Finding Meaning After Failure: An Interview with Haiming Luo on His Debut Film STILLS

Please start by telling us a bit about yourself. How did you become interested in cinema? Have you received any formal training in the field of cinema?

I am the director of STILLS, and my name is Haiming Luo.

My first impression of cinema actually came when I was in primary school. One day, a truck arrived in my hometown carrying equipment and set up a temporary screen for a film screening. I later learned that the first film I ever saw was actually projected from film. I have forgotten what the film was, but I remember thinking that the whole experience was quite fascinating.

After that, I gradually became someone who loved watching films. During high school, I started watching films on my own and discovering different filmmakers and works. Later, I was admitted to a film school, where I began to receive systematic training in filmmaking.

This work, STILLS — which number film is it for you, and how did the idea for it come about?

STILLS is my first film, and it is also my graduation project. Before this, I had made several short exercises and student works.

The story originally came from my own experience of moving away from home. At first, the story was much longer, so I eventually decided to take one particular part of it—the story of leaving home—and develop it into the film.

During that period, my grandmother was always concerned about me and cared about me in her own way. While I was writing the screenplay, my grandmother passed away, which had a great impact on me. So I decided to bring these two experiences together and transform them into a fictional story.

In general, how do you develop your ideas? How do you write a screenplay?

I usually begin with a single idea, or sometimes even just an interesting shot.

If I see a shot or an image that feels interesting to me, I write it down first. At that stage, I don't think too much about the characters' motivations. I simply write down whatever I feel could be developed further.

Then I think about how I want the characters or the story to end. Only after that do I begin to consider where the characters come from, how the story develops, and what happens along the way.

I don't particularly like stories that are driven by strong plot mechanisms. I feel that people don't always do something because an external event forces them to. Very often, they simply do something because, somewhere inside themselves, they feel that they want to.

That was also how I approached STILLS. I didn't want a strong external event to constantly push the protagonist forward. I wanted his actions to come more from an internal desire.

Do you believe in a complete, fixed script, or are you more inclined toward improvisation?

The screenplay of STILLS went through many revisions. By the time we started shooting, we felt that we had a relatively complete screenplay and that the structure was basically fixed.

However, there are always many factors on set that make it impossible to follow a screenplay exactly. So we allowed ourselves to improvise and make changes during the shoot.

For example, the seventh scene was originally designed as a cross-cutting montage, with the intention of creating a stronger sense of suspense. But because of limitations at the location, we changed it on set and turned it into a long take with carefully designed movement.

In the end, I felt that the new approach worked quite well.

When you are writing a screenplay with your head down, there are certain things that are difficult to fully understand until you actually see them in front of you. During filming, it becomes easier to discover a more appropriate direction for the film. Sometimes it is simply a sudden moment of inspiration—you see something and feel that this might be better.

For me, the screenplay is a kind of guarantee or foundation. It gives you something to rely on, and it is precisely because of that foundation that a sudden moment of inspiration on set can become meaningful.

Which filmmakers have had the greatest influence on you?

Hou Hsiao-hsien and Shuji Terayama.

What I love about Hou Hsiao-hsien's films is the delicacy with which he presents a world and a society. I can feel the presence of every individual within that world.

Terayama's way of portraying family and love resonates with me very deeply. His screenplay for Ah, Wilderness had a direct influence on the creation of STILLS.

Please tell us a little about the main, central meaning of the film.

I repeated the college entrance examination for three years. At the time, I felt that I had failed, and that those three years were proof of my failure. But when I looked back while writing this story, I gradually realized that those three years had also made me who I am in many ways. Failure is not necessarily a problem. And perhaps failure itself is not that important. Life is like that. We often understand the meaning of something only afterwards. At the time, we may try desperately to find a meaning for what is happening to us. But very often, meaning appears only after we have already acted. One breath in, one breath out, and life continues. And somewhere along the way, meaning will appear. That is what I wanted the film to express.

What was the hardest part of making this film?

The most difficult part was probably the location scouting.

From the beginning, I wanted to film the characters actually jumping into the water, and I even wanted to shoot underwater. But we couldn't find a location that would allow us to film there.

I also didn't want to simply use visual effects to create the scene, because I felt that doing so would lose the sense of reality that was important to the film.

So we changed the screenplay. The three original diving scenes were eventually reduced to one.

Each dive, however, represented a change in the character's state of mind, so I felt that this moment was very important. For the sake of the actors' safety, we eventually used AIGC to create one of the diving sequences, presenting the character's transformation in a more dreamlike and fantastical way.

Please tell us: if you were to make this film again, what different choices would you make?

I would probably reconsider how we shot the scenes on the water.

The weather was difficult to control, and the movement of the water itself placed many limitations on the shoot.

But when I watched the footage repeatedly during editing, I gradually felt that the movement of the water also created another kind of beauty. The fluctuations of the water gave the images a certain texture and rhythm.

If I were to shoot it again, I would probably allow the camera to move more organically with the movement of the water, using that movement to present the dialogue and physical relationship between the two characters.

If possible, tell us something about your next project.

My next project will probably be a story about youth.

The idea actually came from two dreams I had. I remembered both dreams after waking up, and later realized that there were some interesting connections between them.

I found that connection quite fascinating, so I am thinking about developing those dreams into a film.