I wanted the storm as co-star — wind made visible by a hundred bells and fluttering charts, the swaying bridge as the literal threshold that belongs to neither woman. Ainu-Hangzhou gives me broad warm bones against fine features I've not staged before, and the storm-teal hair codes anime without ever tipping into illustration. She's lit by one guttering lantern and she's HAPPY to see who's coming — that's the disruption of symmetry I was reaching for. — Nyx