Chinese kung fu puppet movie?

[cho]

When I saw Versus (another thread below), the theater I was at showed part of another movie before it. It was some wuxia fantasy all done by puppets, kind of like a kungfu Thunderbirds. It was all in mandarin, sounded like one guy doing all the voices. The only characters I can recall are an old man, who appeared to be a wizard or something, a lady, whose voice sounded like a man's, and swordsman. Seeing the puppets fly around was kind of freaky.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

[Shaolinlueb]

nah man i don't know. but now I want to see it. it sounds cool.

[premier]

Sure. I believe its name was Bulletproof Monk.

[GeneChing]

I've been chasing after this movie for 3 years.

Legend of the Sacred Stone was made in 2000 by Chris Huang, a Taiwanese puppet master who comes from a long family lineage of puppet masters. This art form goes back some 300 years, invented by Liang Bin-lin in the Ming Dynasty for political commentary. In traditinal form, all the voices are done by one person too, Chris' brother Vincent. These two founded PILI a tv station that specilized in traditional puppetry and Taiwanese opera. Apparently it was a big hit in Taiwan among the youth.

Still searching for it. Any leads would be appreciated.

[Chang Style Novice]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3336881663&category=2302

How's that, Gene? There were six other auctions for the same item when I just now looked. I just linked to the one ending soonest.

[GeneChing]

...although my boss is headed to Taiwan again soon, so I'll probably skip ebay and go straight to the source. Thanks!

[cho]

Anyone try Google?

Here's the official site:
http://www.pilimovie.com.tw/en/index.htm

I didn't know it was that popular.
"Legend of the Sacred Stone" CD-Rs anyone?

edit: holy crap! I just saw the trailer and realized I need friends in Taiwan.

reminds me of a show that came on PBS many years ago, called 'Long Ago and Far Away', it was a fantasy show, done all with stop-motion puppets.

[GeneChing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibkDPXYsMiU

Here's a new one someone just passed along.

BTW, I did see Legend of the Sacred Stone eventually. I even owned it on DVD. I can't remember where I found it - some con or something. But I lent it out and it never came back. :mad: :( It was really good, amazingly good actually, considering the medium.

[Jimbo]

Gene,

When I lived in Taiwan, I remember occasionally seeing a Taiwanese-language puppet wuxia-type show on TV. Usually when I sat down to eat in one of the ubiquitous cafeteria-style restaurants that had a TV up on the wall. That was earlier in my time over there. I barely watched TV at all when I lived there. They were kinda neat, IMO. I got the impression they were aimed more at an older audience(?). They seemed to take it fairly seriously.