THE LEGEND OF THE SACRED STONE (2000)
International Premiere of the Digital Restoration
Taiwan, 100min, DCP, in Mandaring with English subtitles
Directed by: Chris Huang
Starring: a bunch of hand puppets

In 1984, the wuxia series, Pili, debuted in Taiwan and became one of the most popular television shows of the ‘80s. In 2000, the series spun off into this feature film which has almost never before been available in an unmutilated version overseas. Here at last is the full, uncut, puppet wuxia of your dreams, presented with all its wildness and beauty intact. The story is straightforward: an evil martial arts master is out to destroy the world and an army of heroes assemble to stop him. So what?

Here’s what. It’s all done with hand puppets, based on the centuries old po-te-hi style of puppet-based storytelling famous in China and brought to Taiwan by the Huang family. Director Chris Huang (called “Ten Carts of Books” by fans for his vast knowledge) is a fourth generation puppeteer and his relative, Vincent Huang (known as the “Eight Tone Genius”), does all the voices. Shot on a 36,000 square foot soundstage, with energetic, lo-fi CGI deployed at breakneck speed on vast puppety sets, Legend of the Sacred Stone feels like an amped-up version of Tsui Hark’s Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain, only it’s all done with puppets. Delivered with total sincerity and dramatic depth, after you see it, you’ll never look at puppets in quite the same way again.