Director: Peng Gefei

Synopsis

Dance of the Sea is a short about childhood trauma, the father-son relationship and growing up. It tells of A Jun's coming of age, a journey of self-redemption from fearing the sea, to challenging it, to making peace with it. The sea and dance are its key words. The sea swallowed A Jun's mother: the roar of huge waves, a floating shell necklace and a woman on the beach waving goodbye to him made the sea his nightmare for years. Only the happy memory of learning to dance with his mother by the sea drives him to dance by the sea every day after school. The story between the sea's daughter and A Jun is in essence A Jun making peace with himself. Something invisible runs through the story and drives his growth, and both "the daughter of the sea" and the shell necklace can be seen as outward forms of it. A Jun finally understands that the "love and remembrance" of those who are gone does not mean standing still, but cherishing the present and moving on. That is growing up.