THE FOLDING SCREEN
Pictogram
TY Lok-yi, Scarlett 池樂兒
Student of SM2105 Narrative Strategies and Aesthetics of Time-based Media
Abstract
THE FOLDING SCREEN is a pictogram of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers of Shanghai. The landscape in my work forms a map that corresponds to the movie’s slow rhythm from start to end as if a painting is unfolding in front of the audiences. The dark, liquid flow pattern in the background represents the intrigue beneath the surface and the depressive undertone of the film. The relationship of the main characters in it is just like smoke in the painting, their relation is illusory but entangled, complex but weak. The women at that time are just like the embroidery on the folding screen, exquisite and glamourous but also trapped. They are captured by poetic visuals, unfolding their story softly to the viewer. But the characters on the folding screen can never leave their delicate dwelling place, the folding screen, and only live elegantly inside this little space.
