diff --git a/src/libmagickwand.jl b/src/libmagickwand.jl
index a9bd2c9..e33e1dc 100644
--- a/src/libmagickwand.jl
+++ b/src/libmagickwand.jl
@@ -270,9 +270,9 @@ function pingimage(wand::MagickWand, filename::AbstractString)
 end
 
 function readimage(wand::MagickWand, filename::AbstractString)
-    status = ccall((:MagickReadImage, libwand), Cint, (Ptr{Cvoid}, Ptr{UInt8}), wand, filename)
-    status == 0 && error(wand)
-    nothing
+    open(filename, "r") do io
+        readimage(wand, io)
+    end
 end
 
 function readimage(wand::MagickWand, stream::IO)
@@ -288,9 +288,9 @@ function readimage(wand::MagickWand, stream::Vector{UInt8})
 end
 
 function writeimage(wand::MagickWand, filename::AbstractString)
-    status = ccall((:MagickWriteImages, libwand), Cint, (Ptr{Cvoid}, Ptr{UInt8}, Cint), wand, filename, true)
-    status == 0 && error(wand)
-    nothing
+    open(filename, "w") do io
+        writeimage(wand, io)
+    end
 end
 
 function writeimage(wand::MagickWand, stream::IO)
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index b933ca2..fa75d2f 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ end
 include("constructed_images.jl")
 include("readremote.jl")
 include("badimages.jl")
+include("unicode.jl")
 
 workdir = joinpath(tempdir(), "Images")
 try
diff --git a/test/unicode.jl b/test/unicode.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57cebc8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/unicode.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+using ImageMagick, ColorTypes, FileIO
+using Test
+
+cjkchars = "\xe4\xb8\xad\xe6\x96\x87\x20\xe6\x97\xa5\xe6\x9c\xac\xe8\xaa\x9e\x20\xed\x95\x9c\xea\xb5\xad\xec\x96\xb4"
+
+workdir = joinpath(tempdir(), "Images")
+cjkdir = joinpath(workdir, cjkchars)
+if !isdir(workdir)
+    mkdir(workdir)
+end
+if !isdir(cjkdir)
+    mkdir(cjkdir)
+end
+
+@testset "Unicode compatibility" begin
+
+    @testset "Unicode path names" begin
+        img = [RGB(1, 0, 0) RGB(0, 1, 0);RGB(0, 0, 1) RGB(1, 1, 1)]
+        fn = joinpath(cjkdir, cjkchars * ".png")
+        x = nothing
+        open(fn, "w") do io
+            @test try
+                ImageMagick.save(Stream(format"PNG", io), img);true
+            catch
+                false
+            end
+        end
+        @test try
+            x = ImageMagick.load(fn);true
+        catch
+            false
+        end
+        @test x == img
+        @test try
+            ImageMagick.save(fn, img);true
+        catch
+            false
+        end
+        open(fn, "r") do io
+            @test try
+                x = ImageMagick.load(io);true
+            catch
+                false
+            end
+            @test x == img
+        end
+    end
+
+end
+
+nothing