A scholar gets dragged into a well by monsters to prove his stories matter. What unfolds is classical Chinese supernatural fiction stripped to its core: beauty that devours, desire that destroys, immortals who demand payment in flesh. The movie knows these tales are about the cost of wanting something more than mortality allows, and it lets each one land with real weight instead of treating them like curiosities.
A scholar named Pu Songling stops for the night at Lanruo Temple, where two monsters, Toad and Turtle, capture him and drag him deep into an old well. Down there, they intend to judge how good his stories are. Moving between a temple, a well and a tree, well-known tales from the classic Chinese anthology Strange Stories unfold in turn, including Painted Skin, Nie Xiaoqian, Lady Lu, Lotus Princess and The Taoist Priest of Mount Laoshan. Presented in six different storytelling styles, this feature film adapts a renowned body of classical Chinese short fiction.
