"The beauty of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains comes from a dual desire: to relate a family saga while getting the inspiration from a Chinese scroll painting by Huang Gongwang (1348-1350), from which the film get its title, this is the story of an encounter.
My parents used to run a restaurant in the place described by this ancient painting. Due to the renovation and demolition of the city, they ended their career as restaurant managers. Initially, I wanted to write a story to commemorate their stories with this restaurant. So I came back to my hometown to do research of the script. When I devoted myself to living in this homeland, the great changes in the city have given me more excitement and inspiration. So I decide to write a new story. Before that, I was already very interested in Chinese traditional aesthetics. The inspiration given by this masterpiece of my hometown was like a key that opens the door to the pith of the spirit and philosophy of ancient literati thinking. Western painting pays attention to express the space, while Chinese traditional landscape painting attempt to play the game of time, in order to archive a sense of universe - eternity of time and infinity of space. I wish, through the medium of film, to place the tradition into the present as empirical, rather than a form of retro or a symbol.
Our film took two years to shoot. We couldn’t find a suitable production company at the beginning. Because all of them doubted a shooting during four-seasons and the long-term cycle of making, especially with a first-time director. Then at the time, I was aware that the city was undergoing dramatic changes. I could not wait. So when I finished writing the script, I started shooting with very little financial support. In the beginning, it relied mainly on friends’ help, online and social loans, etc. In the process, we also won cash awards in some film festival’s project market programs. When it came to the second year, I met with Factory Gate Films that helped me to pay off my debt and so it became our delegate production company. We finished the shooting together one year later.”
