4th(2002)
The Box / He zi
Echo Y. Windy
- China
- 2001
- 86min
- Beta
- color
SYNOPSIS
A, a singer, and B, a painter, are a lesbian couple in their twenties. In this documentary debut film by Echo Y. Windy, the Box presents a unique portrait of the lives of these two women. Somewhat like a documentary version of Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise, the film is set somewhere in China. The camera follows the two women in the restricted spaces of their home and atelier. Isolated from the world, they are the only ones that keep each other company. Their relationship constitutes their lives, made up of gardening, pillow fights, and reading poetry together and fooling around. It is not a lonely filthy house of ruins they occupy but a secluded yet beautiful island they share together.
The title, the Box, paradoxically suggests the confinement of a box, as well as the unadulterated preservation of their relationship. Offering a ‘slice-of-life’ neo-realist touch, the film is shot in a one-sequence one-shot manner. The camera blurs the line between subject and object by becoming the observer, the participant and the friend of the two women. (Kim Sun-ah)
The title, the Box, paradoxically suggests the confinement of a box, as well as the unadulterated preservation of their relationship. Offering a ‘slice-of-life’ neo-realist touch, the film is shot in a one-sequence one-shot manner. The camera blurs the line between subject and object by becoming the observer, the participant and the friend of the two women. (Kim Sun-ah)
PROGRAM NOTE
A, a singer, and B, a painter, are a lesbian couple in their twenties. In this documentary debut film by Echo Y. Windy, the Box presents a unique portrait of the lives of these two women. Somewhat like a documentary version of Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise, the film is set somewhere in China. The camera follows the two women in the restricted spaces of their home and atelier. Isolated from the world, they are the only ones that keep each other company. Their relationship constitutes their lives, made up of gardening, pillow fights, and reading poetry together and fooling around. It is not a lonely filthy house of ruins they occupy but a secluded yet beautiful island they share together.
The title, the Box, paradoxically suggests the confinement of a box, as well as the unadulterated preservation of their relationship. Offering a ‘slice-of-life’ neo-realist touch, the film is shot in a one-sequence one-shot manner. The camera blurs the line between subject and object by becoming the observer, the participant and the friend of the two women. (Kim Sun-ah)
The title, the Box, paradoxically suggests the confinement of a box, as well as the unadulterated preservation of their relationship. Offering a ‘slice-of-life’ neo-realist touch, the film is shot in a one-sequence one-shot manner. The camera blurs the line between subject and object by becoming the observer, the participant and the friend of the two women. (Kim Sun-ah)
Director
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Echo Y. WindyEcho Y. Windy
Born in Shenyang, China, Echo Y. Windy began studying calligraphy and painting at seven, gaining many prizes for calligraphic work in China and Japan. In 1988, she began to study Chinese literature in Liaoning University where her prose, poems and plays were published. From 1992 to 1998, she worked as columnist and editor for newspapers and magazines. Since 1999, she has worked as TV director. The Box is her first documentary film.
Credit
- ProducerEcho Y. Windy
- Cinematography Echo Y. Windy
- Editor Echo Y. Windy
