“The Mute Emperor” is finally released in Japan after 19 months of production. The storyline is based on a famous household legend on Pingtan Island in China, and centers on the island’s beautiful mountainous terrains, and the iconic “Shipaiyang” which is a magnificent pair of rocks looking like a sail pillaring the sky.

The 12-minute animated cartoon was initiated by Zhuo Weiping, who was born in Pingtan and is living in Japan. Yosuke Tani, a young Japanese director, headed a crew of 20 cartoonists who drew more than 5,000 still images for the animation.

Starting with a boy travelling through time and space to the period of “the Mute Emperor”, the animated film features some impressive geographical and anthropological backdrops of the island such as the famous stone houses, oceanfront, stone mortars, fishermen families, and “Guangbing”- a local pastry, and also an original soundtrack dubbed by a Japanese musician.

“It is a sophisticated animated micro film in terms of production,” Ding Xiaoming, a famous film director from Pingtan, appraised.