Mural 画壁~ Chinese Movies&TV

Today let’s take a brief introduction of a famous Chinese movie named “Mural“.Mural is a movie directed by Gordon Chan (Chen Jiashang) and released on Sept. 29, 2011. Adapted from the sixth story of Pu Songling’s collection of supernatural tales Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, the film tells the story of Zhu Xiaolian (starring Deng Chao), a poor scholar who travels to the capital to take an examination. During this trip, Zhu becomes distracted by a mural and enters into the fantasy land depicted therein. There he meets the fairies who inhabit this fantasy land and encounters love and hate. The theme of the movie is kind of philosophical, “Illusions derive from the heart, and life passes like a dream.”

Mural is a movie directed by Gordon Chan (Chen Jiashang) and released on Sept. 29, 2011. Adapted from the sixth story of Pu Songling’s collection of supernatural tales Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, the film tells the story of Zhu Xiaolian (starring Deng Chao), a poor scholar who travels to the capital to take an examination. During this trip, Zhu becomes distracted by a mural and enters into the fantasy land depicted therein. There he meets the fairies who inhabit this fantasy land and encounters love and hate. The theme of the movie is kind of philosophical, “Illusions derive from the heart, and life passes like a dream.”

The story Mural in Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling’s book Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio talks about a scholar surnamed Zhu travelled to a temple with his friends. The murals in the temple are excellent works, the figures therein life like. When he saw the mural depicting fairies scattering flowers, Zhu feels a fairy seems to have a crash on him, with eyes exuding tenderness and love. Obsessed by the look in her eyes, Zhu was distracted and entered the fairyland. He is making love with the maiden on the mural. As they are having sex, a dark-complexioned emissary donning a golden corselet arrives. He is holding an iron chain in one hand and a hammer in the other, questioning the fairies if they are hiding secular human beings. Scanning the room with his two eyes, the emissary seems about to search the whole room. Scared, the fairy hides Zhu under the bed and she herself escapes from a wicket on the wall in haste. Lying prone under the bed, Zhu holds his breath in fear.

Attentive in viewing the mural, Zhu’s friend turns around and finds Zhu is gone, so he asks the old monk Zhu’s whereabouts. The monk answered smiling, “He’s gone to listen to the sermon.” Thereupon, the monk flipped his finger on the wall and yelled, “Mr. Zhu, you’ve played enough. Come out now!” Strangely, Zhu immediately shows up on the mural. He stands with ears turning aside, seeming conscious of his calling. Again the monk shouts, “Your friend has been waiting for you!” Until then Zhu drifts down from the wall. About the strange experience, the old monk explained it as “illusions derive from the heart.”

From the surface level, the story tells about a spiritual love affair of a man; yet through the development and ending of the storyline, the Zen-implicated theme has been well demonstrated to the readers.

Based on the tale, director Gordon Chan adapts it in a drastic way. The slightly juicy story has been revised by the director as “three men’s adventure and romance after they enter the fantasy land, Kingdom of Women.” Though the element “love” has been added in the film, the theme still carries Chinese philosophical implication, “Illusions derive from the heart.”

清朝Qīng Cháo:also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China.
蒲松齡Pú Sōnglíng :a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.