Footwork Films

A Miller boasts to the King that his daughter can spin straw into gold. Three times the King demands she does so, promising marriage. If she fails, her life is forfeit. Three times she despairs until Rumpelstiltskin appears, spinning straw into gold in exchange for a gift. The third time the girl promises her first born child to Rumpelstiltskin, should she be queen. Years later, the new queen bears a child and Rumpelstiltskin arrives for his gift. He will only relent if within three days the queen can guess his name.

As members of the feuding Capulet and Montague families, Romeo and Juliet should be sworn enemies, but they fall deeply in love and marry in secret. That very day, disastrous circumstances lead Romeo to fight and kill Juliet’s cousin Tybalt, setting off a chain of events that culminate in tragedy.

The Wandering in the Garden · Startling Dream, a court‑style Kunqu Opera production by the Northern Kunqu Opera Theatre, is adapted from Tang Xianzu’s The Peony Pavilion. Taking “the dream” as its narrative core, it deeply explores the philosophical love transcending life and death between Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, and embodies humanity’s eternal pursuit of love and freedom. This film is a stage documentary of this performance.