Rob Munday
Trying to imagine just how much your life would change if you lost your eyesight is an almost impossible task. Thanks to films like Song Huang’s 轻触(Touch) – which was inspired by a friend of the director’s, who lost her eyesight – we are able to get a much better understanding of what that experience must be like, as we’re placed side-by-side with its sightless protagonist as he struggles with his identity and searches for love.
Opening with a scene in a dark bathroom, where Touch’s lead character navigates a dating app on his phone (via a screen reader), masturbating as he chats to fellow user Gabriel, we’re instantly immersed into the world of the short and get a good understanding of the intimate side of life we’re about to explore in the next 12-minutes. Largely centred around its protagonist’s search for a connection, Touch does leave the dark confines of the bathroom for a scene at a doctor’s where we learn more about his condition before we return to his dimly light home to eavesdrop on more of his conversations.
The majority of Huang’s film unfolds in the dimly lit bathroom of its protagonist.
Touch isn’t really a film interested in the day-to-day struggles of losing your sight, instead, it helps you to empathise with the situation by taking a much more relatable route – love and intimacy. As we join its central character, as he spends his evening shut away in the bathroom trying to connect with strangers via an app, we begin to understand what he really wants and his focus doesn’t seem to be getting his sight back. He’s found his own way to reach out to people – as many of us do nowadays, via apps on our phones – he now just needs to discover the confidence to let these new connections into his life, by revealing his affliction.
Dedicated to Huang’s friend, who he reveals was “diagnosed with terminal cancer and lost their sight before the age of thirty”, he wanted to make a film that celebrated her search for love in her new life. Though based on this very specific situation, the filmmaker was also keen to point out the universal aspects of his short, as he hopes viewers will resonate with the idea of the “separate identities between online and real-life dating”. His lead character may be disabled and part of the LGBTQ community, but he hopes this story will “speak to our entire generation, who is seeking love and intimacy with a cellphone”.
“Darkness is an important part of the story”
Thematically fascinating, it also feels as if a lot of consideration has gone into the aesthetic of Touch. Intentionally making his images “darker than normal”, Huang says that he was “hoping to challenge audience’s viewing habits” with the visuals of his short. Overly dark imagery is something we regularly avoid on S/W, as they don’t tend to play well online. Touch bucks the trend though, as they feel an essential part of the journey, placing you in the darkness, alongside its lead. The subtitles do help and I have wondered how effective the film would be if it was a subtitled piece, but as Huang explains: “Darkness is an important part of the story”. And he couldn’t be more right.
Originally released on Nowness, as part of their Lovesick series (which also featured fellow S/W pick Mr Mare), though Touch is a couple of years old now it stills feels like a fresh, original piece of filmmaking and the type of story that only gets a chance to be told through short film. Huang is now developing another short as a sequel to Touch, which once again focuses on the LGBTQ community in modern China.