Bliss: Beyond the Edge of Time
Taiwan | Mandarin, English subtitles
2026 | 95 Minutes
Director: Kevin Geiger, Liu Yu Shu,
Chiu Li Wei, Liao Wei Chih, Jade Lien, Jo Jo Hwang
Bliss: Beyond the Edge of Time is a series of six animated films that combine to creature an anthology that offers six uniquely different looks at the future of humankind.
This anthology offers a brilliant glimpse into contemporary Taiwanese animation, from six different directors all tackling the same subject matter. Creative partnerships such as this one, help everyone involved grow their audience – and audiences such as, well, us, discover directors and talent we may not have otherwise found out about. Beautiful symmetry and symbiosis.
See Also: When You Open The Door at Fantasia Festival
The idea that countless meanings can emerge from different combinations of two symbols is similar to binary logic in modern computing. Drawing from this concept, Bliss: Beyond the Edge of Time presents six animated shorts, by six extraordinary directors, each inspired by a different hexagram. Through diverse animation styles and strong ties to Taiwanese culture, each film explores various aspects of the relationship between humanity and technology.
With the rapid development of AI in recent years, and its unprecedented integration into nearly every aspect of daily life, these conversations have become more widespread and immediate.
The Taiwanese animated anthology Bliss: Beyond the Edge of Time takes a different approach. Rather than focusing solely on technology itself, it draws inspiration from Liu Yao of I-Ching , an ancient Chinese divination manual and a foundational text of Eastern philosophy, examining the relationship between “cold-advancing” technology and humanity from multiple perspectives.
For me, personally, this is a topic I have spent a lot of time thinking about. Especially the duality of artificial intelligence and mankind. I don’t trust a digital future of any kind. Not only because I don’t believe an emotionless cyber-intelligence can make wise choices, but because certain human agencies will no doubt weaponize it against us, the average person. Yeah – I’ve seen the Matrix movies and Ghost In The Shell (as well as a plethora of others that dwell on this topic.)
While the whole robots and artificial intelligence versus humanity isn’t a new topic for film makers, more and more, we are creeping towards this all becoming a reality. Some are for it. Others, hopefully more than the for it crowd, are staunchly against it. We’ve all seen The Terminator films. Skynet. All that stuff. And as we advance more and more towards a Blade Runner-like future, the more and more it worries me. Perhaps this is why I found Bliss: Beyond the Edge of Time such an interesting film.
This is something sweet for anime fans – and yes, sure, anthologies aren’t new (one of my favorite animation works is The Animatrix anthology, for example) but it’s still great when a new one comes along. Six short animated films each with a different approach to a similar, binding topic. What’s not to love about that! Some I liked more than others, and some styles liked over some of the others too. Luckily, there’s a little bit of everything here so something for all animation fans.
Read More:
>> After School at Fantasia Festival
>> Unidentified Murder at Fantasia Festival
>> Tunnels : Sun In The Dark at Fantasia Festival
If the chance arises, I believe this is the sort of thing that animation fans, as well as anyone interested in the possibility of symbiosis between man and machine, brain and artificial intelligence, should take the time to watch. This subject matter isn’t going anywhere. In fact, I expect, I believe it will continue to grow as our two worlds grow ever closer, set on a collision course that may – or may not, spell the end of humanity. We truly are living strange days.
Can AI, robotics and humanity ever truly co-exist? I have my doubts. People can’t even co-exist with other people yet. I suppose time will tell.
