A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

Original title

倩女幽魂

Directed by

Ching Siu-tung

Genre

fantasy film, comedy horror, romance film

Country

Hong Kong

Runtime

1h 34m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 338 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A debt collector gets caught up with a beautiful female ghost and a Taoist monk as they battle an evil tree demon. The film mixes romance, horror, and martial arts action.

whimsicalghostlyromanticaction-packedatmosphericcampybittersweetsupernatural

What happens

A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) is a 1987 Hong Kong xianxia horror film starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong and Wu Ma. It was directed by Ching Siu-tung and produced by Tsui Hark. The plot is loosely based on the short story "Nie Xiaoqian" from Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling and is also inspired by the 1960 Shaw Brothers Studio film The Enchanting Shadow. The film was popular in Hong Kong and East Asia. Although the film could not gain access to theatres in mainland China when it was first released, it became a cult film among younger mainland Chinese. At that time, the film generated a phenomenal cult following among audiences, especially the generation born in the 1980s. In 2011, the Hong Kong producers screened a restored version officially in mainland China. Most notably, it boosted the stardom of Joey Wong, increased Leslie Cheung's popularity in Japan, and sparked a trend of folklore ghost films in the Hong Kong film industry. The film was ranked number 50 of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures presented at the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards, the Special Jury Special Award of the 16th French Science Fiction Film Festival and the Best Film Award of the Portuguese Science Fiction Film Festival. The film was followed by two sequels: A Chinese Ghost Story II (1990) and A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991). In 2011, a new adaptation of Pu's short story was released, directed by Wilson Yip and starring Louis Koo and Liu Yifei.. In 2020, a Chinese film adaptation entitled "The Enchanting Phantom" was released, directed by Zhenzhao Lin and starring Eleanor Lee and Xingxu Chen. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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