失落的帝国之猴王

In a small village from the middle of Mexico, as a decaying mine's manager, a self-restrained 60 year old homosexual man is suffering from his secret lover's departure, while his little son unconsciously perceives the secret and the separation in one day.

Chan-woo, who has been studying to become a police officer for 5 years, joins his friends for dinner to ask for the money to apply for his exam and ends up getting drunk. He completely blacks out and wakes up not remembering what happened in his next door neighbor's room. Not only that, he finds a bloody corpse in the middle of the room. He hurries back to his room and tries to report the incident but he had forgotten his phone in the other room. But the door is locked and he has to resort to using a rope to swing to the next door room outside the window. Once the phone is recovered, he cannot go back because of a group of cultists who are evangelizing the neighbors in the hallway. He knows it’s the last day to apply for his exam and gets antsy as time is running out.

百草园书店，准确地讲是原百草园书店，在今年五月底就关闭了，此前，曾有长达两周的闭店出清活动。期间，读者们从四面八方赶来，各路媒体也闻讯而至，大家都赶着来看看书店的最后一眼，而书店却因没有电略显狼藉。我也忙于打包发快递和应对各种杂事，直到最后一本书售完，也只是在门上张贴了一份草草写就的闭店公告。整个过程下来，要说有遗憾的地方，就是没能让一家书店体面且正式地与读者们好好告个别。幸好还有影像。那一阵子，过来采访、拍摄、记录百草园最后时光的媒体不少，其中有两个人“蹲守”时间最长，从早上书店开门一直到晚上关门，不管天晴下雨，每天都来。后来有读者认出来他俩，我才知道原来他们是网络上知名的纪录片拍摄者——“蜘蛛猴面包”和其搭档岳源。他们在书店最后两周的经营时间里，拍摄记录了长达数十小时的珍贵画面。经过精心剪辑制作，有了这部即将与各位朋友见面的独立纪录片《百草园》。书店里的灯光明了又暗，关于这家开了十一年的书店，我也很好奇，在最后的一段日子里，他们捕捉到了什么？最后的百草园有很多美好——人与书总在不断地相逢，在黑暗中发出彼此的光；也有很多狼狈——对于城市来讲，书店是如此重要，而它又是如此脆弱，在更强大的力量面前，毫无招架之力。那些“怼天怼地怼空气”的争执，是身为一个书店老板的义愤，也是作为一个普通平民的无奈。蜘蛛猴面包 纪录片导演，代表作《武汉封城日记》系列，2020年微博年度百大视频号。岳源 纪录片导演、制片人、前文字记者，短片作品见于The Guardian、Business Insider、Ruptly等媒体。纪录片作品有《Meant to Be》等。

阿萨亚斯八十年代曾到达台湾，在那里结识了杨德昌、侯孝贤等“刚出学校校门”的新导演。那一时期也正是大陆陈凯歌、张艺谋等年轻导演登上影坛之际。同是一代青年艺术家，心灵有许多共通之处。阿萨亚斯曾经拍过一部纪录片《侯孝贤画像》，用来向侯孝贤致敬。他看过侯孝贤的所有电影，但 这部纪录片他只用了5天拍摄，却花了两个月剪辑。在片中他跟随侯孝贤导演回乡的脚步，纪录了这位当代华人电影大师的心路历程。