Angel’s Body Temperature (天使の体温, 2001) opens on Aketo, a 20-year-old Tokyo college student with a lover, Hiroshi, who lives in Kyoto. They ache. They wander. When a young woman named Harumi drifts into Aketo’s orbit and into his apartment, the film wallows in nostalgia and alienation. Shot on digital video with a grainy, restless texture – like a relic too quickly-forgotten on VHS.
Directed by Akihiro Suzuki, Angel’s Body Temperature belongs to a body of Japanese queer cinema from the late 1990s and early 2000s that has remained almost entirely invisible to Western audiences – a lost chapter of New Queer Cinema unfolding parallel to the movement’s celebrated American and European counterparts. Suzuki’s film shares that era’s preoccupation with young men adrift in cities. Outside of directing, Suzuki notably programmed New Queer Cinema for Japan and even co-produced Latin Boys Go to Hell.
The screening will be introduced by Dakota Noot, who contributed a commentary track to the film’s recent North American Blu-ray release from Kani Releasing. A Q&A will follow, along with a virtual interview with director Akihiro Suzuki, offering rare direct access to a filmmaker whose work is only now finding the audience it deserves.
Participant Bios
Dakota Noot is a Los Angeles-based artist and curator. He uses drawings, paintings, and installations to create animal-human hybrids that explore rural yet fantastical, queer identities. Originally from Bismarck, North Dakota, he continues to show in both North Dakota and Los Angeles, including solo and two-person shows at Highways Performance Space, MuzeuMM, and PØST. Noot has exhibited in group shows at Charlie James Gallery, Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Torrance Art Museum and “Queer Biennial: What if Utopia?” at LAST Projects. His series of cutout drawing-installations have been shown at Art in Odd Places, LA Freewaves, Cerritos College Art Gallery, and Otis College. Noot has been featured in Hi-Fructose magazine.
Outside of art-making, Noot has a dedication to pinku-eiga (pink film). He co-hosts a podcast on pink film, titled Two in the Pinku. Noot is currently writing a book a gay pinku (barazoku). He has contributed booklet essays, video essays, and audio commentaries to Vinegar Syndrome, Klubb Super 8, and 88 Films.
Angels Body Temperature is organized by Dakota Noot as a part of the 2026 Circa: Queer Histories Festival, presented by One Institute.
Whammy! is an Echo Park retail storefront dedicated to analog media, primarily VHS tapes with thousands available to peruse and buy, and a dedicated 55 seat screening room in which we host a number of underseen gems that might have difficulty finding homes on larger screens in Los Angeles. Tickets & info at whammyanalog.com