy my page turned out to be. But I'm glad I did it, beacuse my god I cannot recall making this film. I just remember being so stressed I saved Evergrace fanart from the early 2000s on my phone so I would have a morale boost when I needed it.

So, check out the full process on ECUAD's 2021 Grad Show page! (also because they're hosting the images and text for me, so why not?)

Check out the trailer here, too!

News and articles

Alayna Y (BMA 2021) uses food as a metaphor in her animated film, “Macaroni Soup (通心粉湯)”

logo for the Emily Carr University Alumni Association. the letters are in all caps, all grey, with the alumni association being in a bolder and darker font

I was interviewed for an article at my school's alumni association! You can check it out here!

S2E7 - Love, Language and Soup w/Alayna Y

logo for push in. it is a handdrawn blue square with wobbly black outlines and an inner white square with the same wobbly black outline. there are arrows in each corner of the blue square, pointing inwards to the white square. inside the white square are the words Push In, with the caption the CineVic Podcast below it, between two of the blue square's arrows.

Cinevic, the organization behind Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival, invited me on their podcast, Push in! I talk about food and my process and stories I have from working on my film :D Check it out here!

FascinAsian Film Festival - North American Shorts Program Filmmaker Q and A

fascinasian film festival logo. it is a black square with a long golden rectangle in the middle - its top right corner rounded off. there is a block letter capital F superimposed on the bottom left of this golden rectangle. its tail is also rounded off.

I was at a Q&A with FascinAsian Film Festival's fellow NA filmmakers! I used my pngtuber, haha. Check it out!

Free tickets for Inside Out

a long pride flag is being held up by a pair of chopsticks, emulating a strand of flat noodles. on one end of it are the two characters of macaroni soup, the lady and waitress cuddling up to each other in casual date outfits. the background is depicting traditional elements of hong kong cafes, such as milk tea cups and pineapple buns and birdcages.

I had 5 tickets to give away for Inside Out's screening of the program that Macaroni Soup is in and now they have all been given away. So that's over. But on the other hand I made a cute little drawing for it :)

Macaroni Soup's going international!!

poster of Pride at Eaton event for 2022, with a red background of a diverse range of people in black outfits (with personal accessories such as a dog, a colourful suit, holding a fan, a plant) walking to the right. the protagonists of macaroni soup are in the bottom right, also in black apparel (with accessories in the colours of their original outfit) and heading the same way. the text is as below: "Film screenings, exhibitions, panels, workshops, parties, pride room package, special cocktails, Pride At Eaton 2022 - Queer Kin, Love Walks In 10.06 - 03.07. Join us in honoring 53 years of Queer Pride for a month long celebration of love, diversity, inersectionality, solidarity, and queer kinship. Free Access to Asian LGBTQ+ Streaming Platform, GagaOOLala, Donations to Local Queer Charities. Gender Empowerment and Migrant Pride" the bottom of the poster has event sponsors and their logos.

Macaroni Soup will be at HONG KONG!! 🎥 AT THE KINO ROOM!!! 🎥 🌈PART OF PRIDE AT EATON 2022, JUNE 12TH!!!!🌈

come check it out if you're in the area~🍲🍲🍲

FANART!!!! WOO

black and white ink drawing of macaroni soup's characters from the leg up. the waitress is talking to the lady while she holds a menu and extends her arm out gesturing to something. there is a talking symbol emanating from her head. the lady is grabbing her bag and looking slightly flushed, with nervous symbols emanating from her head. colored ink drawing of macaroni soup's characters from the leg up, against a pink background with dark pink shadow. the waitress is talking to the lady while she holds a menu and extends her arm out gesturing to something. there is a talking symbol emanating from her head. the lady is grabbing her bag and looking slightly flushed, with nervous symbols emanating from her head.

My friend Kayla drew Macaroni Soup fanart for me!!! 🥺🥺🥺 Thank you so much for loving my lady and waitress!!!!

Tumblr Post

Twitter Post

Macaroni in the USA

cropped film poster of macaroni soup with a large bowl of soup. the waitress is sitting on the rim, back facing the front. her head is turned looking at the lady. the lady is standing in front of the bowl, hands to her chest, turned away from the waitress but eyes turned to her direction. the waitress is smiling but the lady is nervous looking. the text on the bottom right is macaroni soup (通心粉湯), and there are festival laurels on the top left that say Official Selection 2022, OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival

That's the announcement! Macaroni Soup will be in the US in North Carolina! Pretty cool, eh?!

Find me under the program "SHOW US WHAT YOU’VE DRAWN, CHARLIE BROWN." Funny name. Check me out at the OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival~

Extra extra, read all about Macaroni...?!

gif animation of the two protagonists from macaroni soup hugging and smiling, rocking from side to side. the background is a polka dot pink solid with darker pink dots.

I was interviewed for an article in the Surrey Now-Leader, celebrating Macaroni Soup at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival!!

I also got a shoutout from school, too!

WHOA!! Don't doxx me!

Macaroni Soup in a gallery!

me (cool black turtleneck and grey cardigan) holding a bouquet of flowers and a copy of nintendo power with a lovely princess katia from lost kingdoms on the front. in the back is a framed painting on the wall of our house. the image is very blurry

For the very first time, my film was featured in a gallery! The opening night was wonderful! Thank you to my wonderful friend who got me a beautiful bouquet. Nintendo Power with Lost Kingdoms was a personal purchase.

Check out the exhibition here!

Macaroni... For School?!

rows of film posters with an arrow pointing to macaroni soup and a happy face drawn on it

Thanks to the power of ReelQ, I was interviewed by Anna Speciale, an undergraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. Happy to say that Anna got 100% on her project as well! Thank you!

If you'd like to read our talk together, check it out here!

We won best animation in Texas?!

Doodle of characters from macaroni soup. Lady (Blue and gray outfit, long black hair) is scratching her head at a large slice of toast placed in front of her. She has a speech bubble above her head that says Chinese text as well as English translation, 'Huh, is this French toast?' Waitress (Green apron, ponytail with red accents) cutely reply to her question. Her speech bubble has chinese as well, with english text 'Texas toast.' The above caption says thank you Fort Worth indie film showcase for the 'Pen and Ink' award and Best international short nomination!!

Thank you to Panther City Film Festival (also known as FWIFS) for awarding Macaroni Soup with the "Pen and Ink" award!!! Yeah, that's best animation, I'm pretty sure!!! WOW!!!! I'm honoured... If I ever come down to Texas, I know where I'm going first!

If you'd like to check out the awards ceremony, it's here!

Macaroni going to the birthplace of Pasta!?

Macaroni Soup will be going to Roma, Italy! This will be one of the last festivals for me on the circuit - what better place than to return to the land of pasta?

Check the fest here!

And more soon... Maybe

A big thank you to all my sous chefs throughout the cooking process!

Sound/Music

  • Music Composer, James P (@THiNGYBOBinc)
  • Final Mixing, Doug Paterson
  • Sounds from Westar Music

Voice Actors

  • Christy Chan as Lady
  • Mattea Choi as Waitress
  • Vince Fung as Father

    • Language Consultant, Christy Chan (and her mom!)

Background Artists

  • Christy Chan
  • Frog K.
  • Vy (Fern) Le
  • Chu Wei (Weiwei) Wu

Colourists

  • Frog K.
  • Chu Wei (Weiwei) Wu

Have questions or comments about the film?

Contact me at pearhi (at) hotmail (dot com)!