4:44 is an action horror animated short film about a boy who accidentally desecrates an offering during the 7th month ghost festival. This sends him on a collision course with the monstrous ghost of someone he used to bully, forcing him to confront his past misdeeds and repent.
This film is about a young girl who slowly loses her ‘sight’, and eventually finds a new way of ‘seeing’ her world again. The story is unraveled through the main character transitioning from the real world to the world of darkness, and eventually into the world of colours where she begins seeing things in her new found perspective.
In the earlier concepts, I wanted to explore the idea of “blindness” and how a person who was born blind can imagine their world in colours. As I developed the project further over time, I decided to keep the idea of loss and learning to accept the loss in order to gain new perspective.
Working on this film has cost me my blood, sweat and tears, quite literally. So, I do hope you’ll enjoy it when it’s done!
A pilot and her apprentice are marooned on an alien planet. They decide to escape in their mechas to a pre-designated extraction point. Unfortunately, the pilot’s mecha has a faulty arm and since said arm also displays the map, it’s essential they find a replacement.
The pilot eventually acquires a substitute arm, but it’s discovered to be leaking a green fluid that attracts monsters. Despite the warnings of her apprentice, the pilot chooses to use the leaky arm anyway. Throughout their journey, the apprentice suspects they are being shadowed by something in the woods and cautions the pilot, but to no avail.
However, the apprentice is proven right when the monster that has been stalking them confronts the duo. It chases the pilot and apprentice to the edge of a cliff. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, the pilot and apprentice choose to fight. After a brief struggle, the pilot succeeds in knocking the monster unconscious.
Triumphant, the pilot turns her back on the monster and goes to rejoin the apprentice. Slowly coming to, the monster spots this moment of weakness and charges them. The pilot dodges the monster thanks to the apprentice’s warning, but the apprentice herself is not so lucky. Both she and the monster go tumbling over the cliff’s edge. Seeing this, the pilot fires her detachable leaky arm and catches the apprentice at the very last minute. However, the monster has also latched onto the apprentice’s mecha and is gradually dragging the trio down.
The pilot, at the apprentice’s urging presses the button that detaches the leaky arm. Both apprentice and monster fall to their apparent deaths. Distraught, the pilot leaves her mecha and goes to the edge. There, she spots the apprentice hanging off a branch growing from the cliff wall.
The pilot helps the apprentice up to safety and they embrace. Humbled by her bravery, the pilot allows the apprentice to pilot her mecha instead. They both continue on their way to the extraction point.
Man with Rubik’s cube for a head tries to connect with others.