Who are the Eight Immortals?
The standard group consists of Li Tieguai, Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, Zhang Guolao, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Han Xiangzi and Cao Guojiu. The British Museum records the same eight names, while museum collections show that artists have represented the group across painting, sculpture and decorative objects.
They are not eight characters from one modern novel with a single fixed biography. Stories accumulated across periods, performance traditions and local retellings. That is why details can vary without making every variant a mistake.
How can you recognize the eight figures?
Traditional art often uses attributes as visual shorthand. The Metropolitan Museum notes, for example, Lan Caihe's flower basket and Han Xiangzi's flute. Other familiar pairings include Li Tieguai's crutch and gourd, Zhongli Quan's fan, Lü Dongbin's sword, Zhang Guolao's fish drum, He Xiangu's lotus, and Cao Guojiu's courtly emblems.
An attribute is an identification tool, not a complete personality profile. Its meaning and form can shift across objects, regions and performances.
What does 'Eight Immortals crossing the sea' mean?
The crossing-the-sea motif emphasizes a group whose members meet the same obstacle through different abilities. In modern speech, the associated saying is often used when people each display their own expertise. The image is especially durable because unity does not erase difference.
All Wishes Come True uses that cultural familiarity as an expectation. It then moves backward, asking what kind of flawed people might have existed before the proverb made them look inevitable.
How does the movie change the legend?
The film does not simply illustrate eight finished saints. It gives the names to ordinary people entering a powerful immortal system, and builds comedy from bluffing, status and conflicting motives. The important adaptation question is therefore not 'Did this scene happen in one canonical book?' but 'How does the film turn a cultural symbol into a story about choice and cooperation?'
Keep movie evidence and folklore evidence in separate columns. A traditional object can explain a visual reference, but it cannot reveal the film character's unannounced age, backstory or fate. For the movie-only roster, continue to the character guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the names of the Eight Immortals?
Li Tieguai, Zhongli Quan, Lü Dongbin, Zhang Guolao, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Han Xiangzi and Cao Guojiu.
Is All Wishes Come True a direct retelling of one book?
No. It draws on a long, varied tradition and reimagines the figures before they become the familiar legendary group.
Sources and evidence policy
Film facts are checked against attributable interviews, official film information and active cinema or distributor pages. A source can support only the field it actually states.