Explosive speed, fluid motion, and precise choreography—these are the hallmarks of Chinese martial arts. Yet, it is never easy to capture such movements and bring them to a global audience.

This time, a young Chinese director, Derrick Zhang (Xin), is taking on the challenge. And recently, he received an unexpected visitor—Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. 

"Shooting a martial arts-themed film wasn't something I had planned from the start. It's something that naturally comes to a creator at a certain stage. For a director, sometimes you only feel the urge to capture a place after you've left it. So that sense of nostalgia becomes a way to reconnect with and re-imagine the culture. I love exploring every corner of Chinese culture. This time, I really wanted to highlight the craft of gold lacquer repair art, Zhang said.

"The meaning behind it is just so powerful. It's about breaking and rebuilding. Its beauty lies in rising from nothing, shattering, and then coming back. It reminds me of traditional Chinese martial arts films. In many of those films, we see porcelain shattering—vases and bowls breaking apart. But through those broken pieces, it's human relationships that are being mended," he said.