Title: Force Times Displacement
Foreign Title:
Year: 2025
Country: Taiwan
Language:
Awards:
Director: Angel Wu
There’s nothing like the free play of the imagination, as Force Times Displacement helpfully reminds us. This delirious, delightful short opens on an object that I’m hard-pressed to describe; I suppose I could call it a flesh ball. The grey and white globe pulses and contracts as we hear bubbly fluid sounds; eventually, a change comes in the form of gloopy blue paint falling from the top of the frame. The paint covers the flesh ball and we’re off the races: what follows is a procession of animated images which stops just short of the nonsensical and is a wonder to behold.
The film gives us thin bodies and objects, most of them outlined in scribbly black: animal shapes; flock-like patterns of men; a factory with its system of piping displayed on the outside, as if in a medical anatomy illustration; and much more. A theme of human labour and its depersonalizing effects runs through the movie, but luckily it’s not pronounced enough to provide any clear message. What’s wonderful about this work is that its makers value creativity enough to let it supersede logic.
