"When I was filming in the cave, I was worried that I would mysteriously disappear the next day." On October 27, the thriller suspense film "The Xiangshan Luminous Incident" held its premiere in Beijing with the theme of "Stay away from light sources". Director and screenwriter Zhao Yu shared this during the post-screening exchange.
He admitted that the film's core scene, the "Mysterious Cave," was filmed at the 816 Nuclear Power Plant. "The 'megaphobia' brought on by the darkness and emptiness is a key source of the film's thriller. I actually got lost in there during filming. In that kind of environment, you can't help but believe that supernatural events might actually exist."
Group photo of all the main creators
At the premiere, director Zhao Yu, producer Chang Lei, and leading actors Xiao Shenyang, Wang Wei, Zhang Dengping, and Ni Jingyang, along with production representative Wang Guozhen and director of photography Chen Chen, along with other key creative staff, interacted with the audience. The film will be screened exclusively through the National Art Federation on October 31st.
As the film's star, Xiao Shenyang departs from his well-known comedic persona to tackle a thriller for the first time, playing Zhang Peng, an investigator caught up in a supernatural luminous incident with a hidden secret. Wearing half-rimmed glasses, he appears polite on the surface, yet in reality he possesses a paranoid, even obsessive, state, a stark contrast to his usual cheerful and amusing persona.
Director Zhao Yu was full of praise for Xiao Shenyang's performance: "Xiao Shenyang's performance is very delicate. He's not only comedic but also very calm. Sometimes on set, I couldn't even recognize him as Xiao Shenyang. His performance shocked and impressed me." Zhao Yu told reporters that this subversive casting choice capitalized on the actor's diverse potential. "The character of Zhang Peng remains a mystery until the very end, and Xiao Shenyang captured this complexity very well."
Starring Xiao Shenyang
When asked why he chose to star in such a drastically different thriller, Xiao Shenyang offered his own explanation. "It was precisely because the script was so innovative, and I'm always striving for breakthroughs, that I decided to try this new direction." He admitted that both the thriller and suspense storyline and the stark contrast of the character presented significant challenges for him. "I hope to show the audience a different Xiao Shenyang through this work."
A reporter from The Paper asked: "As an actor from Northeast China, I noticed that the filming location for this movie was in the southwest, between Chongqing and Guizhou. The distance from Northeast China to Southwest China is quite long. In order to play the role of Zhang Peng well, what adjustments and transformations did you make, from the dialect to the character's thinking?"
"There was an eight-minute segment we shot four or five times. On set, we had a dialect instructor who recorded the complete lines for me. I had to listen to them at least twice a day, which was very stressful, including during the scene where Zhang Peng transforms. I've only learned the basics of Chongqing Mandarin. If I spoke a few lines now, it would probably sound even more authentic than in the film," Xiao Shenyang replied. At the unanimous request of the audience, he delivered two lines of Chongqing dialect: "College Classmates" and "Box Office Over 100 Million Yuan."
Movie stills
Presented as a pseudo-documentary, "The Elephant Mountain Luminous Incident" follows the protagonists as they journey deep into a mysterious, forbidden area, attempting to uncover the truth behind a paranormal luminous event that occurred ten years ago. The fleeting glow, the gloomy forest, the conflicting testimonies, and the ever-present "buzzing" sound all make the audience feel as if they were there firsthand, experiencing the fear of approaching the unknown.
In introducing the film's features, producer Chang Lei emphasized that the pseudo-documentary approach, a rare technique on the mainland big screen, greatly enhances the audience's sense of immersion. "When you don't know what will happen next, or even what you'll face, that uncertainty deepens the impression of fear. We hope that through this approach, the audience will truly immerse themselves in the story and become firsthand witnesses of the events."
Director Zhao Yu explained that the film's core is "eerie" rather than "ghostly," using supernatural phenomena, psychological pressure, and environmental atmosphere to create a chilling feeling. "We invented the place name 'Xiangshan,' drawing on the unique topography, greenery, and even dialect of the southwest region to construct an Eastern-style sense of mystery and thriller rooted in reality."
movie posters
Regarding the 816 Nuclear Project site, the film's filming location, reporters discovered its exact location: deep within the Wuling Mountains, close to the Wujiang River. Built on the mountainside, the project practically hollowed out the mountain, a site long since removed from maps. Now decommissioned and transformed into the "816 Project Scenic Area," portions of it are open to the public, serving as a unique demonstration site for patriotic education and a museum dedicated to the history of the Third Front.