The Killing Game
2023-2024
44' 39''
Single Channel
16:9 4K Ultra HD
Full Digital Video with Color and Sound
Chinese with English Subtitle
Synopsis
The Killing Game is an experimental, high-information essayistic 3D digital video. This visual narrative employs
sandbox level design reminiscent of RPG games and is primarily produced using game engines. Two player
characters experience independent level events within diferent types of fantasy and science fiction scenes.
Each game level in the imagery constitutes a standalone chapter. The nonlinear text, processed through the
experiences of the player characters in diferent game levels, forms a linearly ordered world within the game.
All game levels collectively explore a question from multiple dimensions: the profound impact of fully realizing the digital on the restructuring of human value systems in the digital age. The reason for integrating all content in game mode is that games represent the epitome of digital culture and technological realization.
Production Team
Design of Character&Scene: Ziming Peng
Performance of Facial Capture: Ziming Peng
Scriptwriter: Ziming Peng
Camera, Lighting, Editing, Colorist, Grafik Design, Re-recording Mixer: Ziming Peng
Animation: Ziming Peng
Musik Production: Ying Yu 于滢
Voice of Character: Microsoft Azure AI - Speech Studio
Special Thanks: Bjørn Melhus, Felix Vogel
Funded by: Hessische Abschlussfilmförderung, Hessen Medien GmbH; HAB - Förderung
Exhibition View
Life and death are among the ultimate questions of morality and philosophy, yet death does not exist in the fictional world. Thus, this imagery begins its narrative with death, using violence and slaughter as means of entry into discussion. If violence in the fictional world does not result in someone's actual death, can it still be defined as violence? If death does not exist, does morality still hold? And of course, the question remains, what is real in this age? Even in the most visually realistic games, actual death is absent. Without death, the significance of morality in the physical world diminishes. The evolution of morality arises from humanity's imperative to uphold societal stability and perpetuate civilization. In reality, kiling symbolizes absolute violence and is taboo due to the ireplaceable nature of human life. If individuals perceive an existence beyond death, does the concept of death remain taboo? Does it retain moral significance? A world inhabited by superhumans, at its core, lacks moral depth, leaving only primal competition. In the digital realm, epitomized by war games, death becomes a conceptual simulation—a portrayal of its effects and a trigger for memories, yet without actual deaths. Morality regarding human life in the physical world becomes merely a framework for navigating experiences in the digital realm.
Video Stills
