ancient chinese myth documentary film still. taotie of gouwu, a colossal ancient sheep-bodied beast with a bone-white matted fleece hanging in heavy clumps over a powerful dark body, two great curved moon horns of tarnished bronze, broad skull with a heavy unhinging jaw and visible tiger teeth, broad flattened hooves with claw-like ridges, its eyes set high in the shoulders above the forelegs as the ancient text describes, amber irises with sharp catchlight and wet corneal reflection, eyelids tense and alert. it lowers its head to sniff the cracked earth, wind stirring the fleece; mineral-red dust drifts through broken pines. wind, dust and fleece stream left to right; tiny ruined stone markers establish scale. ink black, cold cyan, mineral red, bone white, restrained old gold. underexposed 35mm live-action photography, realistic matted layered fur, wet rock and soil, organic grain, subtle halation, empty-bellied and weary, sacred foreboding. exactly one beast in frame.