The Cave of the Silken Web
About The Cave of the Silken Web
On the journey west for scriptures, the monk Tang Xuanzang is lured into a cave by spider women. In the kitchen they talk of eating him and try to make him take meat, which he refuses. He grows suspicious and tries to leave. They will not let him, and a marriage to one of them is arranged. His disciples, with Guanyin, get him out, and the party goes on.
Cast & crew
More about The Cave of the Silken Web
Dan Duyu directed this ten-reel silent film for Shanghai Yingxi Company, from an episode of the Ming novel Journey to the West. Yin Mingzhu plays the first spider spirit. It was released on 2 February 1927. Other titles are Pan Si Dong and Spiders.
Themes
Making
Shanghai Yingxi staged the cave episode as a feature, with the monk’s refusal of meat as the test the spider women fail.
Music
Silent. The surviving print has Chinese intertitles plus Norwegian lines written for the local audience.
Preservation
Found in 2011 at the National Library in Mo i Rana. The first reel and a middle section are missing. About three quarters of the ten reels remain, with the Chinese titles and added Norwegian jokes.
Notes
- It was treated as lost until 2011, when a print turned up at the National Library in Mo i Rana, Norway.
- About three quarters survives. The first reel and a stretch in the middle are missing.
- The Norwegian copy keeps the Chinese titles and adds jokes in Norwegian for local audiences.
- It was shown at the Films from the South festival in Oslo in 2013.
- The catalog count is seven spider women. The English Wikipedia summary says six.
Scenes
- The spider women discuss eating the monk while he is in another room.
- He refuses the non-vegetarian food.
- A wedding to one of the spirits is set before the disciples free him.
Influenced by
- The spider-cave episode of Journey to the West