After cracking from pressure to do well in school, an introverted and pessimistic student, Wang, conjures a make-believe friend who gets in the way of Wang's first sexual experience and causes him to disappear and implode.
Chun-Chieh Wang is a Taiwanese independent filmmaker. He directed and wrote his short film Tulpa(2022) in Chinese, presented as a work in progress in the Museum of the Moving Image in NYC, and screened at Linwood Dunn Theatre in LA, USA as the best of SVA 2022. Being inspired by Sci-Fi with philosophical depth, his works focus on internal conflicts, social issues, and Asian cultural customs by exploring the possibilities of combining moving images and literary criticism. He is currently working on his following feature script, Disquiet, a story that discusses the memories' psychological influence, in pre-production. Chun-Chieh Wang also works as a colorist and a contributor to a Chinese publication.
Director Statement
WANG Hengyu, an introverted, pessimistic senior student who is going to take the Gaokao (Chinese college entrance examination), has been under pressure from his studies and family for a long time. He keeps immersing himself in his spiritual world, only communicating with an ideal friend- YANG Chenhao through mental powers, a paranormal phenomenon known as "Tulpa" in the occult concept. While the fierce quarrel between his parents intensifies, WANG becomes more and more dependent on YANG. In the process, he gradually blurred his dependency with his sexual desire and his sexual needs became unbearable to himself. Finally, WANG's spirit turns increasingly chaotic, and the scenes of his spiritual life intertwine with his real life. He feels his body is disintegrating and collapsing. His memory became confused. He could not tell what was real and what was not. His last choice was to leave this unbearable world regardless of the consequences.
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