FENG Yifu：

“This film was primarily created during my time as a graduate student at Musashino Art University in 2020. The initial motivation for this project came from an online report I read about rural left-behind children and their addiction to the internet. This reminded me of many relatives or children in my village that I would see when I returned to my hometown every year. I wanted to create a work that portrayed the inner world of these left-behind children, while also incorporating many of my own memories of attending my grandparents' funerals in the countryside during my childhood.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading in 2020, and schools in Japan went into lockdown, with online classes for a year. I felt quite isolated and had to deal with the pressure of advancing my studies, so I gradually infused my own emotions into the film. I hoped, like the protagonist in the film, that I could break free from the constraints of the surrounding environment.

By the end, I wasn’t entirely sure whether the film was depicting the inner world of left-behind children or my own mental state at that time.”

DART Magazine：

Golden Cow Mountain seems to be a very important symbol in this film. Does this mountain have any specific meaning?

FENG Yifu：

“Golden Cow Mountain is the name of my hometown. There's a small temple on the mountain, and I always remembered that there was a statue of a golden cow inside. But when I asked my parents, they told me that there actually wasn't a golden cow statue in the temple.

So, I incorporated this image into the film. The golden cow at the beginning, asleep, symbolizes the many silent villages in China, where a large portion of the population has left, as if even the spirits guarding the land have fallen asleep. At the end, the golden cow seems to be spiritually awakened by the protagonist, carrying his spirit away from the land.”

DART Magazine:

The part about the funeral in the film is impressive. Does this symbol have any other meanings in the film?

FENG Yifu：

“The film never reveals whose funeral it is, leaving that to the audience's imagination.”