MEI
2021
11 MIN DRAMA
WRITER/DIRECTOR Izzy Yi
At a dinner with both her parents, little Mei sees the crack in the family as it explodes.
In Mandarin, the word Mei（梅）refers to the plum blossom. Just like little Mei, who comes of age in the midst of adversity, the plum blossom is a kind of flower that blossoms only in the harshest time of year--the dead of winter.
“Beneath Mei’s effectively deliberate pacing and careful composition is a nuanced look at an eroding family complete with a complex young protagonist and some of the most economical storytelling in the festival. It’s a mesmerizing and ultimately heart wrenching experience.”
———————— nffty programmer picks
DIRECTOR STATEMENT
The family dynamic in the film is largely based on my own childhood experience——the absent father who loses interest in the mother but still cares about the child in his own way; the daughter who hates her father for being disrespectful to her mother and her own hobbies; and, finally, the mother who struggles to preserve her daughter's childhood, but also uses her daughter as leverage to make her husband stay. The tragedy lies in the fact that every character desires a family that cannot be found in their real one.
The mise-en-scene and sound design create a sense of spatial and sonic emptiness, which is essential to the film's thematic expression. The lack of conversation at the dinner table reflects a common phenomenon in Chinese families: parents, no longer capable of emotional exchange, still strive to maintain the illusion of a "whole" family in spite of their already untenable bond.
In this film, I wanted to capture a moment in my childhood where the seemingly intact family revealed its fractures. The film is not overtly somber or tragic, since my own coming-of-age was both painful and enlightening as it helped me understand the complexities of the real world. Using minimalist cinematography and editing, the film creates the effect of "on-the-spot realism". It is as if we are watching the story unfold through a window, a window that connects the past, the storyteller, and the audience in the present. A window that looks across space and time, bridging the gulf between memory and reality.
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