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Yin and Yang III

Yin and Yang III

LIU Tong • 2019

Duration: 00:23:30
Language: Mandarin, Chinese dialects
Subtitles: Chinese, English
Country/Region: Mainland China

Yin and Yang (feng shui) masters were once very popular in northern Anhui, China. With the advancement of funeral reform, many of them have faded from the social stage. However, Zhang Shudong still pursues this profession. Zhang Shudong is the third child in his family, so he is called "Yin Yang San".This film uses the chaptered form of ancient story-telling to present the protagonist's own application of Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, and the Eight Trigrams to calculate dates and determine directions, helping the deceased be buried smoothly.Burial is a significant event, and Zhang Shudong is an expert in this field. Despite a lifetime of burying others, Zhang Shudong's own funeral was extremely quiet. However, all these twists and turns are, in his view of life and death, nothing extraordinary. Others explain Zhang Shudong's death as "revealing too many secrets of heaven, and thus incurring divine punishment".

Non-Fiction Anthropology Film
Customs-and-habits regionalization local-customs-and-people's-ways-of-life

AWARDS & FESTIVALS

2019 CineCina Film Festival, USA2021 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, China

CAST & CREW

LIU Tong

LIU Tong

Director

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

LIU Tong

LIU Tong

Director

Feng shui masters are quite common in northern Anhui Province. Mr. Zhang Shudong San is one of them. At nearly 70 years old, he is still active in such occasions. While showing the burial site’s feng shui to the deceased, he is also engaged in paper-cutting business. Usually, he likes drinking and making friends. When he was in high spirits, he would write calligraphy. It seemed like an ordinary day. Suddenly, a cerebral infarction took his life. No one came to show him the burial site’s feng shui. His nephew hastily arranged the funeral for him. When people die, it’s like a lamp going out. Only the faint image of this feng shui master will remain in memory. In the future, whether this memory will be recalled remains unknown.

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