Webbed-Silk Cave
Directed by Dan Duyu in 1927 and produced by the Shanghai Cinema Company, this silent film stands as the earliest surviving cinematic adaptation of Journey to the West.
The Webbed-Silk Cave is a 1927 Chinese black-and-white silent film directed by Dan Duyu and produced by the Shanghai Cinema Company. The director's wife, Yin Mingzhu, stars as the leader of the spider demons. The film is based on the seventy-second chapter of Journey to the West, "The Seven Emotions of the Webbed-Silk Cave Bewilder the Master." The plot follows the journey of Tang Sanzang and his disciples to the West; while traveling, Tang Sanzang descends the mountain alone to seek alms and accidentally wanders into the Webbed-Silk Cave by the Washing-Dirt Spring, where he is captured by the Seven Spider Spirits. Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie investigate and launch a rescue, eventually subjugating the demons and saving their master through plot points involving the Day Merit Officer and the Seven Fairies. In 1929, the film was screened in Norway, becoming the first Chinese movie to enter the Norwegian market, and it was long listed as a lost film. In 2011, a relatively complete copy (approximately three-quarters preserved, missing the first reel and a middle section) was rediscovered in the Mo i Rana film archive of the National Library of Norway, retaining both the original Chinese subtitles and the 1929 Norwegian subtitles. After restoration, it was officially returned to China in Oslo on April 15, 2014. This film is the earliest surviving cinematic adaptation of Journey to the West and serves as a milestone for the study of early Chinese commercial silent films and the supernatural genre.