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Merry-Go-Round

DEMIGOD: The Legend Begins

HUANG Wen Chang

Taiwan2022103min Asian Premiere

Synopsis

This is a puppet show, but as it is an extremely elaborate one. Viewers might even doubt if this is actually done with puppets from the scenes with a character doing a somersault and landing lightly or a character, subtly manipulating an equal-arm-balance with his fingers. Given that this film was made by Pili international multimedia in Taiwan, the doubt soon disappears, as the company has been turning puppet shows with touch of CGI into both TV series and big screen productions for a long time now. Through the fantasy martial arts genre, DEMIGOD: The Legend Begins tells the story of Su Huan-Jen, who finds himself drawn into the world of martial arts while trying to locate his biological parents, and gets involved in a conspiracy surrounding the limitless celestial book. The skills in reconstructing every scene of a live-action martial arts film into a puppet show are admirable. There are several scenes that make the viewers want to stop the film to look closer at the movements of puppets. (Rhana JANG)

Diretor

HUANG Wen Chang

The chief director of Pili puppet show series which is produced more than 3,000 hours over 30 years in Taiwan. The local fans admire him as an ‘intellectual writer’. He also di-rected a glove puppet movie The Legend of the Sacred Stone in 2000, first 3D glove puppet movie The ARTI£ºThe Adventure Begins in 2015, and puppet show stage per-formance Wolf Castle in the National Theater in 1998.

Credit

Producer
HUANG Liang Hsun
Screenplay
HUANG Wen Chang, HUANG Liang Hsun, HE Yuan Yu
Cinematographer
LI Ruei Fong, HUANG Guang Jin
Editor
KAO Ming Cheng
Music
CHANG Wei Fan
Production Design
LIN Chih Wei, LIN Tien Yu, TSENG Hao Ming
Sales
Flash Forward Entertainment