INSTAGRAM
ABOUT
ABOUT
2025
18-25 JUNE
Prefabricated Life
(Qianwen Jin, 2025)
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
When I created this short film “Prepared Life”, my original intention was to explore a seemingly trivial but profoundly affecting modern people's way of life.
The increasingly simple lunch in the play is not only an irony of industrial food, but also a symbol of the high degree of process and standardization of human beings in the institutional machine, and ultimately “dehumanization”.
As a director, I hope that this short film will arouse when our lives become more and more like “pre-made products”, do we still have the right to choose and the power of feeling in our lives? Prefabricated Life” is not just a movie about ‘food’, it is also a parable about the spiritual condition of modern people. May it bring you a moment of reflection and empathy.
This film is produced as part of short film prodcution module.
SYNOPSIS
As an important part of the modern food industry, prepared dishes have met the needs of modern society with their quick and convenient characteristics. However, as the market for prepared dishes continues to expand, its potential impact on health, the environment and culture is also a cause for concern.
The script explores themes of dehumanisation, routine, and the loss of individuality in a corporate, industrialised society.
Mark, 30, an ordinary office worker. Mark’s dependence on prepared meals, which ultimately become pills, symbolises his transition from human to mere cog in the machine. His identity is reduced to a number, suggesting a dystopian view of modern labor, where individuals become indistinct parts of a larger, impersonal system.
The ending, with Mark’s physical and mental collapse as he becomes a literal cog in the corporate machine.
The script explores themes of dehumanisation, routine, and the loss of individuality in a corporate, industrialised society.
Mark, 30, an ordinary office worker. Mark’s dependence on prepared meals, which ultimately become pills, symbolises his transition from human to mere cog in the machine. His identity is reduced to a number, suggesting a dystopian view of modern labor, where individuals become indistinct parts of a larger, impersonal system.
The ending, with Mark’s physical and mental collapse as he becomes a literal cog in the corporate machine.
CAST & CREW
Yixiao Li, the editer and protagonist of the microfilm Prefabricated Life, is currently studying Film Studies at Lancaster University.