The lost tomb of Zhu Ran

This is a documentary about the archaeological activities of the Great Tomb of Zhu Ran. With its unique editing and camera splicing techniques, the documentary breaks the stereotype of archaeology as a boring activity to the general public and uses a narrative approach to popularize science from the simple ones to the deep ones. This is of significance in spreading the culture of the late Eastern Han Dynasty in China and cultivating public awareness of heritage conservation.

With no superfluous rhetoric or the introduction of close-ups, this documentary uses a smooth narrative of the discovery, survey, excavation, investigation, and verification of the tomb, reflecting the rigorous academic attitude of the design team. In contrast to conventional archaeological documentaries with quotations from the classics to advance the plot, this documentary uses a montage technique to intersperse the main part with highly recreated film and television drama, scenes of archaeological excavations, and academic interviews with experts. And the documentary started with the more popular and artistically rich literary works and slowly accesses the relatively obscure epic texts. This narrative bridges the 1,800-year-long cultural gap and enables the audience to gain a direct understanding of the epic life of the tomb owners and also introduces the audience to the social background and economic culture of the Jiangdong region at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty in an immersive manner.

In addition, at the end of the film, the design team presents the artifacts found at the archaeological site with a simple description, which presents the beauty of the artifacts while exploring their strong historical value of the artifacts. This provides the audience with a more realistic image of the society and humanities of ancient East Wu and consolidates the effect of science popularization.