Underplayed Gems

A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)

A Chinese Ghost Story poster
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
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

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)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.