The Puppetmaster (film)

The Puppetmaster
Theatrical Poster
Chinese	戲夢人生
Mandarin	Xìmèng rénshēng
Literally	Dream life
Directed by	Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Produced by	Chiu Fu-Sheng
Written by	Chu Tien-wen Wu Nien-jen
Starring	Lim Giong Li Tian-lu Tsai Chen-Nan
Narrated by	Li Tian-lu
Music by	Chen Ming-Chang
Cinematography	Mark Lee Ping-Bin
Release date	1993
Running time	142 minutes
Country	Taiwan
Language	Mandarin/Taiwanese/Japanese

The Puppetmaster is a 1993 Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Based on the memoirs of Li Tian-lu, Taiwan’s most celebrated puppeteer, this story covers the years from Li’s birth in 1909 to the end of Japan’s fifty-year occupation of Taiwan in 1945.

Many consider The Puppetmaster a masterpiece of world cinema. In the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound poll, seven critics and three directors named it one of the greatest films ever made.

It tells the story of Li Tian-lu who becomes a master puppeteer but is faced with demands to turn his skills to propaganda during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in World War II. This film is the second in Hou's trilogy of historical films that include A City of Sadness (1989) and Good Men, Good Women (1995).

The film won the Jury Prize at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Prize at Istanbul International Film Festival, though the prize at Cannes was due largely to the single-handed efforts of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.