Cao Yu
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Best Cinematography
Cinematographer, Legend of the Demon Cat
Jury Citation
The jury found that Legend of the Demon Cat uses poetic long takes, layered and detailed lighting, and rich but soft colours to build a visual effect with the beauty of traditional Chinese landscape painting, depicting the splendour of the Tang dynasty at its height. The visual style is distinctive and expressive, the images carry a poetic beauty, and their colours and layers are rich and resplendent, reaching a new height in aesthetic presentation.
Legend of the Demon Cat: Synopsis
The story takes place in Chang'an at the height of the Tang dynasty. Bai Letian (Huang Xuan), once a senior court official, willingly accepts demotion to court diarist so that he can gather material for his poetry. A series of strange deaths occurs in Chang'an, and even the emperor dies mysteriously; all of it is linked to an elusive demon cat. The Japanese monk Kukai (Shota Sometani), who has crossed the sea to lift a curse on the emperor, finds a kindred spirit in Bai Letian, and the two resolve to uncover the truth together. A plaintive poem, "Qing Ping Diao", reveals that the demon cat's haunting is closely tied to the death, thirty years earlier, of the peerless beauty Consort Yang (Sandrine Pinna). Following the diary left by Abe no Nakamaro (Hiroshi Abe), who had once been infatuated with Consort Yang, Bai Letian and Kukai witness the former glory of the Tang and expose a conspiracy hidden for decades.