Production Design
The film consists of three stories: One about a 5-year-old girl, one about a teenager, and still another about a 30 something woman involved in an affair with a married man. Without providing a definite answer whether the three leading actresses are playing the same person in different stages of life, the movie instead hovers on several consistent themes that keep on emerging in all the stories. For example, the image of drops of blood on the clothes, in the shape of maroon flowers.
Art Direction
After his wife dies during childbirth, Ku-cheng leaves his children behind in their rural village while he finds work on a construction site in the city. He develops a relationship with a widow but despite their intimacy, he refuses to remarry.
Production Design
Hou Hsiao-Hsien centra este seu filme (Prémio do Júri do Festival de Cannes 1993) na vida e carreira do marionetista Li Tien-Lu, cuja vida pessoal combina com a história de Taiwan entre 1909 e o fim da dominação japonesa da ilha em 1945. "The Puppetmaster," como é internacionalmente conhecido, é o segundo dos títulos da trilogia histórica do realizador, também composta por "A City of Sadness" (1989) e "Good Men, Good Women" (1995).
