Combining ancient designs discovered on the Silk Road, and an enigmatic natural power called the Origin, Zhang Meng created Arti-C, a powerful mechanical man made of wood and metal. Having stirred up fears, he was accused of treason and slain — but not before entrusting the Arti to his son Mo, who controls the wooden robot, and his daughter Tong, a cocky swordswoman. The siblings, now grown, pursue a perilous quest across the desert in search of the legendary city of Loulan, where they hope to find the Origin at its source. However, with ambitious royal schemes afoot and a mysterious tribe guarding the Origin, the Zhangs’ goal will not be easy to achieve. In the battle to come, are they even on the right side?
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Reviews
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
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?
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