The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil

The Painted Veil is one of my favorite movies due to its beautiful cinematography, directing, acting and  dialogue.The Painted Veil is a love story set in the 1920s that tells the story of a young English couple, Walter, a middle class doctor and Kitty, an upper-class woman, who get married for the wrong reasons and relocate to Shanghai, where she falls in love with someone else. When he uncovers her infidelity, in an act of vengeance, he accepts a job in a remote village in China ravaged by a deadly epidemic, and takes her along. Their journey brings meaning to their relationship and gives them purpose in one of the most remote and beautiful places on earth.

This film was going to be hard to film, as the production crew wanted the film to look distinctly Chinese. They had many barriers when it came to finding a place in China to shoot. As one author quoted from the director of the film, John Curran, "Location scouts covered nearly 5,000 miles all over China in about ten days looking for an area that had an ancient town in close proximity to a river and mountains. The location also had to be near modern facilities that could house cast and crew and support a production office. The scouts looked around Hunan, but settled on Guangxi Province in Southern China. “The production was centered in Gui Lin, a city in Guangxi, because we felt the area and its mountains created the right mood,” says Curran. Gui Lin, one of China’s most picturesque cities, sits along the Li River and is surrounded by majestic, verdant hills." 

This film is one of my favorites and it has such an enticing story line that is unique and inspiring. The musical score in this movie is outstanding and very beautiful. It is haunting and evokes emotion from the viewer. This movie deals with a cholera outbreak in China and it is devastating to see the people of this poor town die such a horrible death. These scenes were difficult to watch, but they were tastefully done.

 I would definitely recommend seeing this film due to the jaw dropping cinematography and the high value of production. 

Here is the trailer: