Visceral animation of Corpseland helps director making biting commentary
“I hope that the audience can deeply reflect on their living environment and social environment while they [view] my work”
Jason Pchajek, staff writer
No matter how you view society, you know that it changes you.
Our culture impacts how we dress, how we act, what we believe, and how we interact and view one another. It is a box we’re placed in at birth, and according to Corpseland director and animator Yang Liu, “we have almost no possibility of getting out.”
Her film is one of contemplation, following the arc of a person’s life through the surreal lens of a theme park. Recognizable body forms are twisted, made wrong, and bodies themselves are shaped and reshaped through the course of the film to create what society wants.
Theme parks twist and contort reality, and so too does society.
It is deep, it is visceral, and that is exactly what Liu wants.
“I hope that the audience can deeply reflect on their living environment and social environment while they [view] my work,” she said.
“The time for reflection may only be 2-3 minutes, but this is a success for my work.”
Success may be the perfect term for it, as Corpseland, with its surreal and abstract art, along with its scathing critique of the theme park of modern society, is sure to bring out the most visceral responses on each viewing. This film will leave you uncomfortable, and that’s the point.
For Liu, the theme park idea also somewhat personal, as she describes the work as “a summary of the end of my student phase.” She is now “preparing to enter society” an that transition is “a worry for people in society.”
Transition is key to the film as well, on a technical as well as a thematic level. Corpseland mixes pen-and-paper animation with a live action-3D animation hybrid style as the character at the centre of the film transitions through the park – and life itself.
As Liu says, “the choice of these [animating] techniques depends on” changes in the plot.
“In the last part, I chose a 3D style. This style, and the child, will become mature, stable, cold and numb in this playground when they grow up.” Combined with the live action shots it “is also to show that in the process of growing up, adults need to face social reality, and this reality is [the live action shots].”
Describing the work is difficult, just as describing the totality of our social and cultural world is difficult. But whether you see life as a factory, a journey, or a theme park, Corpseland oozes meaning, and Liu’s work is a much watch at the 2020 UWPG Film Festival.