Luka
As various people come and go to the central market on a hot summer afternoon, a young boy notices his own shadow.
Synopsis
In a busy market on a hot summer afternoon, people are selling and buying things, laughing. The daily routine is more than simple, but to a 12-year-old boy, it is like a recital with no audience.
Statement
One summer, my parents arranged for me to stay in the house of a relative for a while. Without any children of my age, I had to struggle to live under their roof and deal with the unpredictable emotions of all the grownups. My shadow was my only friend. I had a deal with it that we would never grow up. However, while the sunset elongated my shadow, I had to grow up eventually.
I didn’t want to reach the adults’ world, so I had to fight against the inevitable growing up.
Cover Letter
“Luka” is what I felt the most in my childhood. I was forced to enjoy my solitude and get used to being ignored. Belonging to the generation of the “one child” policy in China, I grew up without any kids of my age. Instead, I had to learn the complexity of the grownups’ world and gradually became more and more insignificant to the extent that I got neglected. Thus, I made up my mind not to grow up to be a someone revolting like them. Nevertheless, it is a world that we’re going to reach sooner or later.
When did I begin to prepare this film? And why?
One morning, I looked at my grown-up self, and each of my expressions and the decisions that I made was the epitome of my parents. In the status quo that cannot be changed, I miss very much the irreversible me whom I will never get back to.
What part did you play in writing the script?
In the grownups’ world, an overdue child lives inside of my body, who struggles not to enter it but the inevitable helplessness makes him cry feebly for help. When I wrote the script, I was trying to send messages for the child existing in me.
What is my shadow?
At an upward angle in my childhood, I looked at the two different sides of grownups in front of and behind people. In order to get something, their calculation, and fierce competition are more professional than some of the best actors in the world. However, what makes them grow up to be like that? I’ve always been afraid of and cannot avoid pandering to others because it lures me into becoming unreal or acting the unreal me. Afterall, I don’t want to be an unlovable grownup.
What do I hope this film will bring?
Hopefully, every little shadow can stay longer. And the grown-up you will look at yourself in the mirror directly instead of throwing the stone in your hand at the shadow which the sun has elongated by force.