Curations

Summoning reality from the illusion.

I remember the summer break of my sophomore year—because I took over organizing our department’s cinema festival, I decided to stay in the school dorm all summer, immersing myself in a personal, sensory journey of film appreciation. One afternoon in the campus library, I randomly picked up Tsai Ming-liang’s The River. To my surprise, it quietly and calmly depicted the atypical family experiences I had kept buried deep inside. That film stayed with me—a teenager full of anxiety about life, unsure whether I could truly take responsibility for myself—through those idle, languid summer days. Back then, there was no fiber-optic internet, no AI-powered smartphones. Just light and shadow, casting a humorous yet absurd gaze upon the hardships of reality. So here I am, recommending this film—let yourself sink into the dreamscape of its story, and let it echo the realism of our own lives.