Experiencing Interruptions?

YinYang Sea

Located on Taiwan’s northern coast, the "YinYang Sea" is a geographical vestige where the waters split into two contrasting colors. The film uses this site as a gateway to probe the island's buried layers: from colonial trauma to political violence (the 228 Incident, the White Terror). Between Indigenous rituals and funerary ceremonies (ghost marriage), the image becomes a haptic medium exploring the interstices of time. Here, visual experimentation invokes historical ghosts, revealing truths that elude official archives to haunt the present.

  • MFX Films
    Producer
  • Chih Hao Shen
    Director
  • Chih Hao Shen
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental
  • Genres:
    Documentary, Hybrid documentary
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 1, 2026
  • Country of Origin:
    Taiwan
  • Country of Filming:
    Taiwan
  • Language:
    No Dialogue
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Asolo Art Film Festival (AAFF)
    Asolo
    Italy
    Gran Premio (Grand Prix)
  • GSF Awards - Global Short Film Awards
    New York
    United States
    Official Selection
  • CortoCircuito Film Festival Milano
    Milano
    Italy
    Official Selection
  • Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market
    Clermont-Ferrand
    France
  • Visions du Réel Film Market
    Nyon
    Switzerland
  • Oberhausen Film Market
    Oberhausen
    Germany
  • Short Shorts Film Market
    Tokyo
    Japan
Director Biography - Chih Hao Shen

Chih Hao Shen is an animation and documentary filmmaker whose work explores human existence, memory, and time through restrained visual storytelling.

His debut work received recognition from Rhode Island IFF. His short film 10 Seconds was selected by In The Palace, Fantasporto, and Asolo Art Film Festival (2026). His documentary YinYang Sea won the Grand Prix at Asolo Art Film Festival (2026).

His projects have been presented in international industry contexts, including Clermont-Ferrand, Visions du Réel, Cannes Short Film Corner, Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, and Oberhausen.

Beyond filmmaking, he has worked in visual design and digital product development, including licensed merchandise design for The Lord of the Rings franchise in the Chinese-language market, visual work at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, and founded and leads a software development company developing animation and visual effects tools within the Apple ecosystem.

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Director Statement

This film originates from a personal experience of spiritual descent—a ritual practice in which the living symbolically cross into the realm of the dead.

Growing up in Taiwan, histories of colonialism, political violence, and state terror were present yet fragmented, transmitted through silence, ritual, and bodily memory rather than official narratives.

I chose not to reconstruct historical events, but to approach them through lived practices—Indigenous rituals, funerary traditions, and spiritual beliefs—where history continues to circulate beyond archives and documentation.

Fantasy, in this work, is not a fictional escape, but a documentary method: a way to engage with histories that remain unresolved, unspoken, and sensorially present in everyday life.