Director's statement

“Dive into the Blue” narrates the process of an adolescent exploring and reconciled with her own body after a spine surgery. The film also shows the dilemma of contemporary women of different age and cultural backgrounds. A large part of the inspiration for the story came from my own life. The heroine suffers from scoliosis so badly that she needs surgery, and I myself have actually been a scoliosis sufferer for over 10 years. Though I haven’t received surgeries myself, I spent my adolescence in rehab. At that time, the general public in China did not have a high level of awareness of scoliosis, and the medical conditions were not particularly good, so I had to run to Beijing every holiday to see a doctor, standing naked in the cold basement in winter, and letting the doctors invert the film on my body to make a customized brace for me to wear 24 hours a day. In the hospital, I saw children and parents coming from all over the country to receive treatment. Till now, I can still remember the anxiety and desperation in each of their faces. This is an experience that I have never told anyone about. When I was a child, I was always afraid that people would find out that I always carried a brace on my back, and I also experienced the embarrassment of taking off my brace in front of the public and the strange looks from others when I went through the security check at the airport. Adolescence is always sensitive, especially when faced with the differences between myself and others. But everyone is different, and everyone's experiences make them who they are at the moment. Looking back now, I am especially grateful for the experience and wanted to document the emotions and state of mind I was in. The reason why I love the medium of images is that it can record and preserve some precious memories across time and space. I hope to make a reconciliation with my past self through such a story.