The Painted Wall is a story written by Pu Songling talking about a scholar’s encountering with a goddess, who invites the scholar to their kingdom on the painted wall. When he returns to the reality, he could not differentiate the illusion and the real world. Director Chan offers the audience another interpretation of The Painted Wall in an elusive way, when Mural released in 2011. Different from the original story, the director recomposes two main characters, Zhu Xiaolian and Meng Longtan, in order to cater to the new theme. Zhu is a good-looking and emotional scholar, and Meng is a brainless and impolite playboy. Hou Xia, a newly added character, promotes the development of plots from time to time as the servant of the scholar Zhu. Even
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Where is the reality and where is the imagination? Or more precisely, who is the real and who is not? First of all, the experience of the fairyland is merely an imagination of the scholar, as the historian of the strange comments below the original story The Painted Wall: “If a man has a lustful mind, then filthy scenes will arise; if a man has a filthy mind, then terrifying scenes will arise (Zeitlin 216).” Even though the director Chan reproduces the illusion of the scholar Zhu in a modern perspective, he still maintains the idea of Pu Songling. An unsuccessful scholar one day has some delusions about his less satisfying life. These self-oriented imaginations offer him an opportunity to comfort his earlier unhappiness in reality. The name of the scholar Zhu is Xiaolian, which refers to filial piety and incorruptness, reminding the obligations he needs to undertake in the society all the time. However, as a second-degree graduate, a poor scholar, he has neither power nor money to contribute. Staying in the moment and imaging an encountering with a beautiful goddess is a tiny piece of pleasure in his
Where is the reality and where is the imagination? Or more precisely, who is the real and who is not? First of all, the experience of the fairyland is merely an imagination of the scholar, as the historian of the strange comments below the original story The Painted Wall: “If a man has a lustful mind, then filthy scenes will arise; if a man has a filthy mind, then terrifying scenes will arise (Zeitlin 216).” Even though the director Chan reproduces the illusion of the scholar Zhu in a modern perspective, he still maintains the idea of Pu Songling. An unsuccessful scholar one day has some delusions about his less satisfying life. These self-oriented imaginations offer him an opportunity to comfort his earlier unhappiness in reality. The name of the scholar Zhu is Xiaolian, which refers to filial piety and incorruptness, reminding the obligations he needs to undertake in the society all the time. However, as a second-degree graduate, a poor scholar, he has neither power nor money to contribute. Staying in the moment and imaging an encountering with a beautiful goddess is a tiny piece of pleasure in his