Riptide 静海

China | 2024 | color | 20min | fiction, growth

Upon entering senior year of high school, Li Siwei falls into two 'punishment rituals' thanks to a name tag, and then in silent confusion, he completes his mitzvah.

Riptide is a 20-minute realism short film. From a restrained humanistic perspective, the film applies contemporary technique in a traditional story structure, immersing the anatomy and sensory of one subject in the century-old education system, portraying a slice of a Chinese high school student's life in a looping disciplinary society.