Gu shi

A family of four – Father, Mother, Daughter and Son – arrives at a mysterious house between the ocean and the forest, feeling an unnamed crisis. What begins as a temporary stay stretches into a strange limbo. After an accident leaves Son bedridden, the family turns to a ritual of telling stories about the ocean, stories that seem to make people forget. Haunted by recurring nightmares, Daughter begins to sense that her own missing childhood memories are tied to the house and to a girl in a green dress. As the past surfaces and the boundary between reality and story dissolves, she must choose her way of remembering.

Gu shi can be read as a mysterious family drama, but I am more interested in how the family dynamics function as a political allegory for our contemporary moment: when the past has been erased and the present hangs suspended, what becomes of the future? I hope to capture the experience of loss and disorientation that arises in isolation.
The film revolves around a buried family secret and the different ways each member confronts – or avoids – their past. Father distorts memory and resorts to violence to maintain control. Mother, weighed down by unspoken trauma, survives through silence. Daughter inherits only fragments of the past, drifting among half- remembered truths. Son, ignorant of what came before, becomes numbed by distraction and detachment. As their stories unravel, the film becomes a meditation on the fragility of memory and an attempt to confront the fear of forgetting in a time when collective amnesia feels increasingly widespread.

PRODUCTION 1:
Osmanthus Studios LLC - Joyce Yueyi Xing
3164 21st St #1153
11106 Long Island City, United States of America
Tel: +1 9177561673
E-mail: osmanthusstudios@gmail.com
Web: https://www.osmanthusstudios.org
Social Media: @osmanthus_studios - Instagram

PRODUCTION 2:
Alien Makes Film Limited - Joyce Yueyi Xing
Room G09, 8/F, Valiant Ind. Centre, 2-12 Au Pui Wan St.
Fo Tan, Hong Kong
Tel: +86 13757168342
E-mail: alienmakesfilm@gmail.com
Social Media: @alienmakesfilm - Instagram

PRODUCTION 3:
Electric Eel Films Co, Ltd. - Anocha Suwichakornpong
161/92 Baan Klang Muang, Soi Onnut 17, Sukhumvit 77, Suan Luang
10250 Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 20841745
E-mail: electriceelfilms@gmail.com
Web: https://www.electriceelfilms.com
Social Media: @electric_eel_films – Instagram, electriceelfilms - Facebook

PRESS OFFICE:
La Biennale di Venezia
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30124 Venezia, Italia
Tel: +39 0412726644
E-mail: presscinema@labiennale.org / college-cinema@labiennale.org

Anne Takahashi, TAKA PR
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E-mail: anne@takapr.com