1. The Core Concept and the Motivation for Creation

 

At the end of 2022, while getting a vaccine at a community hospital, I discovered a palliative care center, which was the only one in Ningbo at the time. I soon became friends with the doctors and nurses there and got to know many stories about the place, the details of which were deeply moving.

 

If death is to be the final station, then this palliative care center is the one stop before it. The scenery appears here depends on each person’s own perspective.

 

Palliative care is not a new concept, but it is still not well known to the public, possibly due to the influence of traditional beliefs. The development of this cause has not been as smooth as we might imagine. At that time, I thought that films, as a form of mass media with a relatively immersive method of communication, could convey the concept more deeply and extensively to the public. Combined with the stories I heard in the palliative care ward, my desire to express and depict was fully awakened.

 

The stories I heard ranged from the beautiful fairytale-like experience of an elderly couple passing away together, to the sorrow of a parent burying their child, to the pain of youthful death, and the bittersweet reconciliation of divorced couples at the last moment… This place is not only “the second-to-last station,” but also a place for farewell. I realized that under such circumstances, the words “goodbye” become as difficult to express as “love” – two words that Chinese people can write about but can rarely utter. So simple, so affectionate, yet always left unsaid. One of the key ideas in palliative care is the concept of the “Four Paths of Life”: gratitude, apology, love, and farewell. The protagonists in these stories (not just the patients, but also their families), after receiving long-term care and guidance from palliative care professionals, have learned to say goodbye well. From these stories, I also saw that palliative care not only brings spiritual peace and fulfillment to the deceased, but also has a positive impact on the mindset and emotions of the living ones. It is clear that saying goodbye is a skill that needs to be learned, and it has the power to bring peace to the deceased and positivity to the living.

 

Thus, these stories, filled with both beauty and pain, regret and comfort, the alternation of life and death, and the mixture of emotions, became the raw material for our creation. “Goodbye” became the core feeling we wanted to grasp, and around this theme, we aimed to tell a simple yet touching story, allowing the audience to follow the protagonist and gently dismantle societal taboos, to face death with equal respect, and to embrace the act of bidding farewell with grace.

 

2. The Metaphor of Time and Space

 

We chose the old district of Ningbo as the setting for this story. It bustles with everyday life while also appears with a touch of elegance. The old district of Ningbo, with the old communities, community parks, and community hospitals, is where the palliative care center is hidden. This simple spatial structure is like the beginning of a classic story: “Once upon a time, there was a mountain, and on the mountain, there was a temple.”

 

This layered space structure subtlely allows us to place the process of urban culture, the daily lives of the citizens, and their views on life and death into corresponding spaces. Big and small, city and people, civilization and tradition… because it is real, not fabricated, it can both contrast and complement each other, yet remains organic, vivid, and grows out of the soil of reality. It is where people live and die. As Camus once said: To understand a city, the simplest way is to explore how its people work, love, and die.

 

What ties these spaces together are the characters, the story, and “the greenness.” The “greenness” is the core visual design in *the Shore of Life*, and green runs throughout the entire film, in various forms, in an attempt to create a real and healing cinematic world. The tender green willows and fir trees in the springtime community symbolize vibrant life, while the green waters surrounding the community park are a miniature of Ningbo, this southern city, and the palliative care center seems like a utopia supported by the crowns of camphor trees. While on the other side of the center, the climbing vines covering the walls hints at the grim realities of life, aging, illness, and death that take place at the community hospital. The green hues—light green, dark green, yellow—symbolize different stages of life. If one pays close attention, one can feel the changes in the greenness, just as natural as life itself. If this brings a sense of clarity and calm, then it is “healing.” If we could distill a promotional concept from this, it would be: “Walk through the bridge of greenness, and arrive in your heart.”

 

Additionally, I was once inspired by Monet’s paintings. The same scene presents different aesthetic sensations at different times—through time, atmosphere, emotions, and subtle changes. And when people experience such delicate sensory communication, the sensation of healing, in harmony with the light and dust, will naturally emerge.

 

The visual thread of the film *the Shore of Life* is the myriad greens of the mundane world. Hinting at the passage of time and spatial migration, the changing greens quietly guide us across the screen into the world we inhabit, and slowly drawing us into the characters’ emotions.