2. Literature Review
2.2 Pili Puppetry (Pili International Multimedia Company)
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2.2 Pili Puppetry (Pili International Multimedia Company)
Pili International Multimedia Company (Pili Guoji Duomeiti Gongsi 霹靂國際多媒體 公司) produces the digital video puppetry serials. According to Silvio (2011), the serials “are one of the most popular video entertainment produced domestically in Taiwan, and they have also attracted cult followings in Japan and China.” (p.150)
The narratives of Pili glove puppetry are basically the “Chinese popular swordsman, or wuxia, genre, with added elements from Chinese, Japanese and Western Mythology, fantasy and science fiction.” (Silvio, 2011, p.150) Since glove puppetry is a genre brought to Taiwan from Fujian, China, this origin location thus influences the setting of the world of Pili and its language use. Glove puppetry is performed in the Hoklo (Minnan) dialect (p.148-149). Sivio (2011) further illustrated that “the Pili world is set in a magical Chinese past, where the characters quote the classics and uphold the principles of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism” (p.150). Moreover, the core feature of Pili serials is that it “combines the centuries-old folk art of southern Chinese hand-puppetry (budaixi 布袋戲) with computer-generated special effects and the editing style of action cinema” (Silvio, 2011, p. 148).
Pili puppetry has many channels for its products. For example, it cooperated with video rental stores in 1991. In 1995, it established its own satellite TV station. In 2009, it started its cooperation with convenience stores: Family Mart and then 7-11. Afterwards, its products turned into DVDs and audiences are able to purchase its products in more convenient ways.
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(PILI Chronology, 2017) According to one news article in Apple Daily, there are around one million people watching Pili puppetry serials in Taiwan. In addition, the domestic revenue of e-commerce of the serials increased to NTD eighty million dollars last year (“Pili’s Estimated EPS Contribution Next Year,” 2013).
In 2000, the Pili company launched its first glove puppetry movie “The Legend of The Sacred Stone” (聖石傳說), which did well at the box office. In coming years, the movie was dubbed in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese and released in Japan and China (PILI
Chronology, 2017).
Figure 3. Poster of Legend of the Sacred Stone (Legend of the Sacred Stone, 2002) Pili puppetry began its campaign to expand abroad after the release of this movie. As Silvio (2007) points out, the image appeared on a full-page advertisement (Figure 2) for music videos of theme songs, and the astrological charts of puppet protagonists appeared on March/April 1999 issue of the official Pili fan club magazine, and although the chart “has
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nothing to do with the content of the serials themselves; yet I think it perfectly encapsulates the connections between remediation and the construction of local modes of globalization”
(p.305). With the leading character, Zu Huanzhen (素還真) reflected in the alien’s left eye, the image can be interpreted as “a symbolic fantasy of globalization.” (p.305). The
extraterrestrial alien uses the “v” hand gesture, which Taiwanese commonly use to represent pure Otherness, and implies Taiwanese version of Americanness as well. Through the
advertisement, it is obvious that the Pili company endeavors to “make the alien ‘ours’” with a friendly alien warmly regarding the puppet Su Huanzhen. (p.307)
Figure 4. Say [PI – LI] (Silvio, 2007, p.306)
The Pili company then planned to approach the American market in 2001. According to the official announcement on E-PILI network, “Pili Warriors Speaking English, Challenging America TV Wulin on Feb. 4” (霹靂戰士說英文二月四日挑戰美國電視武林), the adapted Pili series, Zheng Wang Ji (爭王記) translated into “Wulin Warriors—Legend of the Seven
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Stars” premiered on the weekend animation show “Toonami” of Cartoon Network in America (“Pili Warriors Speaking English,” 2006).
Figure 5. Poster of Wulin Warriors (Wulin Warriors—Legend of the Seven Stars, 2006) In 2001, the Pili company authorized the movie “Legends of the Sacred Stone” and 500 hours of the TV series to Distant Horizon, a wholly owned subsidiary of the South African based diversified entertainment and media company, to produce the Pili products
internationally excluding Asia. Distant Horizon believed that the value and potential of PILI puppet series including famous puppet stars and unique puppeteering techniques with special effects were the same as those of Japanese animations. Distant Horizon cooperated with Cartoon Network.19 After conducting polls and working on the translation for more than four years, the original Pili series were adapted for an audience of American teenagers. These series were thus repackaged by editing, dubbing, replacing the background music and turning
19 An American basic cable and satellite television channel; it is a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting System, a
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the often complicated and rich in culture-depth dialogue into understandable animations. The Pili puppet theatre invested in more than seven times the royalties of the original TV series.
(“Pili Warriors Speaking English,” 2006)
Distant Horizon changed Vincent Huang’s narration in which he’s in charge of all characters’ voices in Pili series, into the dubbing by many English-speaking voice actors.
Moreover, a great number of the characters’ personalities were adjusted due to the abstruse plots of the original series. At the same time, the background music was changed to Hip-Hop style which was fashionable among American teens. However, due to the huge cultural
differences between Eastern and Western countries, it was hard to attract the American audience’s attention (“PILI Warriors Speaking English,” 2006).
A few years later, the Pili company decided to enter the international market again, but this time chose a neighboring country, China. In 2011, Pili puppetry cooperated with
Hanzhou FanFan Comic Culture & Art Company and produced the puppet animation
Butterfly lovers (梁祝之西湖蝶夢) (PILI Chronology, 2017).
Figure 6. Poster of Butterfly Lovers (Butterfly Lovers, 2011)
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Furthermore, according to Chang (2014), the Pili company signed authorization agreements with the top ten most-visited video streaming platforms including iQIYI (愛奇 藝), Youku Toudo (優酷土豆), Tencent (騰訊), PPTV in China in 2013 (“Pili Company Listed at Over-the-Counter (OTC) Market,” 2014). Before signing contracts with legal video platforms, Pili puppetry had already reached more than one million digital video viewers per episode in China. The audience in China was approximately the same size of that of Taiwan.
Pili puppetry saw the market potential in China and thus expected to increase its revenue there in the future (“Pili’s Estimated EPS Contribution Next Year,” 2013).
In recent years, Pili puppetry began to cooperate with Japanese companies. According to Janus’ interview, it mentions how the vice president of Pili puppetry, Huang Liang-xun (黃亮 勛), son of Chris Huang (黃強華) seized the chance to cooperate with Japanese famous anime script writer うろぶちげん,Gen Urobuchi20 (虛淵玄), who wrote a few well-known Japanese animations such as 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, 魔 法少女小圓) and Fate/Zero. In 2014, Gen Urobuchi came to Taiwan for the Taipei
International Comics & Animation Festival (TICA). Occasionally during the festival, he visited the exhibition of Pili puppetry, Pili Fantasy World of Puppet Art (霹靂奇幻武俠世界
布袋戲藝術大展), and was astonished by the Pili puppetry art form. He brought a set of
20 Gen Urobuchi is known by fans as “Urobutcher,” because of his best-known trait – killing and “butchering”
his beloved characters in shocking ways and often leaves audiences crying in a pool of despair. (“Gen
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DVDs back to Japan and posted how he felt after he watched the DVDs on Twitter. As soon as Huang Liang-xun learned of Gen Urobuchi’s passion toward Pili puppetry series, he contacted Gen Urobuchi again to discuss the possibility of future cooperation. Eventually, Gen Urobuchi decided to cooperate with the Pili company and convinced his peers in Nitro plus (Nitro+)21 to be partners in this transnational project (Janus, 2016).
The Japanese collaborators formed a group called “Thunderbolt Fantasy (東離劍遊紀 サンダーボルトファンタジー) Project” as soon as the transnational cooperation was decided. In the
Thunderbolt Fantasy Project, three companies were involved: PILI MULTIMEDIA INC, Nitro+ and GOOD SMILE COMPANY (GSC)22 (Janus, 2016).
As the official website of Thunderbolt Fantasy noted,
The staff included Gen Urobuchi, Pili company, Nitro+ and GSC.
Gen Urobuchi is the supervisor and script writer. Pili puppetry is responsible for puppeteering and filming. Both Pili and Nitro+ are in charge of character and weapon designs. GSC is the style consultant.
Other staff included famous Japanese musicians, such as Japanese
21 Nitro+ (Nitro plus) is a computer game company that Gen Urobuchi belongs to.
22 GSC (Good Smile Company) is a toy, accessory and figure planning, manufacturing and production
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singer, 西川貴教 (Nishikawa Takanori) and Japanese CV
(character voices) actors such as 鳥海浩輔 (Toriumi Kōsuke), 関 智一, 諏訪部順一 (Junichi Suwabe), 中原麻衣 (Nakahara Mai), 鈴村健一 and so forth. As for Taiwanese version of Thunderbolt Fantasy, Huang Hui-feng (黃匯峰), the son of Vincent Huang is in charge of most of the voice acting (“Thunderbolt Fantasy,” 2016).
As for the dubbing of Thunderbolt Fantasy, there are three different versions including Chinese and Japanese language dubbings. This paper will focus on Japanese version.
In Janus’ interview of Huang Liang-xun, Huang claimed that Gen Urobuchi wanted to write a story derived from an original Pili series and which the whole story had already been finished from the beginning. However, the original stories of Pili are usually too complicated to understand for first-time viewers to understand. Therefore, Gen Urobuchi decided to create a brand new story which could be accepted by a Japanese audience, because most Japanese were unfamiliar with Taiwanese glove puppetry. Thus, the storyline of Thunderbolt Fantasy basically followed the classical RPG (Role-Playing Game) type. It was about a group of people venturing to attain a sword and protect a princess (Janus, 2016). In July, 2016, the first season of Thunderbolt Fantasy premiered on a few channels including TV and video
streaming platforms in Japan and Taiwan. It was thirteen episodes total and was broadcasted once a week. Afterwards, a DVD and Blu-ray disc were produced.