Ashes of Snow

Answers will emerge only when the journey begins.

The runaway girl Hsiau-Ni escapes to a strange place known as Snow-Peak Village and becomes the helper of Mr. Mi, the mysterious manager of Villain Temple. On the night when the village catches fire with cause unknown, a motorcycle mysteriously appears in the mountain in a way that people start to believe that it is possessed by the spirit of Hsiau-Ni’s dead brother, and Hsiau-Ni is thus suspected by the villagers as the arsonist… Ashes of Snow takes on a surrealistic touch to tell the story of a girl and her monster-hunting journey, a common animation-comic topic, as a metaphor that humans are confined by our own judgment on beauty and ugliness, good and evil, or the rights and wrongs, which stops us from pursuing the greater and more diverse possibilities of ourselves. The scenic transitions such as the fire and the dream scenes are fulfilled with a fascinating light-and-shadow technique which is full of wonder, allowing characters to travel freely among different times and spaces. The monster puppets of different characteristics are designed based on the concept of “origami arts” and “paper sculpture.” The imagined monsters are brought to life as vivid and characteristically diverse figures to reveal the true natures and the inner essence of all human beings. What kind of the truth does the story tell? Only when you set off on a journey will you find a new possibility of self-reconciliation and reconnection with the world.

Premiere: May. 04, 2018, Wellspring Theater, Taipei
Playwright: Wan-ting SHEN
Director: Chia-yin CHENG