Legendary puppeteer Li Tien-lu helps tell his own story in Hou Hsiao-hsien masterpiece
THE PUPPETMASTER (XÌ MÈNG RÉNSHĒNG) (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1993)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, September 13, free with museum admission, 7:00
Series runs September 12 – October 17
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
Taiwanese New Wave auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece, The Puppetmaster, is a beautifully poetic exploration of the art of storytelling. The second film of his history trilogy, coming between 1989’s A City of Sadness and 1995’s Good Men, Good Women, the 1993 work employs three unique methods as it traces the life and career of puppeteer Li Tien-lu from 1909 to 1945, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Episodes from Li’s life are re-created, beginning even before his birth, as his father sacrifices his family name and takes his wife’s instead at the request of her clan, with the modern-day Li adding voice-over narration. (The film is based on Li’s memoirs.) Hou also uses Peking opera, theater, and puppet shows to demonstrate Li’s skill and to place the film in artistic and historical context. And the eighty-four-year-old Li, who had already been in three of Hou’s films, appears onscreen several times, right on the set, adding an intimate, personal touch to the proceedings. Hou and cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bin often let the camera remain still for long periods of time, allowing viewers to decide where to look and what to focus on, as if they were watching a live performance. The film features stunning art direction by Chang Hung and Lu Ming-jin and a lovely traditional score by Chen Ming-chang; the stellar cast includes Lin Chung and Lim Giong as Li, Tsai Chen-nan as his father, Yang Li-yin as his stepmother, Liou Hung as his grandfather, Bai Ming Hwa as his grandmother, and Vicky Wei as Lei Tzu.
THE PUPPETMASTER includes several glorious puppet shows
The Puppetmaster is about memory and the interpretation of history, but mostly it’s very much a work about control, from the way Li’s father is dominated by his in-laws to the Japanese officers who rule over the community and even the content of Li’s puppet shows. In the first puppet show, before the opening credits are over, three figures are involved in a scene when suddenly the middle puppet is raised above the others, the arm of the puppeteer visible. In the next show, Hou first zeroes in on the ornate box-stage itself before cutting to a side view, revealing the puppeteer behind the scenes; it is not only a tribute to his subject but also a reminder that the audience, both onscreen and watching the film, is in the hands of a genuine master. Winner of the Jury Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, The Puppetmaster is screening September 13 at 7:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “Also like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien” and will be introduced by J. Hoberman. (The series takes its name from a Li quote in The Puppetmaster.) The opening weekend of the festival also includes Hou’s debut feature, Cute Girl, Assayas’s HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-hsien, the sensational Flowers of Shanghai, the coming-of-age tale A Summer at Grandpa’s, 1981’s Cheerful Wind, and the love-story trilogy Three Times.