2005 Drifting Lantern (Video)

VB-0036-007, 2005

23’23”, PAL, 1280 x 720, sound, color

 

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During the final editing process of my video work Lantern Drift, I cried, right there in the editing room. I cried quietly, discreetly, so much so that the staff around me didn’t notice. But my tears were also rational because that was an exceptionally evocative scene—a twilight evening, a little girl carrying a lantern, walking further and further along a tree-lined road, her blurry figure and the faint red glow of the lantern eventually vanishing into the night.

I hesitated over this scene for twenty minutes, thinking alone and sending the editor out for a break. In the end, I decided to cut it. It was a scene I was deeply attached to, one that moved me so strongly. Why, then, did I make the painful choice to cut it instead of lingering in the feeling of distance it evoked? At least, in this real scene—even with its hint of sentimentality—it could have elicited sympathetic tears from the viewer. But to me, sentimentality merely stirs people’s surface thoughts; what truly holds power is something that coolly penetrates to the core, something that resonates with a person’s spiritual character.

（Text Provided by the Artist）