Surrender

Triggered and wanting to escape her past trauma, Naomi, a young Asian American female, falls into the world of blackjack to regain a sense of control but finds herself addicted to the game.

A Feature Film by Jess Dang

LA Screening, May 10

Please join us for our upcoming screening on Saturday, May 10, 2025 at 7:45PM PST as part of NewFilmmakers LA Film Festival

Buy Tickets

Synopsis

In this poignant and gritty debut feature film, Surrender follows Naomi, a young Asian-American woman whose life is disrupted by her secret gambling addiction. As she navigates her struggles, Naomi confronts feelings of denial and shame, which affect her relationships with family, colleagues, and herself. Ultimately, she reaches a breaking point and must decide between a path of destruction or one of self-love.

Project Supporters

Surrender explores themes such as: Asian family structures & responsibilities, intergenerational identities and trauma, addiction and its connection to mental health.

Gambling is a way of buying hope on credit"

-Alan Wykes, Journalist

Short Film Screening Highlights Include:

World gambling statistics show that around 26% of the population gamble. That means around 1.6 billion people worldwide gamble and 4.2 billion gamble at least once every year.*

*Source: casino.org

Starring

Andrea Bang

Andrea Bang is a Canadian actress from Burnaby, British Columbia. She is best known for playing Janet Kim in the CBC comedy series, Kim’s Convenience, for which she was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award, Best Actress in a Comedy Series. She also starred in Fresh (2022 - Sundance Film Festival), Stay The Night (2022 - SXSW Film Festival), and Luce (2019 - Sundance Film Festival). Additional TV credits include a multi-season arc on ABC's A Million Little Things.

Keiko Agena

Keiko Agena is best known for her series regular roles on the shows Prodigal Son where she played Dr. Edrisa Tanaka and Gilmore Girls, where she played Lane Kim for seven years and reprised the role in Netflix’s Gilmore Girls: Seasons. As an improviser she’s performed at UCB Sunset/NY, IO WEST and is a recent addition to the main company of IMPRO THEATRE. In between Agena has been a series regular on Hulu's The First and recurring on Better Call Saul, Dirty John and 13 Reasons Why.