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Living in a somewhat self-imposed exile in Hong Kong for the past five years, Ying Liang has somewhat been an exile from filmmaking as well over this period, spending much of that time teaching. However, he has recently returned to being behind the camera with “I Have Nothing to Say”: a short reflecting his own difficulties with the Chinese authorities, as well as a recent trip to Taiwan.

“I Have Nothing to Say” is streaming on CathayPlay

Xiaolin (Nai An), a widow in China, is suffering from cancer, her home soon to be demolished, and is interrogated by the police over her estranged daughter Shu (Zhe Gong): a political filmmaker living in exile in Hong Kong with her husband and son, having made films critical of the Chinese government. To start, Xiaolin denies any knowledge of her daughter’s life these past five years since she has been away.

When a movie refers repeatedly to David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest”, a notoriously difficult-to-read novel, it is bound to follow a non-linear path, which is exactly what “Ex-Wife Monogatari” does, in a somewhat experimental short, which lingers, though, towards genre conventions.

Ming, a painter, is experiencing a debilitating grief after his wife Li has passed away during a miscarriage. To fill the void inside him, he seeks the company of other women, a number of which are eager to “help”. However, his trauma remains and the memories of his wife continue to torment him, to the point that he tries to manipulate each woman she meets to be exactly like her. Eventually, he meets Hong at a funeral, a woman who looks and acts like Li, and who is soon revealed to foster another “fetish”, of only being loved when she pretends to be someone else. As the childhoods...