From the director: “In recent years, there are increasing news about people committing suicide because of depression, and cyber-bullying is one of the reasons contributing to depression. Every person on the internet is wearing a mask, hiding behind their monitors to comment on anything they want without paying for their actions. Anyone could be that “invisible evil” when they easily believe the rumors are facts without any verification and use their own moral standards to judge others. My intention is to bring this social issue to light, and I hope more people could pay attention to and realize the seriousness of this social problem.“
“Judgement” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
A red spider moves out of a cup and onto a desk before it is squashed on top of a smart phone, by a hand that is eventually revealed to belong to a man. The movie than takes a more surrealistic approach, as the man, in red attire this time, is placed in an otherwordly environment , that mirrors the setting of a spider web eventually. Then he seems to be imprisoned in a sphere of shorts, moving into another abstract setting, while threatening red hands are coming out from below. Then he runs in a corridor before he falls down. The pressing of a mirror leads him into a slide where eyes are bulging from everywhere. Another setting has him coming out of a phone and finally being dead in the ground, in front of a building. Another man passes and takes a photograph with his own phone
Through a surrealistic, abstract approach, Yifan Sun tries to present the feeling and psychology of the people who fall victims to cyberbullying. Although the whole thing is depicted through visual metaphors, it is easy to realize that the “trip” presented shows a man putting himself out on the web through social media, while other people try to “touch” him through their comments or likes (the hands in the movie), while constantly watching what he or she is doing (the eyes in the movie). Essentially, his actions lead him into a labyrinth and a prison of sorts, where there is no way out, except suicide, with the finale adding a very pessimistic note on the whole concept, also because no one cares for what happened to him, and the world will keep on experiencing the blights of social media, as the very finale eloquently highlights.
Yifun Sun's approach is quite artful in its presentation, with the combination of his animation and Jingyu Li's 3D modeling resulting in an excellent flow that carries the short for the whole of its 2-minutes. Also of note is the way the man is drawn, with the his round shape, which changes a number of times, providing a very appealing image.
Although quite brief, “Judgement” is essentially a full film, as Yifan Sun manages to tell his story and present his comments fully, in rather artful fashion.
