The definitions of home and childhood have been at the core of many stories in literature and film. Considering our ever-changing times and aspects such as globalization, gentrification and digitization, it should come as no surprise that the idea of defining those terms has come into question, as these may be juts as fluid as other aspects of our life. Perhaps this is what director Qinyuan Lei felt upon returning to her hometown of Shenzen. The town of her childhood had transformed to a metropolis, now the home to more than 20 million people, with an ever-growing software industry giving it the nickname of “China’s Silicon Valley”. Her 2021 documentary “The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost” is therefore the result of these feelings, and thus a modern contemplation on the concepts of home and childhood.
The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost is screening at Mint Chinese Film Festival
The documentary focuses on the lives of Haohao and Zhouzhou, two young girls whose parents work in Huaqiangbei, Shenzhen’s biggest marketplace for technology and electronics. After school, they try to pass the time, inventing games to distract themselves and imagining worlds in which they have to fight strange creatures and even ghosts. While we observe their games, the director adds an off-commentary, talking about her re-encounter with her home, her memories and how much has changed in the time she was away.
It is perhaps easy to limit the message of Lei’s documentary to a criticism of the changes in her home. Given her commentary, which often compares the memory of Shenzhen to the place it has become, you may come to this conclusion. But then again, her words are more influenced by nostalgia, the understandable sorrow about having lost a place that was once dear to you. However, there is more than meets the eye to “The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost” as the title already suggests, since perhaps it is her who has become the ghost, a stranger to this new world.
At the same time, there is the aspect of childhood that Lei also explores and which adds another layer to an otherwise rather sad observation of inescapable change. As the two girls have grown accustomed to the environment, where they spent most of their free time, they have come to accept it or, more precisely, have claimed it for themselves. The windowless area, filled with shops and electronic equipment, has become not only their home, but their playing field and their limitless imagination, a way to bring life to this boring environment. The director gazes, perhaps just as we, at the joy of the girls who make their own home with the help of the creativity and imagination that still defines childhood to this day.
“The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost” is a documentary about the concepts of home and childhood. Qinyuan Leidirects a feature which is sad for the loss of one’s home, but which is also hopeful for the future.
