The Great Buddha+ 大佛普拉斯
Taiwan | 2017 | 104 minutes | Drama, Black Comedy | Taiwanese dialect, Mandarin (English subtitles)
Cast: Cres Chuang, Bamboo Chen, Leon Dai, Chen Yi-wen
Director: Huang Hsin-Yao
The Great Buddha+ 大佛普拉斯
In this side-splitting satire of social inequality, two bumpkins’ addiction to naughty dash-cam videos lands them in big trouble. Taiwan’s digital answer to REAR WINDOW.
Pickle (Cres Chuang), a meek security guard working graveyard shifts at a bronze statue factory, enjoys killing time by hanging out with his best friend Belly Button (Bamboo Chen). One night, Belly Button gets the idea of browsing through dash-cam footage from the car of Pickle’s boss. This voyeuristic portal into the debauchery of the rich becomes an obsession for the two – until they stumble upon a video that reveals a dark secret.
A stylish noir-thriller that’s also immensely funny, THE GREAT BUDDHA+ exposes the social and financial disparity in Taiwan society. A quirky, dark comedy that tips its hat at the Coen Brothers, Huang Hsin-Yao’s critically acclaimed debut swept the major film awards in Taiwan and signals the arrival of a major talent.
Festivals & Awards
Taiwan’s contender in the Foreign-Language category of the Oscars.
Taipei Film Festival – International New Talent Competition: Audience
Choice Award
Taipei Film Awards – Grand Prize, Best Narrative Feature, Outstanding
Artistic Contribution Awards: Music, Editing, Art Direction
Toronto International Film Festival – Discovery, NETPAC Award for World
and many others....
About the director
Hsin-yao Huang
is a Taiwanese director, writer and actor. He started off as a documentary director, winning many awards in the process. THE GREAT BUDDHA+ is his first feature film.
See more: Natlab Website and CinemAsia Film Festival Website
Text source and photocredit: CinemAsia Film Festival
