The Arti: The Adventure Begins

After his father's death, young Mo decides that it is his mission to fulfill the dream that his father could not: that of finding the mysterious natural power called The Origin which his father had used in the creation of a wooden and mechanical being, Arti-C. With his swordswoman sister Tong at his side, Mo and the artificial creation travel from one realm to another, encountering strange beings, a mystical Goddess and a Prince who may not be exactly as he seems. When they discover the location of The Origin, they all must struggle to do the right thing....

This is a very odd film from the Huang family, long famous as master puppeteers; this, their most recent, is a mixture of classic wuxia (a style of supernatural sword-fighting), an environmental message, a created mythology, a bit of steam-punk, occasional humour (at one point a character says he's not from Taiwan, he's a Chinese with a bad Korean accent!), puppets - and 3-D! Not sure what the latter was for, other than some birds and knives coming at the audience, but the film is very lovely to look at even in 3-D, although I was kind of scratching my head for the first two-thirds or so. Still, a film that can make you believe that cockroach-like creatures are cute and cuddly must have something going for it, no?