Full video

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(man speaking foreign language)

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- [Narrator] Wayang kulit, or shadow puppetry,

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has been performed in Malaysia for the past 500 years.

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So what's Darth Vader doing in it?

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You're going to want to ask these guys.

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(drum music)

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(man laughing)

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(traditional Malaysian music)

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- My name is Tintoy Chuo, and I design shadow puppets.

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Many still categorize wayang kulit as a fading art.

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Our objective is turning it from a fading art

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into a popular art.

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The notion of "Star Wars" is very popular

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and I'm a big fan of "Star Wars".

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Even my mom knows who Darth Vader is.

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So I said, "Hey, how does it look

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if I can actually combine these two things

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into one unique project?"

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- [Narrator] Tintoy couldn't bring

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Star Wars-inspired puppetry to life all alone.

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He needed a puppeteer, and not just any puppeteer;

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a 13th-generation master puppeteer.

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- My name is Muhammad Dain bin Othman,

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also known as Pak Dain.

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In Peperangan Bintang,

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the characters that we use are

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(speaking foreign language)

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- [Tintoy] The first time I watched Pak Dain perform,

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I was actually blown away.

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He has this knowledge and expertise,

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which is why I think that he's very important

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and essential for our movement.

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- [Narrator] There was just one thing.

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The master puppeteer had never seen "Star Wars."

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Well, no problem.

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Tintoy introduced him

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to a galaxy far, far away,

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and Pak Dain was struck by its similarity

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to traditional Malaysian stories.

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- The themes of the story, which is about good versus evil,

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In the main story in wayang kulit,

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we have a very bad character, Ravan,

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and in the "Star Wars" movie, we have Darth Vader,

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he's also a bad character.

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(man laughing)

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Ram, or Sri Rama, is a very good character,

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and in the "Star Wars"

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we have Skywalker as a good character.

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- [Narrator] Since 2013,

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Tintoy and Pak Dain have performed around 100 shows

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all over the world,

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regenerating interest in this ancient art form.

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- I hope by performing "Star Wars" story

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in shadow play, someday the young generation

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happy to watch wayang kulit,

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and hope they will enjoy watching kulit,

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and the art of wayang kulit is not dying anymore.

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- One of the reasons that we picked "Star Wars

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Episode Four: A New Hope" as our first preview,

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is because we feel inside that what we are doing

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is a new hope for wayang kulit.

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(air whooshing)

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(electronic ding)