Experiencing Interruptions?

Humanic Disorder

In a technologically advanced future, the technology of immortality was widely adopted. Human beings were facing mental breakdown and social unrest, and necrolatry prevailed. The immortal Qiqi also suffered from anxiety, a popular disorder of the times.

Under the effect of medication, a dead poet was unexpectedly resurrected in Qiqi’s mind. Following his guidance and call, a parasitic soul emerged in her body, Qingqing. Qingqing lived in an opposing world. Compared with Qiqi, who had infinite life, she was seriously ill and her life would be exhausted. They both felt what they yearned for in each other, the other possibility. Across time and space, they confessed, embraced, lingered, and penetrated each other. When about to merge into one, they sank into a cold river after sunset.

Following the current, Qiqi came to an ancient night city, a place full of towering ancient civilized buildings. Under the magnificent human civilization, the boundary between self and environment has disappeared. Qiqi can freely shuttle like a breeze, seeming to search for something intentionally or unintentionally. After exhausting struggle and resistance, she was completely lost in this world. At this moment, the harsh noise from the age of immortality returned again.

  • Harry Liang
    Director
  • Yilin Liu
    Writer
  • Harry Liang
    Writer
  • Zhiyun Xu
    Producer
  • Scarlett Ma
    Key Cast
  • Katherlin Chen
    Key Cast
  • Minghao Fei
    Director of cinematography
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    残星一弱
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Sci-fi, Experimental, Poetry
  • Runtime:
    35 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 27, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    2,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English, Mandarin Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - University of Oxford
Director Biography - Harry Liang

Born in 2001, Guangzhou, China.
Harry is currently studying Fine Art at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, majoring in film and video art. His primary interests lie in the interplay between literature, psychology, and film: exploring the new audio-visual language in film, and the relationship and interaction between human internal and external cognition, individual and society, imagination and reality. His research focuses in particular on the modern cultural psychology of the Chinese in relation to the Eurocentric conceptions of politics, culture and history.
Harry also served as the president of 2021 Oxford China Forum, brand strategist at ByteDance, and director assistant at Guangdong Radio and Television Station (GRT).

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Director Statement

This is a stream of consciousness Sci-fi short film. Starting from the subjective perspective of an immortal mental patient, the film tries to capture her rhetorical questions about the times and herself, hoping to discuss with the audiences the boundaries and penetration between life and death, rationality and sensibility, humanity and technology. The Sci-fi setting is also an opportunity for alienation, allowing us to get rid of the stereotypical knowledge of life and death, standing on the opposite side of imagination, a world where death is immune, to rethink and seek new discoveries.

Our perception of life and death is physiological while psychological, irrational while rational, emotional while intellectual, individual while collective. Facing this labyrinth-like feeling, the traditional cinematic convention of linear narrative appears to be thin and flat, failing to carry the character’s mixed and conflicting ideas. So, exploring a new audiovisual system has become our job.

Inspired by the stream of consciousness, this film chooses to take the character Qiqi’s consciousness and perception of the future society as the axis, bringing a large number of fragments of memory, philosophical debates, imaginary scenes, and fictional characters together. The broken and contradictory somatosensory of the character is the basis of the narrative. Breaking the boundaries of objective factors such as space and time, we hope to construct an internal perspective to simulate the repetitive, ambiguous, fleeting memory and spiritual activities of human beings. The conscious perspective with vitality is also used to reflect people’s confusion, fear, and desire for love under the unvital background of technological development, trying to explore the entanglement of technology, human consciousness, and the rules of life.

The film could be divided into three parts. The first focuses on the suffocation of Qiqi in the chaotic social environment in the future. The second reflects the mutual penetration among Qiqi, her mirror fantasy, and her psychological doppelganger. The third goes a step further, trying to turn the abstract into images, combining the ancient and mysterious traditions of human consciousness with personal memories, and eliciting a dreamland that has nowhere for answers to dwell, wander, or rest.

Loose narratives, repetitive but unfamiliar scenes, plausible character definitions, powerlessness, and the perception of wandering aimlessly are not answers, but a question from a seeker. Although it violates the aesthetic and reading mechanism of traditional movies, I still hope that this film can stay in the hearts of the audiences as a question.