The title made it obvious where the movie was from, this Catonese language film is one I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was glad to read positive reviews by critics, so I was looking forward to it. Basically Ling Choi San (Leslie Cheung) is a timid debt collector, his job requires him to travel to rural areas, he arrives in a town, but his inability to collect a debt as planned. He is forced to seek shelter in a deserted temple in the middle of the forest, and that night Ling meets and falls in love with beautiful and alluring young maiden Lip Siu Sin (Joey Wang). However Ling becomes fearful and superstitious, as a Taoist mystic told him there are ghosts, and when he returns to the temple, his suspicions of Lip being a spirit are confirmed. Lip tells her story, she is eternally bound to the servitude of a sinister Tree Devil (Siu-Ming Lau), she is forever enslaved, as her buried remains are at the foot of the tree. Ling attempts to free her, he seeks help from powerful Taoist priest and master swordsman Yin Chek Hsia (Wu Ma), Yin battles with the Tree Demoness, but fails to free Lip, her soul is taken to the underworld for betraying her master. Ling is determined not to give up and insists that Yin help him, Yin opens a temporary portal to the Underworld, they enter and attempt to free Lip's soul from suffering. In the midst of thousands of other spirits they are unable to find Lip, eventually she and Ling see each other as dawn is breaking, but Lip cannot be exposed to sunlight or her soul will disintegrate. Ling holds on to a curtain to shield the urn, containing Lip's cremated remains, from the sunlight, she tells him that the only way to save her is to place the urn in a more auspicious burial site. Ling follows Lip's instructions and Yin's advice, he buries the remains on the crest of a hill, with Yin watching, a lights an incense stick and prays for her soul. Also starring Wai Lam as Hsia-hou, Zhilun Xue as Ching and Jing Wong as Judge. I assumed from the title is was just going to a bog-standard ghost drama, in fact it was more than I expected, it combined fast-paced fight sequences with some massive monsters and weird sorcery, it was both exciting and darkly funny, an interesting and likable martial arts comedy horror. Very good!

A Chinese Ghost Story is the first of a trend of supernatural horror/thriller/romance/martial arts/comedy films made in Hong Kong. It was incredibly successful in Asia and is one of the most iconic Hong Kong films ever made, easily up there with films such as A Better Tomorrow and Infernal Affairs. It's hard to review a film that's already received so much praise and accolades and not let that cloud your judgment but with that said, this is a really fun movie!The plot follows a timid debt collector by the name of Ning Choi-San, whose job requires him to travel to rural areas around ancient China. He arrives at a town but fails to find a place to stay so resorts to staying in a deserted temple, where he finds the beautiful, seductive ghost named Nip Siu-Sin, who he eventually falls in love with.What works about A Chinese Ghost Story is its blend of horror, romance, action, and comedy. Hong Kong films are notorious for being uneven in tone, they often blend a bunch of different tones in one movie. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but here, it completely works. We have the over-the-top horror, the extremely sappy romance, stylized action, and tongue-in-cheek humor and they all compliment each other extremely well. The reason it works is because everything feels consistently exaggerated and blown out of proportion. If we went from realistic, human drama to over-the-top horror, the change in tone would feel very abrupt but since everything feels very over-the-top and unrealistic, it feels like you're just being immersed into the film's world. The film's romance is extremely sappy and melodramatic but it works because the story IS a melodrama. The concept itself is very melodramatic in the first place so the filmmakers just went with it and made it as sincere as possible. The actors do it with the utmost passion that you can't you help but appreciate them for it. The romantic moments in the film are often very funny and affectionate and even touching on a few occasions. You can get away with a lot of silly stuff in your movies if you do it with sincerity and this film is a perfect example of that. The action is very creative and fun to watch throughout and the horror, while not exactly scary, makes you feel like a kid again while watching it with the goofy-looking creatures, foggy scenery, and overall spooky atmosphere, it's all good fun. The comedy is probably gonna be the most divisive thing for Western audiences. Hong Kong Cinema has a very BROAD sense of humor that won't necessarily appeal to everyone but I myself, found it amusing throughout and it never goes overboard, it always comes organically into the script and it never feels disruptive of the overall flow of the film.The cast is surprisingly effective in this zany, over-the-top world created by Ching Siu-Tung and Tsui Hark. Leslie Cheung plays Ning Choi- San as a bumbling bafoon who makes a complete fool out of himself in every scene and we love him for it. Cheung is very funny throughout but he also handles himself well in the dramatic elements, his love for Nip Siu-Sin is incredibly genuine and heartfelt. Joey Wang is incredibly sexy as Nip Siu-Sin but also a believable sympathetic side as well. But for me, the biggest scene stealer is Wu Ma as swordsman Yip Chik-Ha. His character is fascinating throughout as his motives are very opaque and confusing throughout and we don't really know how to feel about him. But he's also shown to be a bada$$ swordsman and a sympathetic character as he's a loner who doesn't belong in neither the world of the living or the dead. The rest of the cast is good too, although Lau Siu-Ming does look a little goofy as the tree demon but that's about it as far as complaints go in the acting department.Lastly, this is a pretty well-made film for an 80's Hong Kong production. The cinematography has a great, spooky look to it with a lot of blue backlighting for the night-time scenes and the camera-work is very inventine and dynamic with a lot of effective POV's for the tree demon. The special effects, while a bit cheesy and fake today, are nonetheless, really cool to look at and fun to watch. Overall, A Chinese Ghost Story is a over-the-top fun with a sappy yet sincere romance, fun action, spooky horror, amusing comedy, an effective cast, and solid production values. 8/10

First things first, the female lead is too gorgeous to be missed. Now actress Wang Zu Xian, the one who played Xiao Qian in the movie, is 42 years old and well aged. It's always good to review these glorious times when seeing old-school HongKong productions like this.The movie is one of the most influential titles made in 1980s. The art set decoration and other aesthetic facets are all mesmerizing. More fantastically the movie had a total black humorous undertone in it. It feels like a horror movie but ultimately it's not scaring, but only fun.I had the experience of translating the second script of "A Chinese Ghotst Story", and I thought that script was a decent write. However when I saw the movie, I firstly was disappointed in seeing the movie different from the script, like in a smaller scale and involving more comic roles. However, it turned out to be better executed in terms of being entertaining.If you have seen the Lord of the Rings, you will notice the similarities in this movie to LOTR. The climax is like a mirror of Miranda Otto fighting with the Ring Witch. It's definitely a laugh-out-loud. Bravo!

Wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one, outside of the uniform positive reviews I've read. Turns out, I could have never imagined this movie, because it's very close to "The Bride with White Hair" in being operatic and dealing with the fantastic. This walks a fine line between being a farce, a comedy, and just plain good old fashion ghost story telling. There's nothing scary about it, that's not the theme, it's really mostly a love story dealing with a bumbling guy who encounters a beautiful ghost, who is in a lot of trouble with other ghosts. So the main theme is the guy trying to save the beautiful ghost. This also takes place in ancient China, with wild outlandish Kung Fu exhibitions, and a trip to hell (more or less). Some of the stop-action ghosts are pretty cool, and the visual effects are top rate all the way. I could watch this genre of Chinese movies all day, because they are highly entertaining, great visuals, and pretty much tongue-in-cheek. And I'm looking forward to watching the first sequel of this movie also. Highly recommended.