Dan Duyu

Showing off his love of visual aesthetics as a painter, director Dan Duyu combines elegance, exoticism and oddity into a grand big-budget package with New Arabian Nights. Dan's vision is definitely not bound by the source material, but his magical and music-filled version of the orient turns out to be not so different from how Western storytellers would imagine it.

One of the earliest cinematic adaptation of Chinese classic novel Journey to the West. When seeking for food alone, Tang Xuanzang was kept prisoner by seven spider monsters who took the form of seven beautiful women. The Monkey King and the other two of Xuanzang's disciples managed to rescue him with the help of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva/Guanyin. They renounced the desire for lust and continued the quest for Buddhist Scriptures.

After a thousand years, the Taoist master Huang Hua Guan and his disciples regained human forms, as did the seven spider spirits, who vowed to abandon evil. To warn others, the Taoist priests told this story: Fifteen hundred years later, student Xiao Liu mistakenly entered a women’s bathroom and saw Wenxia bathing, leading to his public humiliation. When his sister Liu Cui reported it, Wenxia framed her, prompting Liu Cui to swear revenge. Wenxia, who had many boyfriends, stirred rivalry between Lu Xing and Chunfeng. During a trip, Wenxia and Chunfeng were attacked by someone bribed by Liu Cui, and both were injured. Daxiong saved Wenxia but had bad intentions, leading to a fight in which Lu Xing, Chunfeng, and Daxiong died, and Wenxia was trapped. Liu Cui was arrested for murder. Hearing this story, Wukong appeared, scaring the demons into releasing the Tang Monk.