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Curious Tales of a Temple, a popular animated film adapted from novelist Pu Songling's masterpiece, features five standalone stories: Painted Skin (1), Miss Lu (2), Princess Lotus (3), Nie Xiaoqian (4), and The Master of Laoshan (5); the creative team behind Curious Tales of a Temple promotes the film during its premiere in Beijing earlier this month (6).

More than 300 years ago, writer Pu Songling penned nearly 500 fantastical short stories — many centered on romances between human beings and spirits, ghosts, or otherworldly beings.

Now, long after his death in 1715, the celebrated Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) novelist is reimagined in a way he likely never anticipated: as an animated character reviewing the very stories he once wrote — the central plot of the new summer blockbuster Curious Tales of a Temple.

The movie, the latest outing from Beijing-based Light Chaser Animation Studios — known for creating feature-length films inspired by traditional culture, history, and literary masterpieces — hit domestic theaters on July 12.

In the film, Pu unexpectedly falls into an abandoned well in an ancient temple where he meets two celestial beings — a frog and a turtle — each possessing supernatural powers and a passion for literature. Trapped, Pu is forced to serve as the arbiter of their creative rivalry, tasked with judging whose tales reign supreme.

As the two rivals each tell two stories, Pu rediscovers his passion and narrates the fifth himself. Interestingly, all five short stories were originally written by Pu in his classic Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) in the real world beyond the screen.

Through this clever narrative structure, the 152-minute film pays tribute to one of ancient China's literary greats.

"Among the overall 491 tales in Liaozhai Zhiyi — whether they feature ghosts, fox spirits, or other supernatural beings — most are, at their core, profound explorations of human struggle. These stories reveal the suffering of the common people, echoing Pu's deep compassion for those yearning for love and dignity," says Yu Zhou, cofounder and president of Light Chaser Animation, during an interview with China Daily.

As one of the studio's most time-consuming projects, brainstorming for Curious Tales of a Temple began in 2021, assembling nearly 900 animators — including over 400 of Light Chaser's own employees — to bring to life the fantastical worlds of the five stories.

Spanning multiple dynasties, from Jin (265-420) and Tang (618-907) to Song (960-1279), and even reaching into modern times a century ago, the film uses a variety of animation techniques to reflect each era's mood and style.

"When we first started working on the project, we wanted to stay true to the original stories — keeping adaptations and extra plotlines to a minimum. That's why we chose an anthology format," Yu explains.

Three of the five stories are household tales, and have been adapted into films before. The first is The Master of Laoshan, recounting a man's journey to the titular mountain, located in Qingdao, Shandong province, to learn magic from a powerful Taoist priest. Under the priest's guidance, he masters one spell: the ability to walk through walls. But when he attempts to demonstrate this power before his wife and neighbors, his skill fails him — leaving him to question whether his pursuit was worth the trouble.

In a nostalgic nod to the golden age of Chinese animation, The Master of Laoshan is rendered in wool-based stop-motion, with characters and sets crafted from wool-covered puppets and props.

Cui Yuemei, the story's director, explains that the wool-based animation is inspired by an intangible cultural heritage item from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. She hopes the original tale — which previously inspired a 1981 classic animated film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio — will bring fans born between the 1980s and 1990s a renewed sense of wonder.

Painted Skin tells the story of a monstrous creature who disguises herself as a beautiful woman by wearing human skin, while Nie Xiaoqian follows a female ghost who falls in love with a kindhearted medical student — a man who ultimately protects her from an evil demon.

While Nie Xiaoqian celebrates the triumph of true love over evil, Painted Skin is told from the perspective of the victim's wife, as she witnesses her husband fall under the monster's seduction — sparking deep reflection on trust and loyalty in a long-term marriage.

The most lighthearted of the five stories, Princess Lotus follows a teenage painter on an adventure in a bee kingdom, where he befriends a bee princess and helps her battle a sinister black python demon.

Director Huang Heyu, who helmed Painted Skin, says the team drew inspiration from Song Dynasty (960-1279) paintings to convey a range of emotions — using symmetrical, balanced compositions to reflect the characters' everyday lives, and incorporating blank space and "broken branch" framing technique, emphasizing detail and simplicity, in scenes set in the protagonist's study to evoke deeper artistic resonance.

The poignant tale of Miss Lu tells of a scholar's undying devotion to a beauty who died young. In an extraordinary act of love, he carries her ghostly form on his back to complete a series of missions, ensuring her favorable reincarnation. His devotion proves so powerful that time itself reverses — he becomes young again, allowing him to marry her in the afterlife.

As the film continues to gain popularity in domestic theaters, Yu reveals that, like most of Light Chaser Animation's previous works, Curious Tales of a Temple is set for international release. Dubbed versions are currently being negotiated for several markets, including Southeast Asia and North America, he adds.

Reflecting the maturity and growth of the Chinese film industry, the movie has also scheduled to produce a range of merchandise. Plans are also underway to collaborate with tourist destinations — such as Zibo in Shandong province, the hometown of novelist Pu Songling — to promote local tourism through the film.

"It's no doubt that short videos have become a major form of entertainment — and they've shaken things up for the traditional film industry. But we also see it as a wake-up call. It pushes us filmmakers to step up our game, get more creative, and make better, higher-quality movies that really bring audiences back to the big screen," says Yu.

Contact the writer at xufan@chinadaily.com.cn