The Netflix show Agent from Above (乩身) has garnered widespread positive reviews with Taiwan’s traditional temple culture as its main backdrop.
The eight-part series stars Kai Ko (柯震東) as Han Chieh (韓杰), a living avatar of a Chinese deity who serves as the mortal-realm vessel for fellow god Nezha (哪吒).
Visual effects supervisor Tomi Kuo (郭憲聰) said in an interview that crew visited temples across Taiwan, from heavily frequented sites to long-abandoned structures.
Photo: Chen Yi-chuan, Taipei Times
This meticulous research led to sets reflecting a distinctly Taiwanese, rather than Chinese, temple culture.
"[These elements] may be common in Taiwan, but to foreigners, they are actually very new and interesting," he said.
"It wasn’t that we simply put in what we saw," codirector Noi Kuan (管偉傑) said. "The challenge was to reconstruct the ideas altogether and create something with all these Taiwanese elements."
Codirector Donnie Lai (賴俊羽) said each temple set was a unique creation made with respect for its source materials.
"We have the utmost respect when trying to convey this religious culture," he said.
Besides temples, the crew also took the liberty of including Taiwan’s modern architecture into sets, Lai said.
To further bring traditional Taiwan to international audiences, even actor Jacob Wang’s (王柏傑) portrayal of Nezha was redesigned. Avoiding the traditional depiction of Nezha as a pre-teen denizen of ancient China, the costume department used items like a lollipop to represent a cigarette and a leather coat in place of the deity’s shawl.
According to Kuan, even the soundtrack is a modern twist on Taiwan’s temples.
The sound team’s idea was to "use Taiwan’s temple instruments, but not really use such melodies," Kuan said.
Agent from Above is currently available to stream on Netflix worldwide.
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