The Grand Sacrifice

The last years of the Shang dynasty. Two young women from the same village are taken for a secret blood rite. One escapes, and goes back for the other.

War is closing in on the Shang capital. Yu and Xin are held in a ritual compound and fed the “blood meal” that the priests believe lets the spirits of dead warriors enter a living body. Xin is chosen for the rite they call the Grand Sacrifice.

On the night of the rite the compound erupts. Yu breaks out, then turns back for her friend. What she sees on the road home is told from inside her own head, and the camera stays there until the last minutes.

How it was made

Stills and shots are generated, with the rules of camera, light, palette and material written as structured prompts so they carry across tools: Midjourney for design, GPT Image for controlled keyframes, Seedance for multi-reference video. Selection, edit, sound and colour by the filmmakers.

“The film does not treat human sacrifice as spectacle. Its subject is what a system does to people’s bodies, memories and bonds.”