References — sound design

Joker, Score by Hildur Guðnadóttir

Guðnadóttir’s score is characterized by deep, sorrowful string lines that mirror the protagonist’s isolation and slow unraveling. The cello, often used alone, becomes a vessel for unspoken psychological trauma.

While our film is set in a very different cultural context, the emotional isolation and suppressed frustration in Joker parallels the conditions of many Chinese working-class youth. I adopted a similar approach—using strings not as romantic instruments but as tools to express psychological heaviness.

Trainspotting, Soundtract

The soundtrack of Trainspotting embodies youthful defiance and existential emptiness. “Born Slippy” in particular captures the duality of euphoria and desperation that underpins the characters’ drug use and aimless rebellion.

I structured part of my soundtrack around a rising techno rhythm that never climaxes. This reflects the “gambling” lifestyle where the win is always just out of reach. Like the characters in Trainspotting, my characters pursue a kind of freedom that is always on the horizon, never fully real.

Aphex Twin & Caterina Barbieri

Aphex Twin’s fragmented, unpredictable compositions and Barbieri’s hypnotic modular sequences both challenge traditional musical form. Their work often feels like a brain thinking out loud, fluctuating between order and chaos.

Their approaches helped me develop a non-linear, emotionally ambiguous sound language for my film. Where the narrative logic of the story fractures (due to the dream twist), I let the sound become unstable—sometimes beautiful, sometimes jarring.

From Barbieri, I borrowed long-evolving synth patterns that create trance-like immersion. From Aphex Twin, I took the courage to let my sounds glitch, break, or “misbehave”—mirroring the characters’ unstable sense of agency and control.