山鬼

Ghost in the Mountains began with a dream: one day, my beloved suddenly disappeared, leaving only traces of her life in the world. I drew on the story of calling to a beloved in Qu Yuan’s Nine Songs to give the film its structure.

The film follows a woman who loses her way in the mountain forest while on her way to a meeting, and gradually loses her former identity. Time, desire, solitude and nature begin to act upon her; the boundaries between her and the trees, river water, rain and darkness become increasingly blurred. The camera follows her throughout. It tries to approach her, recognize her and confirm her existence, yet repeatedly loses her. At first, it searches for a woman; later, it can only search for the shoes and clothes she has left behind, and traces of what she has touched or disturbed. By the end, all that remains before the camera is a mountain forest, still breathing. Ghost in the Mountains is not a retelling of an ancient story. I prefer to see the mountain spirit of Nine Songs as a spiritual figure that persists in the present: someone who, through desire, waiting and loss, gradually leaves familiar reality and enters a state that cannot be named.