Eat me, an experimental short film
Brooklyn Film Festival - Official Selection
International Independent Film Awards - Silver Award
San Francisco Film Festival - Award of Excellence
International Independent Film Awards - Silver Award
San Francisco Film Festival - Award of Excellence
Once I was surfing a Chinese website, and a blogger posted a picture of a female celebrity smoking in front of her car. The blog got shared for numerous times. Also thousands of comments were listed: “Wow, my mind just got blown away”, “OMG, this just ruined her godly image completely”, and “Where has she been hiding for all these years”. I started to wonder why the reaction was this high: she did not rob a bank, murder a person, or bomb a building. After the photo had got released, she became to receive less real attention from the public, and now she is not as big as who she was before. People sometimes get labels such as “the Music God,” “the Soccer God," or “the Film God," but how do these different “God” labels impact their individuality?
Eat Me is a student experimental film shot in Sichuan, China exploring the parallel world between a girl’s reality and psychological state. In the real world, she is perceived as a God, but in her mind, she believes that she is being abused. Metaphors are used very often in this film. The most obvious metaphor must be the girl as the chicken. In two different set-ups, they are treated in the same way.
Meanwhile, there are plenty metaphors based on the Bible. The twelve men in their 30’s are representing the twelve disciples. During the eating scene, the twelve men are drinking wine and eating chicken; it refers to the disciples drink Jesus’ blood and eat Jesus’ flesh. In addition, there is a painting of the last dinner in the background of the dining room. The twelve disciples worship their God - the girl; however, for the girl, she has her primary needs that get ignored. As her need accumulates, she starts to feel the pain and regards their worship as a sexual abusive behavior. The manikin is a metaphor of the girl’s social image, and it is what the twelve men see of the girl - a perfect one without an inner soul. In the dark room seen, the manikin is positioned as a cross opposed to the girl shown as a tilted cross. When the girl is carrying the manikin by the pool, it refers to Jesus carrying the heavy cross; in the end when she tries to get rid of the cross, she realizes that the cross is floating on the water: she cannot get rid of her social image even if she can get rid of her physical appearance. At the very beginning of the film when she jumps into the water, it shows that she is not a God - she cannot walk on water.
Even though there are a lot of metaphors and references and many audiences are not familiar with the Bible, I think everyone has some personal connection with the girl. Some people are used to lock themselves up. People may admire his talents or his success, but who understands the pain, the struggle, the conflict in his heart? Life is not easy, and life is not easy for everyone, including “the good ones”.
Eat Me is a student experimental film shot in Sichuan, China exploring the parallel world between a girl’s reality and psychological state. In the real world, she is perceived as a God, but in her mind, she believes that she is being abused. Metaphors are used very often in this film. The most obvious metaphor must be the girl as the chicken. In two different set-ups, they are treated in the same way.
Meanwhile, there are plenty metaphors based on the Bible. The twelve men in their 30’s are representing the twelve disciples. During the eating scene, the twelve men are drinking wine and eating chicken; it refers to the disciples drink Jesus’ blood and eat Jesus’ flesh. In addition, there is a painting of the last dinner in the background of the dining room. The twelve disciples worship their God - the girl; however, for the girl, she has her primary needs that get ignored. As her need accumulates, she starts to feel the pain and regards their worship as a sexual abusive behavior. The manikin is a metaphor of the girl’s social image, and it is what the twelve men see of the girl - a perfect one without an inner soul. In the dark room seen, the manikin is positioned as a cross opposed to the girl shown as a tilted cross. When the girl is carrying the manikin by the pool, it refers to Jesus carrying the heavy cross; in the end when she tries to get rid of the cross, she realizes that the cross is floating on the water: she cannot get rid of her social image even if she can get rid of her physical appearance. At the very beginning of the film when she jumps into the water, it shows that she is not a God - she cannot walk on water.
Even though there are a lot of metaphors and references and many audiences are not familiar with the Bible, I think everyone has some personal connection with the girl. Some people are used to lock themselves up. People may admire his talents or his success, but who understands the pain, the struggle, the conflict in his heart? Life is not easy, and life is not easy for everyone, including “the good ones”.
cast & crewCAST
The Girl - Han Deng The Chef - Junqiong Zou The Twelve Men: Haoyang Liu, Lu Cheng, Qingyong Yang, Hui Zhang, Shengli Liu, Wei Che, Nanmeng Ma, Li He, Yiyu Zhao, Xiaoqiang Sun, Jiasen Cai, Zhenyu Yang CREW Director, Writer & Producer: Jason Zheng Director of Photography & Colorist: Heather Chen Production Designer & Special Effect Make-up: Lawson Ling Music Composer: Summer Shen Sound Designer & Mixer: Melanie Wentz Gaffer: Boran Zhang Key Grip: Hecheng Xu Assistant Director: Vincent Wen 1st Assistant Camera: Davis Chen 2nd Assistnat Camera: Wei Li Script Supervisor: Haley Xu Best Boy Grip: Xin Zhao Voice Over: Yi Hao Foley: Ivan Gao, Joyce Zhao Assistant Producer: Victor Yu Poster Designer: Isabella Tan Line Producer: Haoyue Shuai Production Assistant: Lillian Liao 
Eat Me Cast & Crew
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trailerdirector statement I came to the United States from China when I was thirteen. I started my sophomore year in an American Christian high school, and I am not a Christian. The school accepted me and said that as long as you were willing to learn more about Christianity, you were welcome to the school. The school was located in a small town in suburb Chicago, and it was apparent that a Christian bubble was built in the town. I learned a lot about different religions through those three years. However, life changed after I came to New York City, “the melting pot” according to the popular saying. Every street, every restaurant here seemed to be completely different from the shelter I was used to, and the best thing the city has taught me was to be as experimental as you want - you are an artist.
I grew up in a small town in Sichuan, China, and I have gained a lot of expectations from my family as well as the people around me. I went to elementary school when I was only four, started college at sixteen and will graduate from college when I am nineteen. People called me “a genius,” and said to me, “you will be the next Ang Lee”. I appreciated all these positive comments, but I gradually realized that they ignored the fact that I am the same as everyone else: I have flaws, I am sinful, I have pain… People envision me to be “a cute smart Asian boy” all my life, but I want to be bad, want to be slutty, and want to break the rules. These are the sides of me that they do not see, and do not expect. But what can I do? This film means significantly to me because it gives me a chance to explore the conflict we have between our social image and what is really inside of us. At the end of the film when the manikin is floating on the water, it represents our everlasting image: someday it may float away that gets forgotten by the society, but it will never be drown even if the body is at the bottom of the sea. |
Eat Me Conceptual Poster