Chuang Mu 床母 (Fiona Yi)
7min 25s – 4:3 – 1080p
Synopsis
Chuang Mu 床母, a deity in Taiwanese folklore, is known as a kind mother figure, who guards children in bed where Chuang(床) represents bed, and Mu(母) means mother in Mandarin. She accompanies frightened children to rest daily as a safe harbor, whether the child is naughty, well-behaved, or not, unconditionally accepts. Just like a mother.
In this short film, the children’s delicate bond with their mother from childhood to adulthood is slowly combed by a daughter’s voice. Somewhere in the world, following a daughter starting to live independently overseas and stumbled adulting, life forces her to look back at her childhood memories as well as her sense of floating at present, trying to slowly piece her life together. All of a sudden, the inexplicable mysterious experience happens once again after years.
Artist Statement
A mother carries a child for 10 months and stakes his and her lives on it for giving birth, making their precious connection unbreakable. How many people in the world put aside their precious memories of the past to move forward? Trying hard to restrain their emotions and move more quickly to another stage of life. However, they do not notice that the one has long been deeply imprinted in their subconsciousness.
When the girl was young, she was afraid to stay alone. Whenever she lay in bed solely with nobody at home, great fear struck. Nevertheless, a tender voice out of nowhere always soothed the girl and puts her to sleep peacefully. Those seemingly terrifying incidents never scare the girl. She never purposedly mentioned it to anyone as much as how children hardly comprehend how a mother has been contributing to them.
While leaving home struggling in a foreign country, she constantly excavated herself on countless nights and found meaning behind living day after day. Until she was pushed to the edge of exhaustion and collapsed, she suddenly realized that the voice had always been there, and had been silently protecting her, wherever she went in the world.
One day, she coincidently heard from her mother the traditional folklore of Chuang Mu 床母 was about to disappear in Taiwan. She connected to her relatable experience and found out that the existence of Chuang Mu 床母 is like the love from a mother but in another figure. She decided to document her personal valuable memories with her loved mother as well as pass on this untold story to the next generations.
- itsyiyi.c@gmail.com
Fiona Yi
Fiona Yi was born and grew up in Taiwan Taipei. She spent lots of time in a family-owned publishing company at an early age. Her family often went to various artistic venues either as family gatherings or for work purposes.
Through meeting countless artists such as writers, photographers, and critics the interaction with them in publisher subconsciously drew and guided her into different possibilities of future career paths in art. Most significantly, she met a graphic designer as a mentor who crucially nourished her sensitivity to art.
After being exposed to diverse realms of art at different growing stages, she realized film was the medium that not only combined all the arts she loved but also a desired window for her to visualize her perspective of human being’s inner self and outer world, which is often shown in her works.
At 19 years old, she decided to drop out of her original degree in Taiwan and travel overseas to continue chasing her dream of filmmaking. Therefore, she is currently studying BA(Hons) in Digital Film Production at Sunway University in Malaysia.