Movielogr
Curious Tales of a Temple (2025)
Directed by Xie Junwei, Zou Jing, Huang Heyu, Liu Yilin, Cui Yuemei, Liu Yuan
Overview
An epic animated fantasy anthology film intertwining six storylines from China’s classic supernatural story collection “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” by Pu Songling. The six stories center on Lanruo Temple, an ancient ruin haunted by spirits. Weaving in classic tales like “Taoist from Laoshan Mountain,” “Princess Lotus,” “Nie Xiaoqian,” “The Painted Skin” and “The Daughter of Magistrate Lu.” These stories — spanning humans, ghosts and demons — explore love, death and morality against shifting time. The film merges six distinct styles into one anthology. For example, “Taoist from Laoshan Mountain” uses felt-textured animation, while “The Painted Skin” mirrors Song dynasty painting aesthetics.
Length 152 minutes
Actors
Lu Lifeng | Lin Qiang | He Zhang | 陈子平 | Fu Bohan | Chen Linling | Liu Xiaoyu | Gu Jiangshan | Yihui Xie | 傅婷云 | Yang Mo | Shimeng Li | Sun Lulu | Shuren Zhao | Xu Jia-Qi | Han Le | 刘琮 | 白雪岑 | Chen Zhe | Li Haojia | Shuai Guan | He Ba | Zhu Min | Zhang Wentian | Ma Cheng | Li Nan | Xing Chao | Tang Mingdong | 林兰 | Zhang Xin