More like a collection of music/dancing videos that an actual movie, “The Cube Phantom’s” ten clips, however, share significant cinematic values and a power that derives from the combination of movement, image and sound.

“The Cube Phantom” is screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

This power is exhibited from the beginning of the first vignette, which takes place in an abandoned house, with modern dancing and music that features violin and piano, but also some industrial elements. The second video is more traditional in its dancing routine, which mostly takes place on a bridge and presents a number of impressive images of the river in the area. The next one is colorful but starts in melancholic fashion before beat music takes over. The rest of the parts feature parkour/hip hop, industrial settings, one taking place in a series of cages inspired by the film “Cageman” and one in a cemetery. The most impressive visually, is the ninth, where the performers dance in white paint until splashes of red paint fall on them and into the screen in a phantasmagoric spectacle.

As mentioned, “The Cube Phantom” is not exactly a movie and the fact is that it might work better as a video installation in a modern art museum. However, the power of the movements of the dancers and the overall images is more than evident, and the various sentiments they express, well communicated. Melancholy, despair, resolve, hope are all here, while the text-on-screen before each video also presents the social/political/philosophical message each segment want to “transmit”.

In combination with Wong Shek-keung and Jordann De Santis impressive cinematography and Antony Cheng’s engaging music, “The Cube Phantom” ends up as a very entertaining spectacle, that actually manages to retain interest for the whole of its 73 minutes, particularly to those who love dancing.