Director: Huang Jue

Synopsis

On the set of a production that has stopped shooting, everything is messy, exhausted and close to collapse. Facing a string of blows (the money has run out, key crew members have walked away and investors have pulled out), the director, Li Jianxin, starts a livestream on set in an attempt to "save himself." He takes viewers on a "virtual tour" of the set, talking at length about the lighting, the props and the set dressing, and gradually reveals his real anxiety and loss of control. He recalls how he fell in love with film as a child, how he came to be a filmmaker, and how the tides of the times have pushed him, bit by bit, to the margins. Amid the mockery of viewers in the livestream chat, he moves from asking for help and defending himself to breaking down and mocking himself. Finally his emotions give way and he makes an absurd plea for viewers to "vote on how he should die," pushing a filmmaker's despair to the extreme. Using a livestream as a "modern stage," the film shows a filmmaker's helpless struggle amid industrial collapse and the pull of online traffic. It moves between the real and the virtual, with sincerity wrapped in mockery and real emotion showing through the absurdity. The director's monologue depicts someone who "can't keep shooting" and is also a personal confession about why he first loved film; it is both a failed shoot and an intensely personal "final performance." With dark humor and strong tension, the film reflects on the difficulties and loss of voice in filmmaking today, and raises a faint but stubborn cry for "those who can't keep shooting."