Garden of Kin is a ten-minute AIGC light comedy short film, inspired by the shared memory of reunion dinner across Greater China. Set on the first Lunar New Year's Eve since Mother's passing, a northern Chinese father, Taiwanese siblings, and a Hong Kong son-in-law gather around cold leftovers. A sudden power outage leads them to play Guang Sanyuan—a Chinese drinking game where players take turns naming items in a garden (category); whoever stalls, errs, or repeats must face a forfeit.
The camera follows flickering candlelight as the game moves from botanical garden to zoo, and finally to family garden—each utterance unearthing long-buried grievances, debts, and favoritism. Dialects become both gunpowder and glue: the soft lilt of Taiwanese Mandarin, blunt Northeastern patter, and laid-back Hong Kong-accented Putonghua collide in the darkness, detonating the ugliest truths while illuminating the softest attachments. The moment the lights return, the game halts abruptly—yet the empty bowls and chopsticks have been refilled. It turns out that after roaming all three gardens, the destination is always family reunion.