>*"Please, continue to retouch me. My photo is going to become my real self."*

Slow-moving psychological drama romance with light horror and a little blood. This one has a lot to say about image and authenticity. Hiding the imperfections on a photo with photoshop and filters to the point of unrecognition. How being someone you don't want to be in order to be popular leads to losing your real self in the process. It's also about the pressure to be authentic and not knowing how to be authentic. Also what happens when your authenticity isn't well-received or censored by society.

The imagery is beautiful, the editing is clever and some great acting. It relies strongly on music to set the mood, it's oftentimes excessive, distracting and it catches you off guard. The real star is the sound it's unrealisticly loud and jarring you can hear every footstep, computer clicks, crickets, birds, frogs, cicadas, clothes rubbing, a piece of bread breaking... a praying mantis eating. It's pretty much ASMR! Every character had something interesting to bring to the table, my favorite was Kai's friend/customer his side story was truly heartwarming.

A very unique romance with hypnotising filmmaking and some really weird moments. If you can get past it's image there's truly something beautiful about it.

*Rented on YouTube*