Windup

Windup is not a light-hearted story, but it is inspired by my own personal experience. Since I was often sick when I was a kid, my memories of those days were foggy. On the other hand, from my parents’ perspective, the event was more serious. They told me they spent countless nights taking care of me; fighting their own emotions and try to stay strong. I didn’t know why they were so worried, since as kids, we think we’re invincible. But when I got older, I started to empathize more with my parents. Especially since I’ve moved to the US. My family and I are far apart and it makes me the one who always worries about them.

Everyone knows the outbreak of the coronavirus. Wuhan is actually my hometown. Quickly after the news of the whole city shutting down, I got word that my uncle had to stop his cancer treatment because of the overwhelming number of COVID patients. Also, both of my cousins still needed to work in the hospital, where half of their coworkers were already infected, and more and more people got sick every day. I was terrified and not sure what I could do. I video chatted with my families as often as we could. But once the camera turns off, all the horrible thoughts would rush back in… And that was the time we were crunching for this film, I remember we were animating the hospital sequence when the father character feels hopeless and sits on the floor. At that moment, I could totally sympathize with his pain. “Life imitates Art” I guess?

Despite the bad year all of us got, I would like this film to give us some hope during this difficult time and believe we can go through it together.