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Taiwanese animation director Hsin Hsuan Yeh (“Sense of Nowhere”) is in pre-production on “The River Within You,” an immersive VR experience exploring the connection between holding on to the memory of someone lost and
finding the strength to let them go. Yeh will present the project at the 13th Venice Production Bridge’s Gap-Financing Market, running Sept. 4-6.
Told from the perspective of a grandmother who has just died, the story begins as a butterfly guides her soul toward its final resting place: an ocean made of tears. But when her grieving granddaughter’s tear falls onto her body, the grandmother is pulled into a dissolving world of their shared memories, forcing her to journey backwards through their joyful moments before either can move on.
The premise draws on a Taiwanese folk belief that a living person’s tears falling upon the deceased can prevent their soul from finding rest. The tale asks whether, when death frightens us because no new memories can be made, returning to those we already share can become a way of saying goodbye.
“My grandmother had terminal cancer,” the director tells Variety. “When I came back to Taiwan to see her, she could no longer speak. In my memories, she had always been this happy, optimistic person who was constantly laughing. But after she passed away, somehow I could only remember her as she was during those final days.”
“The River Within You” grew out of Yeh’s own sense of being stuck – and of the unfairness of grief, which can reduce a lifetime to its final days, allowing hardship to overshadow the person who existed before them. By journeying back to happier moments, she wanted to reclaim that person from a past grief had seemingly erased. “Even though I can’t bring the person back, I can bring back who they were,” she says. “And perhaps remind those still living to cherish both the time they had together and the time they have now.”
For producer Hsia Hsien Chao, the project marks her first time using VR to explore life, death and bereavement. “The story Hsin wants to tell through this immersive experience can resonate anywhere because it comes from something deeply personal,” Chao says. “Even though it draws on a Taiwanese folk belief, the emotions behind it are universal.”
The 30-minute solo, seated experience places audiences in the grandmother’s perspective as they solve puzzles intended to help her granddaughter work through her grief and ultimately let go. Drawn from Yeh’s own memories with her grandmother, the challenges turn personal recollections into interactive encounters.
Central to navigating them is hand tracking, transforming touch into both a narrative and emotional device. “What we touch determines what we feel,” the director says. “I wanted to incorporate that into the story because it is deeply connected to how we experience grief – to the way we touch and hold onto the belongings of someone who has died.”
That sense of human touch extends to the project’s visual language. Photogrammetry-scanned clay models combined with CGI animation preserve tactile textures, bringing handcrafted warmth to the visuals. “VR can feel quite digital and a little isolating, so I want people to feel as though they can almost reach out and touch something,” Yeh says.
