Legend of the Demon Cat
Short description
Legend of the Demon Cat is a fantasy mystery set in China during the Tang Dynasty, in the capital city of Chang'an. Strange events disturb the peace when a demonic black cat appears, and an unsettled mood spreads through the city. A poet, Bai Letian, is assigned to look into the matter and joins forces with a monk, Kukai. Together they follow the clues left behind, tracing the case back through buried history toward long-hidden truths.
The film was directed by Chen Kaige, the seventh of the thirteen features he has directed in chronological order, arriving between Monk Comes Down the Mountain and My People, My Country. Wang Huiling and Chen Kaige wrote the screenplay. Huang Xuan plays Bai Letian and Shota Sometani plays Kukai, with Hiroshi Abe, Kitty Zhang, Qin Hao and Zhang Tian'ai in supporting roles. It is a co-production involving Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan.
Released in December 2017, the film runs 129 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.2 from roughly 3,300 votes, and on TMDB it also stands at 6.2, from about 108 votes. A critics' rating of 6.6 from 11 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores on both platforms.
What's left behind the scenes
- The monk Kukai was a major religious and state figure of the Heian period, and the founder of the esoteric Shingon school.
- Bo Juyi was a great Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty.
- Building the sets took 5 years and cost $200 million. This amount was not included in the film's budget, as it was assumed that the constructed city would become a theme park.
- The Japanese version of the film is 132 minutes long and is titled "Kukai".
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
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Кастинги в Україні
