Haixu Wang (王海旭)

Haixu Wang（b.1999） is a young director, 3D artist, photographer and poet from China.

His passion is to experiment with different mediums in order to generate more narrative possibilities. The narrative media he uses include performance, moving image, 3D models, photography and text. Stylized audiovisual language is the main focus of his current practice and research.

During his master's degree, Haixu Wang produced two independent short films, ‘There you are, My Friends’ and ‘The Mud of Spring Dreams’, in which he explores the future narrative possibilities of documentary storytelling by using poetic techniques to unfold the scroll of memory.

Photographed by Yingying Zhang on 2023.6.11

I am heavily influenced by the Japanese New Wave and in my recent practice I like to use metaphor and deliberate performance to recreate or mimic fluid, pie-in-the-sky dreamscapes while creating ambiguity.

Although the stories are adapted from my own real experiences, I am not interested in retelling real experiences, but in interfering with the audience's perception of the relationship between reality (objective facts that actually happened), memory (objective facts processed by the brain) and drama (fictional stories based on objective facts). This explains why my current narrative practice needs to be supported by my real experiences and life records (text and photography). I need to draw on real life experiences and memories to select those moments that stick in my mind and adapt them into a story. I think this will be honest, spontaneous and heartfelt.

I am extremely free in my approach and I am bold in choosing the most appropriate narrative medium for each scene, rather than presenting it in a uniform way to keep the style of the film consistent. I want to use a unique audio-visual language that continues to stimulate the audience's senses and take them on a magical journey into the real and the imaginary.

About

Based on a real-life experience of the author, the short film will be narrated using the artistic techniques of stream-of-consciousness writing, i.e. inner monologue, and poetic free association. In this dream about fantasy and identity, the author wants to explore the future narrative possibilities of the love story. The short film will also attempt to demonstrate the idea of open time, the existence of circular, reversible, multidimensional and non-linear forms of time.

Set in a Chinese student's home on the banks of the Thames, the hero (A-hai) goes to his ex-girlfriend's (Mei Mei) birthday party and unexpectedly falls in love with another guy (KK) at the party, but is denied love by KK. While Mei Mei's tolerance and acceptance makes A-hai fall in love with Mei Mei all over again. A-hai decides he wants to be with Mei Mei, but learns when he confesses that everything before is nothing but his fantasy.

Main cast members and character traits

1) A-hai/Hai Yu 余海 (played by Haixu Wang): Male, 23 years old, Libra, INTJ, a young man who likes to fantasize, currently studying for his master's degree at rca, likes to dye his hair and go to the park, also likes to photograph plants and always looks sleepy.

2) Mei Mei/Yun Miao 苗芸 (played by Yingying Zhang): Female, 24 years old, Cancer, INFP, A Hai's ex-girlfriend, currently doing her MA in photography at Kingston University, a literary and beauty-loving girl who likes to read books

3) KK/Ye Ke 柯野 (played by Ziyi Shan): Male, 26 years old, Gemini, ENFP, a flirtatious young man with a flamboyant personality, studying film at Kingston University, met Mei Mei as a result of a previous film shoot

4) Muse/Lan Li 李岚 (played by Zhuoran Li): Male, 24 years old, Taurus, ENFP, Mei Mei's gay friend, passionate, good company, just graduated from rca, currently in an unrequited love affair

5)Jo/Yuan Shi 史媛 (played by Junyi Shi):Female, 23 years old, INFP, Mei Mei's roommate, studying fashion at rca, independent woman, career-minded, wants to stay and work in the UK

Poster of Film

The Mud of Spring Dreams（Script 1/3）

The Mud of Spring Dreams（Script 2/3）

The Mud of Spring Dreams（Script 3/3）

’It's all about moon‘ 《都是月亮惹的祸》

Medium:

Film & Images & texts

About

This is the story of me and three friends. One of them, Lele and Snake, is my high school friend, and A-wei is Lele's boyfriend. There are three main scenes chosen in total. The first scene is a ruined building, a hangout spot where me, Lele and A-wei often go and where a lot of interesting things happen. The second location is a seaside town, Rizhao, where we go on a trip together and things happen there. The third location is Jiao Yang East Road, where me, Lele and A-wei shared a flat for a while.