Tang Emperor’s Tour to the Land (2012) 唐皇游地府
Director: Li Luo
Screenwriter: Li Luo
Starring: Li Wen / Wu Wei / Li Juchuan / Li Hao / Yang Xiao
Genre: Drama / Comedy
Country/Region of Production: Canada / Mainland China
Language: Wuhan Chinese / Mandarin Chinese
Date: 2012-10-02 (Vancouver Film Festival)
Duration: 71 minutes
Also known as: Emperor Visits The Hell
IMDb: tt2431406
Adaptation: Inspiration
Summary:
The film won the Dragon and Tiger Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2012. In 2013, it was selected into the “Bright Future” section of the Rotterdam International Film Festival and the “New Works/New Directors” Film Festival in New York. In 2013, he won the highest award in the drama competition unit of the 10th China Independent Film Festival.
There are surprises every year in China’s embattled indie sector, but few as unexpected as this one. Li Luo has taken three chapters of the Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West (aka Monkey) and adapted the story of the short-term death of Emperor Li Shimin to the modern China of officials, bureaucrats and gangsters. The Dragon King perverts the course of nature and is punished with execution; the emperor tried to step in to prevent it happening, but he didn’t allow for the power of dreams. Now Li is lying on his deathbed, beset by stray ghosts. Can he be saved? The storytelling explores several layers of “reality,” but coalesces into an image of China’s perennial absurdity: a new-old world where peace always breeds wealth. Brilliant, straight-faced political satire. The “ungrammatical” title, by the way, references a Chinese movie of 1927.
