Filmmaker Statement

‘Watermelon Tree’ dramatically imitates the social and cultural circumstances and dilemmas of contemporary Chinese youth. While people are supposed to live in an epic, magnificent, and collective narrative with the united ambition of national revival, the reality of individual life becomes subtle and fascinating which appears opposite to the developing and energetic era. I wish to focus on the individual trace of the involution generation to feature the zeitgeist of the current anxiety and frustration. The film documents a living juxtaposition between the defining and advertised climate of the invigorating era, and the authentic and personal story of confronting workplace and domestic crisis. Inspired by the new trends in the Chinese workplace system of exhausting labour force and overwhelming competition, I wish to portray a mundane experience of joblessness and betrayal, an everyday man’s life but not controlled by oneself. Rather than providing an inspirational solution for