FIRST LOVE 初戀
Dir. Roku Long, Prod. Pan Jinzi, China, 2019, 20MIN
A Chinese girl Chun experiences her first attraction when she meets a boy named Yu. Drawn to him with both affection and desire, she hesitates to act, haunted by the fear of becoming like her single mother, who flatters men to feel loved. Trapped between yearning and self-restraint, Chun retreats into fantasies, watching Yuzi from afar, too insecure to step into his real life.
Clip from First Love
Starring Lu Tong, Ren Zi Hao
Director of Photography, Wang Zi Huan
Beijing, China, 2019
“In this film, I was drawn to explore the emotional landscape of girlhood — the delicate tension between innocence and awakening, repression and curiosity. I used recurring visual motifs such as grapefruit and the color contrast of red and green to reveal Chun’s inner transformation.
First Love was not only an attempt to challenge the one-dimensional portrayals of young women in Chinese cinema but also a personal exploration of how femininity, desire, and shame intertwine in the process of growing up. ”
