The Immortal Story

The events unfold in the late 1800s, a period of global maritime trade and colonial influence in East Asia. Wealth and influence shape social hierarchies as a prosperous merchant bids to turn a legend into reality. Prophecy and storytelling blur with reality, turning a simple tale into a dangerous plan. The mood blends opulence with risk, matching the era's appetite for power and intrigue.

Set in nineteenth-century Macau, a bustling port city on the Pearl River Delta where East meets West. The action centers on a grand villa belonging to the aging merchant, with scenes that move to docks and ships connecting Macau to distant shores. A desert island backstory adds a remote, windswept space to the tale, enriching the sense of travel and commerce that defines the setting.

📜 Story Power

Clay's obsession with turning a legendary tale into reality shows how a single story can steer choices and justify immoral acts. Levinsky acts as the conduit between tale and execution, exposing how memory and narrative can be manipulated. The film questions whether stories create reality or merely reflect it, and whether some tales are too dangerous to enact. Ultimately, it probes the ethical cost of letting fiction drive real lives.

💰 Greed & Control

Money fuels the scheme, enabling Clay to orchestrate others and demand obedience. Wealth corrupts loyalties, turning affection and revenge into calculated instruments. Virginie’s participation shows how financial motive intertwines with personal vendetta. The plot condemns mercantile hunger that uses people as instruments to bend fate.

🕯️ Mortality

The old man's approaching death frames the urgency of the plan and exposes life's fragility. Levinsky's discovery of Clay's death before the plan completes underscores the fragile boundary between myth and life. Age and loneliness drive the characters, turning the tale into a meditation on memory, oblivion, and what endures after death. The ending suggests that mortality outlasts even the grandest schemes.