Childhood Revisited

Taiwan｜VR360｜2021｜Color｜10min

★ 2022 Tokyo International Short Film Festival - Virtual Reality Honorable Mentions

★ 2022 Los Angeles Film Awards - Best Virtual Reality

★ 2022 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival

A long time ago, a river carried the memories of childhood. Under the watchful eye of Mount Dawu, generations of Taiwan’s Hakka people protected this flowing lifeline. Clear waters reflected children’s laughter, while swaying water plants and darting fish filled their world. In Wugoushui, childhood felt endless.

Set a paper boat afloat, letting memories drift with the current. Bubbles, like tiny pearls, rise from the mountain’s pure, icy springs, nourishing the water plants and the life they shelter. Since 1960, under the quiet care of the Hakka people, this river has remained unchanged.

""Childhood Revisited"" brings the past to life through the lens of renowned documentary photographer LIU An-Ming. Using virtual reality, his photographs become an immersive experience, taking viewers back to the 1960s - to the Wugoushui community, where childhood moments were frozen in time.

Closet

Taiwan｜VR360｜2020｜Color｜6min

★ 2020 Kaohsiung Film Festival - VR Competition

★ 2020 The 9th HPC Kung Fu - NCHC 3D Animation National Competition – Second Place (Animation Category)

★ 2020 VisionGetWild Award "Animation Category – VR Animation Creation Group" – Silver Award

Since childhood, the protagonist has lived inside a small closet, never leaving it for even a moment. Though this way of life brings countless inconveniences, it has become his reality. As an adult, he decides to seek help from a psychologist in an attempt to resolve this long-standing issue. Through therapy sessions, he revisits his past and gradually unravels the reasons behind his choice to confine himself within the closet.

As layers of memories unfold, the audience witnesses his past attempts to step outside as a child, only to be hurt by familial and societal pressures—sometimes even unintentionally hurting others in the process. Even as social acceptance grows, fear and uncertainty linger, keeping him from taking that step forward.

This film utilizes 360-degree panoramic animation to immerse viewers in the protagonist’s perspective, blending traditional cinematic framing with a comic-inspired paneling technique to explore new storytelling possibilities within VR animation. Through this immersive visual experience, the audience is invited to step into the protagonist’s world and experience his inner struggles firsthand.

LIMBOTOPIA in VR

Taiwan｜VR360｜2021｜Color｜25min

★ 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival

★ 2022 Anifilm - Best VR FIlm Award

★ 2022 Tribeca Festival

""LIMBOTOPIA"" refers to an imagined world where time seems to stand still: a static and often hopeless present, suspended between the poles of utopia and dystopia. After an environmental crisis in contemporary Taiwan, participants become passengers journeying through one such monochromatic eternity, submerged in phantasmagorical animations merging the microscopic and the monumental.

Premiering at Tribeca, Hsieh’s fully immersive 360-degree VR experience seems to defy the laws of gravity and perspective. Hypnotic imagery and an atmospheric electronic soundscape conjure a liminal space between dream and nightmare, between abstraction and annihilation. The result is eerie, innovative and utterly spellbinding.

Taiwan｜VR360｜2020｜Color｜6min

★ 2020 Kaohsiung Film Festival - VR Competition

★ 2020 The 9th HPC Kung Fu - NCHC 3D Animation National Competition – Second Place (Animation Category)

★ 2020 VisionGetWild Award "Animation Category – VR Animation Creation Group" – Silver Award

Since childhood, the protagonist has lived inside a small closet, never leaving it for even a moment. Though this way of life brings countless inconveniences, it has become his reality. As an adult, he decides to seek help from a psychologist in an attempt to resolve this long-standing issue. Through therapy sessions, he revisits his past and gradually unravels the reasons behind his choice to confine himself within the closet.

As layers of memories unfold, the audience witnesses his past attempts to step outside as a child, only to be hurt by familial and societal pressures—sometimes even unintentionally hurting others in the process. Even as social acceptance grows, fear and uncertainty linger, keeping him from taking that step forward.

This film utilizes 360-degree panoramic animation to immerse viewers in the protagonist’s perspective, blending traditional cinematic framing with a comic-inspired paneling technique to explore new storytelling possibilities within VR animation. Through this immersive visual experience, the audience is invited to step into the protagonist’s world and experience his inner struggles firsthand.

Taiwan｜VR360｜2021｜Color｜25min

★ 2023 Melbourne International Film Festival

★ 2022 Anifilm - Best VR FIlm Award

★ 2022 Tribeca Festival

""LIMBOTOPIA"" refers to an imagined world where time seems to stand still: a static and often hopeless present, suspended between the poles of utopia and dystopia. After an environmental crisis in contemporary Taiwan, participants become passengers journeying through one such monochromatic eternity, submerged in phantasmagorical animations merging the microscopic and the monumental.

Premiering at Tribeca, Hsieh’s fully immersive 360-degree VR experience seems to defy the laws of gravity and perspective. Hypnotic imagery and an atmospheric electronic soundscape conjure a liminal space between dream and nightmare, between abstraction and annihilation. The result is eerie, innovative and utterly spellbinding.