Director: Pan Yuying

Synopsis

People are always racing against time: couriers fear being late, writers fear missing deadlines, and bosses fear falling behind their rivals. Then artificial intelligence arrives and raises efficiency, and just when it seems people can catch their breath, they start racing against AI and against themselves, and even train AI to race against itself. We keep running, yet seem to keep getting pulled into the next cycle of competition. When can we "hold on" for a moment? Built around the theme of humanity's relentless pursuit of efficiency, the film tells a simple but tense and gripping story. It uses a four-layer structure of time and space, linked by the "nesting doll plus twist" device popular with online audiences, to magnify the anxiety people today feel at every moment. Made in 2023, a year of rapid AI development, the short combines AI technology with live-action footage shot on a phone, and is my exploration of the possibilities of mobile imaging and the practical use of cutting-edge technology.