Official selection
Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival 2022
Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival 2022
Taipei Film Festival 2022
Director
Huang Wen-Chang
Producer
Huang Liang Hsun
Writer
Huang Liang Hsun, He Yuan Yu
Cast
Huang Wen-Tze
contact
Flash Forward Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Official website
The martial artist Su Hua-Jen has risked his life clambering to the summit of one of the five sacred mountains of Wu Lin, only to come across two monstrous beings in battle. His timely intervention turns the tide of the fight, and unbeknownst to him, sets in motion a series of monumentally consequential events. Back in the city, Su has a more mundane problem to face—an enormous debt with the local book lender. To pay this off, he must peddle his remarkable skills as a physician. While Su would prefer to steer clear of the affairs of the martial arts world, a request from the Lord of Globe Castle is financially promising—and might gain him access to the Fantastic Academy, where he can feast his eyes on the Limitless Celestial Book. But treachery is afoot, and Su is soon drawn into a crisis that will rock the foundations of Heaven and Earth.
The centuries-old tradition of budaixi—Chinese opera by way of glove puppetry—remains alive in Taiwan to this day. Led by generations of the Huang family of puppeteers, Pili International Multimedia has evolved the art form to keep up with the times, bringing it to TV in the ’80s, and eventually feature films with 2000’s LEGEND OF THE SACRED STONE. Their latest is both a new high in production quality and digital enhancement, and also a reaffirmation of classical wuxia sensibilities. A briskly paced, elaborately ornamented, and surprisingly bloody epic of intrigue, honour, martial arts and mysticism, it’s above all an exquisite ocular feast for fans of the fine arts of miniature modelling, figurine sculpture, costume design, and puppetry. – Rupert Bottenberg
Showings
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