Marionettes (and the Virtue of a Lotus Flower)

The story takes place in a world where women are embodied as marionettes. It’s a world surrounded by temples and nature that looks visually divine but hosts a tragic tradition of child marriage. It captures the emotions and sadness of the day when the mother learns her 11-year-old daughter is about to get forced into marriage the following day. The helpless mother has no way to protect her daughter, so she questions her existence to god. Despite being surrounded by temples, her prayers are disregarded, so she lights up incense sticks hoping that the aroma reaches up to the sky and her supplication is heard by the god. The story uses the lotus flower as a metaphor to draw a similarity between the enduring capacity of the character with the flower’s virtue to bloom despite growing up in mud away from the sun. (Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival)