Echoes of Sunlit Koi
———— Is it the last koi?





2024/10, 2min film

INSPIRATION

I was inspired by Lynne Ramsay's short film "1970s Christmas in Scotland". The film tells the story of a deceitful father living a double life in the 1970s and crystallizes the working-class experience in Scotland. A divorced father from a mixed family takes girls from both families out for dinner on Christmas Eve. The two young girls, who at first play happily together, become quarrelsome and less innocent as they compete for their father's attention. This seemingly ordinary and straightforward story captivated me because of the director's unique visual language. At the film's beginning, the director introduces the story's protagonist to the audience through several extreme close-ups, giving the scene a sense of mystery, such as hanging suits, children playing with toys, and girls in pantyhose. Then, I wanted to show the sensitive and complicated inner world of a young boy from a single-parent family through his perspective. I also designed several extreme close-up shots in the beginning.

LOGLINE

Xing Yuan, a young boy from a single-parent family, desires the last Butterfly Koi at the local fish store. One day, he's surprised when his father brings home a strange woman with a fish and a tank. This reminds Xing Yuan of the coveted fish at the store, his classmate Cheng Cheng, and his mother, who also wants to buy it. Amidst the seemingly random events, Xing Yuan is startled to discover that the fish store owner is hiding a secret.

DIRECTOR INTERPRETATION

 In the movie, I show the sensitive and complicated inner world of a young boy from a single-parent family through his perspective. I reveal the child's confusion and suspicion while growing up, especially when he experiences changes in his family. Through the boy's obsession with the last Butterfly Koi, I want to express the child's desire for love and attention. However, I also designed a contradiction between reality and expectation by showing the boy's concern about whether his father would buy the Koi like other parents. Finally, I suggest the complexity and unpredictability of the adult world through the behavior of the Koi store owner, in contrast to the innocent world of children. I used Butterfly Koi as a thread running through the entire movie, exploring the complex themes of single-parent families, the upbringing of a child within such family conditions, and love through this seemingly simple story.

CAST

Qiao Yu: Xing Yuan
Wei Ran: Cheng Cheng
Zhang ZhenHua: Xing Yuan’s Father
Shi FeiFei: Strange Lady & Cheng Cheng’s mother
Yun Long: Fish Store Owner

STAFF

Zhao Ying: Director/Screenwriter/Editor
Wang XiaoChuan: Executive Producer
Song XinRui: Director of Photography
Zhu Biao: Assistant Camera
Song ZiXuan: Assistant Director
Cui YingJian: Art Director
Wang XinChen: Sound
Lena Cao: Makeup
Rebecca: Assistant Makeup
Wang Tao: Property Master
Song Jie: Title Design
 

                                                                                 

The Way
———— Filipino workers in Hong Kong

INSPIRATION

After visiting an exhibition of African photographs called “Marvellous Realism” at Fotografiska in Shanghai, I was inspired to delve deeper into the challenges and opportunities of global diaspora mobility for individuals and the communities they belong to around the themes of migration and emigration.

Frequent trips to Hong Kong brought to my attention the particular marginalized group of Filipino maids. They are foreign domestic helpers working in Hong Kong, more than half of whom are from the Philippines. As an itinerant population, their historical migration patterns from Southeast Asia to Hong Kong, their intergenerational trauma, and the process of integration into society are what I want to express through my work.

RESEARCH

Foreign domestic helpers comprise 3% of the population in Hong Kong, and they are primarily women. In 2019, there were 399,320 helpers, 55% from the Philippines and 43% from Indonesia. They must live with employers and handle household tasks. From October 2022, the minimum wage is $4,730, with employers providing free meals or a $1,196 monthly allowance.

CAST

Teresa Ostan

STAFF

Zhao Ying: Director/ Editor
Zhen  YuLang:  Producer
Hong JiaYing: Director of Photographer
Wang TengXiao:  Assistant Camera
Hu XInYi: Assistant Director



Run! Chicken Leg



INSPIRATION

I was inspired by Wim Delvoye's large-scale installation Cloaca. The devices in Cloaca are computerized machines that recreate the human digestive process. The machines receive food and pass it through a series of tubes and containers, where it undergoes a digestive process. After which, the machines expel the digested matter for a period announced to the gallery audience. These digested substances have the appearance and odor of feces. I was fascinated by this artwork's innovation and content and wanted to show the human body's dynamic food digestion process. I decided to use animation as it presents this flowing process vividly.













Rhythm of Tai Chi