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When people ask me about Peony Pavilion, they ask what's it about. I tell them it's about love and loneliness. To me, the daily lives living on this isolated planet are about love and loneliness. Sometimes we think we could live without pursuing love; but in restless dreams we all become undisguised. 

Sitting at the backseat in a taxi, in an early April, before the shooting, with my DP, I talked about the fear and sorrow of spring in Chinese culture. In New York city, in a warm spring day, people enjoy themselves in the central park; while in ancient China, a blossomy tree broke a poet's heart. Flowers are fragile; the start leads directly to the end. Through the flowers the poet saw the predestined withering. Wind is a dagger, rain is a sword; together they slaughter the spring. Beauty is as brief as a lightning: flower, youth, love.

In the park, Du Liniang saw the dilapidated walls through the flowers blooming in profusion. Behind this prosperous view, there lies the eternal emptiness. Knowing all these, she still managed to traverse life and death for the one person she fell in love with. That's when she became the most brave girl.