The Empire has been ruled for centuries relying on Dream Interpretation. Every day, countless dreams are collected from every corner of the Empire, processed by the Dream Interpreters, and presented to the monarch. Good dreams bring dreamers glory, whereas evil dreams lead to punishment.
The film is a retrospection of the death of a Dream Interpreter. The protagonist was a professionally trained Dream Interpreter, and she deeply believed in this system. She interpreted the symbols, made judgments, and determined the fates of those nameless dreamers. Until one day, she was assigned to her own dream: She assassinated the monarch in her dream—an evil dream that would sentence her to death.
She realized that the Dream Interpretation upon which the Empire was built was no more than a phantom, and it stained her hands with the blood of the innocent.
The limits of language signify the limits of the perceptual world. The language system she faithfully believes in – Dream Interpretation – constrains her, the monarch, and the entire Empire from seeing reality clearly. But is there still an actual “reality”? Everything is distorted. Everything is iridescent.
She woke up, but still in between dreams.
Directed by Qizhen Huang (China)