{"id":613440,"date":"2026-09-03T19:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613440\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T19:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:46:09","slug":"hsin-hsuan-yeh-presents-the-river-within-you-in-venice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613440\/","title":{"rendered":"Hsin Hsuan Yeh Presents ‘The River Within You’ in Venice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTaiwanese animation director Hsin Hsuan Yeh<\/a> (\u201cSense of Nowhere\u201d) is in pre-production on \u201cThe River Within You,\u201d an immersive VR experience exploring the connection between holding on to the memory of someone lost and finding the strength to let them go. Yeh will present the project at the 13th Venice Production Bridge\u2019s Gap-Financing Market, running Sept. 4-6.<\/p>\n

\n\tTold from the perspective of a grandmother who has just died, the story begins as a butterfly guides her soul toward its final resting place: an ocean made of tears. But when her grieving granddaughter\u2019s tear falls onto her body, the grandmother is pulled into a dissolving world of their shared memories, forcing her to journey backwards through their joyful moments before either can move on.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe premise draws on a Taiwanese folk belief that a living person\u2019s tears falling upon the deceased can prevent their soul from finding rest. The tale asks whether, when death frightens us because no new memories can be made, returning to those we already share can become a way of saying goodbye.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy grandmother had terminal cancer,\u201d the director tells Variety. \u201cWhen I came back to Taiwan to see her, she could no longer speak. In my memories, she had always been this happy, optimistic person who was constantly laughing. But after she passed away, somehow I could only remember her as she was during those final days.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe River Within You\u201d grew out of Yeh\u2019s own sense of being stuck \u2013 and of the unfairness of grief, which can reduce a lifetime to its final days, allowing hardship to overshadow the person who existed before them. By journeying back to happier moments, she wanted to reclaim that person from a past grief had seemingly erased. \u201cEven though I can\u2019t bring the person back, I can bring back who they were,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd perhaps remind those still living to cherish both the time they had together and the time they have now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor producer Hsia Hsien Chao, the project marks her first time using VR to explore life, death and bereavement. \u201cThe story Hsin wants to tell through this immersive experience can resonate anywhere because it comes from something deeply personal,\u201d Chao says. \u201cEven though it draws on a Taiwanese folk belief, the emotions behind it are universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 30-minute solo, seated experience places audiences in the grandmother\u2019s perspective as they solve puzzles intended to help her granddaughter work through her grief and ultimately let go. Drawn from Yeh\u2019s own memories with her grandmother, the challenges turn personal recollections into interactive encounters.<\/p>\n

\n\tCentral to navigating them is hand tracking, transforming touch into both a narrative and emotional device. \u201cWhat we touch determines what we feel,\u201d the director says. \u201cI wanted to incorporate that into the story because it is deeply connected to how we experience grief \u2013 to the way we touch and hold onto the belongings of someone who has died.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat sense of human touch extends to the project\u2019s visual language. Photogrammetry-scanned clay models combined with CGI animation preserve tactile textures, bringing handcrafted warmth to the visuals. \u201cVR can feel quite digital and a little isolating, so I want people to feel as though they can almost reach out and touch something,\u201d Yeh says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taiwanese animation director Hsin Hsuan Yeh (\u201cSense of Nowhere\u201d) is in pre-production on \u201cThe River Within You,\u201d an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,260107,61,60,270,802],"class_list":["post-613440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-hsin-hsuan-yeh","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-venice-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}