SAGA City of Light Invites You to Enjoy the Best Theater in the City, a Witness of Sino-French Cultural Exchange

SHANGHAI, Sept. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The SAGA City of Light Theatre, certified by Guinness World Records as the "Largest Immersive Theatre in the Performance Area", was opened on September 26th by Puy du Fou, the French cultural tourism giant and global leader in historical and cultural performances. The special host of the opening ceremony was Mr. Lin Dongfu and Ms. Anne Zhao, Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors of Puy du Fou Asia. H.E Bertrand LORTHOLARY, Ambassador of France to China, Nicolas de VILLIERS, Chairman of Puder Finn Group, Wang Yiluo, Chairman of Shanghai Xuhui Urban Renewal Investment and Development Co. Asia CEO Geoffroy Ladet, PuderForm Asia CEO Anne Zhao, and PuderForm Asia Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors Anne Zhao jointly carried out the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Geoffroy LADET, CEO of Pudong Fu Asia, said in his speech that from the project stationed in the renovation until today's official opening, after a full 1450 days, as a large-scale performance theme park known for creating the Pudong Fu Asia debut, Pudong Fu will continue to be rooted in China for the arts, for friendship. Nicolas de VILLIERS, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pudong Fu Group, firstly expressed his heartfelt thanks to the guests in the following speech, and at the same time, he was deeply excited to complete the project of SAGA City of Light in China, where the culture has a long history and is dazzling, just like realizing his childhood dream. His Excellency H.E Bertrand LORTHOLARY, Ambassador of France to China, said that this year is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, and it is also the Year of Cultural Tourism between China and France, and that the opening of SAGA City of Light is an important achievement of the development project of Pudong Fu in China, and marks a significant step in the development of the Pudong Fu Group in Asia, and it will bring the audience the excellent French experience by the integration of the live performances, recreation and entertainment, and the stage art. It will provide audiences with an outstanding French experience comprising of live performances, leisure entertainment and stage arts. He is confident that both Chinese and foreign tourists will enjoy the project. The grand opening of the SAGA City of Light will feature a complete revamp of the show, with top-notch scenes reproduced in a "movie" quality, an original immersive experience in the form of one-mirror-to-the-end viewing, and a perfect presentation of the sea school's retro aesthetics, the new season's visual feast invites you to attend a brand-new show in the "city".

Puy du Fou SAGA - City of Light - Witness of Sino-French Cultural Exchange

At the opening parade of 2024 Shanghai Tourism Festival held recently, a float "SAGA City of Light" left a deep impression on the public. The five actors on the float were all from the show, and the male and female protagonists, Jie Ming and Nicole, along with the martial arts masters and the captain of the ship, went on the float to bring joy and beauty to the public. It is worth mentioning that the "SAGA City of Light" also sailed into Xuhui District on the opening day of SAGA City of Light, arriving at the main entrance of SAGA City of Light Theater to celebrate the grand opening of the theater. As the most anticipated project during this year's Shanghai Tourism Festival, the stunning arrival of the "SAGA City of Light" float also heralded the arrival of a new landmark in Shanghai's cultural tourism.

SAGA City of Light is Pudong Fu's first large-scale project in China and its debut in Asia. Pudong Fu is the only large-scale theme park brand in the world that is 100% dedicated to restoring historical scenes and traditional culture, founded in France in 1977. After more than 40 years of development and expansion, PuduFu's global business has covered Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and other countries, and has won dozens of the world's best rankings and international awards, and has been named the "World's Best Theme Park" several times.

This year is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Pudong Fu will make its debut in Asia in Shanghai, also because of the importance of Shanghai, China and France's origin. It is said that the movie was born in Paris, France in 1895, and came to China the next year, and the first stop in China was Shanghai. At that time, Shanghai was the largest movie market in China. It can be said that Shanghai has a deep connection with Paris as far as movies are concerned. Therefore, SAGA City of Light can also be regarded as a tribute to Shanghai by Poudre Fou from France. This not only marks the successful establishment of a long-term Sino-French humanistic exchange platform, but also a feat that transcends culture and time and space, a good story of in-depth cooperation between artistic and performing talents of China and France, and one of the concrete presentations of telling a good Sino-French "tale of two countries".

Puy du Fou SAGA City of Light Shanghai Urban Renewal Participants

Puy du Fou has invested heavily in this "tribute". Located in the West Hall of Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center (88 Caobao Road) in Xuhui District, Shanghai, SAGA City of Light was built by Puy du Fou over four years at a cost of more than RMB 670 million. More than 100 performers, 12,000 square meters of large-scale scenery and the story of the show throughout the main line will bring you into the drama and surprise the audience with the play "City".

SAGA City of Light uses leading technology to realistically recreate the culture of the sea, and creates scenes and stories through movie aesthetics and world-class choreography. Cinematic theater" means that the core language of the theater is expressed and built using the "cinematic" system, so there will be a lot of concepts with cinematic language and audio-visual elements throughout the theater. The arrival of the SAGA City of Light is not just another Art Deco building in Shanghai, but also brings a new artistic concept to Shanghai, China's movie city, which is actually a kind of "urban renewal".

In order to make such an advanced artistic expression fully adapted to Chinese culture and take root in Shanghai as soon as possible, Pudong Fu has also taken a series of localization measures. SAGA City of Light project has gathered the top French and Chinese cultural and artistic creators, of which 80% of the project team are Chinese, and in the aspect of history and research, historians and experts in the study of Haikai culture have also been invited to join the team. In addition, Puy du Fou's priority in Shanghai is to pay special attention to the inheritance and display of the history and culture of the territory, so the launch of the City of Light project in Shanghai can not only present and disseminate the sea of Haiku culture to the world tourists, but also show Chinese tourists the possibility of the Chinese story can be told by the world.

Puy du Fou Puy du Fou SAGA City of Light Brand always look at the new stickler

In order to enhance the effect of immersive viewing and the sense of immersion, Puy du Fou has spared no effort in upgrading the scene and renewing the plot. It should be said that the biggest surprise to the audience of SAGA City of Light is that it is "always new" and maintains the brand's continuous vitality.

SAGA City of Light's script renewal ability is quite amazing. After a new round of upgrading, the plot and scenes of SAGA City of Light have been further enriched, and the whole plot is clear in logic, compact in rhythm, strong in dramatic appreciation, and full of stories while incorporating a lot of subtle ingenuity. In the sea style theater, behind the song and dance, there is a hidden crisis, the joyful stage is instantly transformed into a place of sword fighting, where the hero also gets half of the mysterious map about the "City of Light", which further advances the plot; in the train where the audience follows the guide to look for the "City of Light", the actors in the compartment who are locked up in the "gap in time" ask: "Who are you really? After more than an hour of traveling through different scenes, ...... finally came to the moment when the mystery of the "City of Light" was revealed. With delicate music playing, the male and female protagonists, Jie Ming and Nicole, reunited in front of a bright moon surrounded by flowers, interpreting the "love and eternity" symbolized by the "City of Light" to the people. In the future, SAGA's scripts will continue to be updated on a regular basis, with different story lines under different themes being iterated so that each play is a complete and vivid movie, allowing the audience to feel the novelty every time.

In addition to the software upgrades of the scripts, Puy du Fou Puy du Fou has also spared no expense in terms of hard power. The entire SAGA City of Light is now equipped with 1,400 types of over 26,000 props, 1,334 light fixtures, 327 speakers, over 300 pieces of artisanal customized costumes, as well as a number of large-scale "ceiling" scenes in world-class sets, including an 88⻓ ship cabin, an 82⽶ fire cabin, and so forth, and this time around, multiple Chinese grandiose sets have also been added. Putting on the red cloak, let's go into the "city", travel through the corridors of time and space, explore the past, feel the joys and sorrows, and face up to love and hate.