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Title: The Mosquito Man
Runtime: 12 min
Country: China
Director: Shigeto ‘Rage’ Sayama
Placement: Best Experimental Short + Award of Excellence
Competition: December, 2025
Synopsis: Circle back to this opening chapter of “A Cycle of Awakening” where everything began with the inception of the Mosquito Man – an original visual parable written and directed by Shigeto ‘Rage’ Sayama.
In the sterile confines of a hotel room, a man is torn from sleep. What follows is the visceral manifestation of consciousness rudely disturbed—the birth of the Mosquito Man.
This visual parable explores the duality of human mind: the deliberate thoughts we control—what to eat, where to go—versus the involuntary stream of thoughts that simply happens, buzzing beneath, unchecked and unexamined. It is this latter realm, this automatic chatter of the untended mind, that feeds our protagonist’s transformation.
The awakening is rarely gentle. It is often rude.
Through metaphor and image, we witness what emerges when the unconscious patterns that quietly govern our lives are suddenly, violently, brought to light.