The Puppetmaster

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Barnes and Noble

The best part of Taiwanese director Hou Hsaio-hsien’s Three Tragedies series, The Puppet Master (1993) also one of Hou’s most accessible works. Centered around a real man, puppeteer Li Tien-lu (played by himself and three different actors), it combines documentary and fiction, rifling through 40 years of Taiwanese history with his life story. After Li’s mother died when he was eight, his father remarried a former prostitute. She and Li didn’t get along, which led him to pursue puppetry. However, he had to give all the proceeds from his craft to his father. Stylistically, The Puppet Master conscientiously avoids close-ups—if any occur, it’s usually because an actor has walked toward the camera—and camera movement. For audiences used to Western conventions of framing and storytelling, many of Hou’s decisions are likely to seem perverse: Important events take place offscreen, related only by Li’s voice-over. The documentary elements are enhanced by Li’s onscreen presence as he talks about key events. In one splendid instance, a scene of his wife crying is followed by a shot of him hammering in a courtyard; it’s explained in retrospect as a response to their youngest son’s death. The Puppet Master is an immensely rewarding film, inspiring in its devotion to mining Taiwanese history, and ultimately redeeming the cliché that the personal is political.

Steve Erickson