Lou Ye Through My Eyes

Lou Ye Through My Eyes "One morning in the winter of 2000, I don't know why I thought of Shanghai." This is the opening of Lou Ye's 16-minute short film "In Shanghai." On a tree-shaded street, filming the old house once lived in behind the courtyard wall. Looking at the neighbor girl's window, the place where they used to meet at the door. Then the narration takes a turn—I heard she still lives here, but no one knows her story now. Entering the stories of people's lives seems to be a theme he loves to film later. People on the street rush by with no stories. In the psychedelic lights of the millennial Eastern metropolis, one doesn't know what time it is. Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai—the differences don't seem as great as people imagine. "This doesn't look like Shanghai, but it is Shanghai." "The tunnel can take you to the other side of the city; of course, you can reach another Shanghai through it." After filming the brilliant lights, his lens turned to Suzhou Creek and the dilapidated factories on both banks. On a boat by the river, there was even someone defecating. Lou Ye calls it accidental reality because he was right in front of the camera. But the camera is only so big; it cannot contain everything. No wonder a year later he began to imagine the mermaids that might exist in this river. In this short film, there are things that cannot be filmed, to the point where there's a scene of being chased after secretly filming, Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express style. And there are things that can be filmed. On Nanpu Bridge, the busy traffic on both sides of the Huangpu River and the newly built skyscrapers are visible at a glance. He says you think you might have seen everything, but this is not everything. At the end of the short, the camera shows a little girl's face. Lou Ye says that expression, those eyes are unforgettable. He doesn't know what will become of her, just like Shanghai. But he likes her for no reason, just like he likes Shanghai. Watch here: https://youtu.be/QQV6zMFnJzY?si=C5IkixF8IFuvEVnE