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The Painted Wall Essay

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The Painted Wall is a story about the scholar Zhu’s encountering with a girl, who comes from another dimension through a painted wall, when his friend, Meng, and he walk around in a Buddhist temple. The girl is one of the figures on the painting of “the Celestial Maiden scattering flowers (The Painted Wall 216)” on the eastern wall, and her beautiful appearance attracts the attention of Zhu. Suddenly, Zhu enters into the painted wall, with the companion of the girl, whose hair in tufts. In this unknown world, Zhu has a pleasurable time with this girl and she is pregnant. A gold-armored envoy comes to make an inspection tour at night. Zhu is forced to hide under the bed and does not dare to make a slight noise. Unconsciously, he hears the calling …show more content…

Different from the original story, the director recomposes two characters, Zhu Xiaolian and Meng Longtan, catering to the new theme. Zhu is a good-looking and emotional scholar, and Meng is a brainless and impolite playboy. Hou Xia, as the newly added character, promotes the development of the plots from time to time, whereas the image of the monk in the temple does not change a lot between two versions; he is responsible for revealing the truth for two scholars. Hou Xia and the monk have comparatively few shots in the movie, they possessing relevant implications in respect to the whole plot as well. On the other hand, the movie, from my point of view, is not only about the illusion of the scholar, but also about the pilgrimage of the monk in the Buddhist temple. At the end of the movie, the monk waves his hand to the three guys who come back from the fairyland of women. At the next moment, they disappear at the front door of the temple, while the monk smiles with satisfaction. Since the fairyland only existed on the painted wall, and the disappearance of the three males also questions their physical forms in reality, the old monk in the temple has been turned into the hidden protagonist of the complicated plot. Therefore, this story is about his Buddhist life, about how does he fulfill his Buddhist practices, while the experience of Zhu and his

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