ZHE LI
Project Title: HIM
Genre: Narrative
Length：10 mins
Language available: English
Status: Post-production
Logline ：
only to find himself drawn into the mysterious novel the writer is working on,
blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
In HIM, I explore the intersection of obsession, reality, and fiction. The story revolves around a character
who crosses the boundary between a constructed world and his own reality, illustrating how deeply stories
can affect and even control us.
I’m fascinated by how people interact with the narratives around them—whether it’s a novel, a film, or the
stories we tell ourselves. HIM delves into this by blurring the lines between the character’s life and the novel
he discovers, leading to a psychological unraveling. Through the act of intrusion, the protagonist steps into
another world, mirroring how as storytellers, we create worlds that others can enter and lose themselves within.
The structure of HIM plays with the idea of perspective, constantly shifting the audience’s role from passive observer
to active participant, just as the protagonist shifts from voyeur to character within the story. It’s a reflection of how
narratives pull us in, sometimes distorting the boundary between truth and fiction. My goal is to challenge the audience
to think about their relationship with the stories they consume, and how these stories can blur the lines between who
they are and who they believe themselves to be.
Parts of Script
Inspiration:
The idea for HIM came from my fascination with the blurred lines between reality and fiction. I wanted to
explore how stories can influence and reflect our actions, which is why the protagonist in HIM becomes
drawn into the writer’s world, slowly losing the distinction between his life and the novel.
I took inspiration from works like The Double by Dostoevsky and Paul Auster's City of Glass, where
characters face the unraveling of their own identity while becoming part of someone else’s story.
Similarly, Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock inspired the theme of voyeurism—how watching others
can quickly turn into obsession, and how trying to manipulate a situation can have unexpected
consequences.
At its core, HIM is about the danger of trying to control a story that’s not your own, and how that can pull
you deeper into a reality you can no longer escape.