I had read W. Somerset Maugham's book "The Painted Veil" long before it had been made into this, the third and most beautiful movie adaptation, filmed in China with support from the China government, and long before the book had been reprinted with a scene from the movie as its cover, which I find a bit dishonest; after all, the book had been written long before the movie.
or listen to the audiobook here
"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.
The title is a reference to Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1824 sonnet, which begins "Lift not the painted veil which those who live / Call Life".
The book and the movie have different endings; in particular, the movie leaves out the phrase, "The dog it was that died", which is the key to the story, if you recognise it as the allusion to Oliver Goldsmith's poem "An Elegy On The Death Of A Mad Dog" which ends with the last two lines, "The man recovered of the bite / The dog it was that died".
This hauntingly beautiful movie will stay with you for a long time; much longer than the surprising two years it has already been freely available on YouTube without any copyright challenge. Watch it while you can!
