SĀmoa Ocean Odyssey (2027) by Yuki Kihara
LOGLINE:
Sāmoa Ocean Odyssey: an immersive VR experience where Fa’afafine stewards guide you through a vibrant, underwater Sāmoan utopia, blending Pacific creation stories, queer ecology, and bold drag performance to redefine gender, environment, and resilience in a gamified journey of healing and resistance.
SYNOPSIS:
Buckwheat, a playful clownfish drag queen, welcomes users into a Samoan fale and helps them put on VR headsets, taking them on a vibrant underwater world. Guiding users through colourful reefs & marine habitats, Buckwheat introduces a community that celebrates the queer diversity of ocean life and the many ways creatures form families, nurture one another, and belong. Users wear coral dresses as they explore scenes inspired by marine ecosystems. Drag queens present stories of sea slugs, a volcanic eruption beneath the sea, a pregnant male seahorse caring for its young, and dolphins travelling together, highlighting cooperation, biodiversity, and care. The experience then shifts toward conservation. Armed with a virtual broom and basket, users remove plastic waste, oil pollution, and invasive starfish from the reef. As they clean, corals recover, colours intensify, and marine life returns. The journey culminates into Miss Pacific Ocean pageant and crowns the reef’s renewal, symbolising creativity and collective action. Returning to the fale, guests leave with a deeper connection to the ocean and renewed responsibility for its future.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT:
My work challenges binaries and flips Western paradigms on their heads—be it gender, culture, or history. Sāmoa Ocean Odyssey is the bold culmination of this journey, inspired by my formative involvement in Fa’afafine beauty pageants. It envisions a Fa’aafafine utopia where my community’s fluidity and fierceness mirror the natural world. The Pacific Ocean isn’t a pristine paradise but a living, breathing being carrying the scars of exploitation. The project dives into colonial scars of expedition ships, nuclear fallout, and the ongoing chaos of climate change—symptoms of the same extractive, colonial mindset we challenge. VR is the ideal medium, inviting audiences to step in, embody the struggle, and become part of the ecosystem’s resilience. I want users to leave buzzing with joy and wonder, wrapped in the “fa’a-fafabulous” spirit, while feeling the urgent call to protect and heal our oceans.
MAIN PRODUCTION COMPANY:
Pernickety Split
CREATIVE TEAM:
Yuki Kihara, Director
Emma Roberts and Keiran McGee, Producers
Buckwheat, Costume Designer
Edward Cowley (aka Buckwheat), Tess Tickle (aka Mizac Hotere), Rita Menu (aka Shayden Taylor), Dusky Geisha (aka Yuki Kihara), Main Cast.
Gui Taccetti, Cinematographer
LINKS:
2026 Venice Gap-Financing Market Brochure
2026 Venice Gap-Financing Market Press Release