The Plum - Campus Microfilm

 

Microfilm commentary

Casting

I selected the tallest student in the class to portray Wang Xifeng（protagonist 1）, and the shortest to step into the shoes of Jia Rui（protagonist 2）. My aim was to harness their stark height contrast to symbolize the immense disparity in status and wealth that exists between Jia Rui and Wang Xifeng in the classic text.

Opening

In the micro-movie, Jia Rui puts a photo of the famous basketball player Yao Ming on his meal card and hangs it on his backpack to carry around, which shows that Jia Rui likes Yao Ming. As we all know, Yao Ming is very tall. This scene implies that Jia Rui loves heights and likes people who are very tall. The "love for high" here corresponds to Jia Rui's infatuation with Wang Xifeng in Dream of Red Mansions, for two main reasons:

1. Jia Rui’s relatively shabby living conditions may have given him a stronger desire for power and wealth. As the actual person in charge of the Rong Mansion, Wang Xifeng's wealth and status undoubtedly have a huge attraction for Jia Rui.

2. Jia Rui’s parents died young and his mother's love was severely lacking, which led him to become obsessed with his mature elder sister as an adult. Moreover, Wang Xifeng already has a daughter, who is full of maternal glory. Jia Rui, who has an Oedipus complex, naturally fell in love with Wang Xifeng uncontrollably.

Act 1：library

Throughout the library scene, I wanted to show that Jia Rui was obsessed with Wang Xifeng. One of the details is that when Wang Xifeng was placing books, he put the books on the lower level of the bookshelf for the first time. He looked back at Jia Rui and deliberately placed the books on the top of the bookshelf. Wang Xifeng teases Jia Rui, which reflects the viciousness of this character. This is also a reference to Wang Xifeng teasing Jia Rui twice in the original work. But the description in the original work is too obscene and not suitable for high school students to play. So I changed it to Wang Xifeng writing a book to tease Jia Rui.

When Jia Rui went to get the book from the bookshelf, the book fell down and I gave him a close-up. The book was called "The Kite Runner". The title of this book is literally (it has nothing to do with the content of the book): Wang Xifeng is like a kite floating in the sky to Jia Rui. It is almost impossible to catch the kite after it breaks free and floats into the sky.

The fruit fell from the tree and rolled onto the manhole cover. Jia Rui ran past the fruit. This clip indicates that Jia Rui is about to fall into the trap set by Wang Xifeng.

Act 2: playground

When Jia Rui caught up with Wang Xifeng while running, he said this to him: "Although the stars are far away, they have warmed me and guided me through countless nights." I searched this sentence on the Internet, and it is a cryptic confession.

Wang Xifeng understood and replied: " Love is akin to a plum. Pluck it while it's dazzling, and all you'll taste is bitterness. But wait until its glamour fades, and you'll savor the sweetest of nectars. And when it falls to the ground, merely passing beneath the tree, you'll be greeted by the stench of decay." I wrote this line myself.

I have two interpretations of this line myself:

1.  The first stage of plums (bright and eye-catching) is very green and appears bright red or green. Exudes an attractive luster. It's like being a teenager and yearning for "love" due to hormonal restlessness. However, people in this period are mentally immature, and relationships often end in breakups, which can even lead to some bad consequences. The second stage of plums (the luster fades and matures), appears black and purple, which is far less visually attractive than the green stage. This corresponds to mature people in their twenties and thirties who have deeper thoughts about "love" and make careful choices. Most of this kind of love has a decent or happy ending. In the third stage of the plum (falling to the ground), the passion between the two is gone (the heat of love dissipates), and they are disgusted with each other.

2.  Wang Xifeng said this to Jia Rui in order to persuade Jia Rui to retreat, but based on Wang Xifeng's character characteristics in the book, she would not tell her true thoughts face to face. When Jia Rui pursued Wang Xifeng, Wang Xifeng was married. This kind of "love" violated ethics and morals, so it stunk.

Act 3:  snowfield

Wang Xifeng made a six-color rainbow flag and placed it on the snowdrift. The six-color rainbow symbolizes the LGBT community. Jia Rui fell in love with Wang Xifeng. Jia Rui was gay, but Wang Xifeng was heterosexual. He hated Jia Rui's crazy obsession with him, but with his ruthless character, he would not say it explicitly but directly got rid of Jia Rui. He asked Jia Rui to pull out the rainbow flag as a pretense of goodwill, making Jia Rui mistakenly think that he and he were the same kind. He lied to Jia Rui that there was a gift under the flag to attract him to pull it out. Jia Rui had already been so happy that Wang Xifeng had asked him out the day before, so he pulled out the flag without hesitation, regardless of the risk of being buried in the snow.