Short Film Review: Water Lily: Birth of the Lotus

Water Lily: Birth of the Lotus is originally a Japanese tale, detail the birth of, well, the lotus. The short film itself has French origins and was directed by Alexandra Batina. It was released to the general public on the first of January(whoo!), 2015. It was later put on Vimeo July 7, 2015, and as the years passed, many YouTube channels got their hands on it. The one I watched was uploaded March 29, 2017 by a channel under the name of GCMeetup. This particular account uploads a lot of animated shorts and short films frequently. It's how I stumbled upon this film, I was on a little binge watching session and voila, I found the "movie" to review.
We begin with a man, most likely an adventurer, wandering along a creek. He's collecting little bits of the nature around him, leading me to believe that this area is unexplored. As he continues to look around, we zoom in on this large, pink willow tree in the middle of the bay. Between the leaves, we see a creature in the shape of a female. We see her connected to the water bed via a cord and she sports hair identical to the willow's leaves. She also seems to be completely cut off from humans and man-made items--she's frightened by a book and amazed by feet. So, based on that, I'm left to assume she's designed to be a metaphor of nature. Specifically, nature before man.
Then the two meet--instant connection. They're drawn to each other, and for a hot minute, nothing happens. They just take each other in and live on peaceful. But then, the man gets curious. He tries to discover even more, and just like that, he slips and falls. The willow girl becomes worried and goes out to save him. She even pulls her cord and breaks it to ensure his safety.
However, without that cord, she quickly begins to wilt away. Not just her, but all the trees in that bay and her original willow dies off. The man stares for a moment, slowly understanding the damage done. Quickly, he rushes to hold and console her. The two hug, signifying nature and humanity's relationship, and they die together with everything else.
This leaves behind a small lotus. Personally, I feel like this lotus was birthed not from their death, but from the bond the two had shared. Nature and mankind combined can create beautiful things, but when either gets sloppy, they can easily wipe everything out as well.