A CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987)

By Craig Reid     June 08, 2001

To many Western viewers, this movie (the first of a trilogy) opened the magical window to the fantastic and bizarre world of Hong Kong's Fant-Asia film. Based loosely on the adaptation of the classic novels by Pu Song Ling (a collection known as 'Fantastic Tales of the Pavilion of Pleasure'), the film is a veritable cornucopia of beautiful ghosts, Taoist mysticism, gruesome monsters and spiritual eroticism. It's a lyrical tale of invincible demons and unrequited love. An innocent poet (Leslie Cheung) finds himself caught up in a monumental struggle against ubiquitous evil spirits amidst his obsessive infatuation with Qian (Joey Wang), a ghost of exquisite beauty. With the hordes of hell hot on his heels, a Taoist priest (Wu Ma) comes to his rescue (along the way singing a peculiar yet interesting rap version of the opening words of the 'Tao Te Ching' ). With each shot a masterpiece in composition, director Ching Siu Tung churned out some of the most delirious and astounding set pieces and sight gags ever seen in world cinema. Produced by Tsui Hark, this eidolic excursion into film noire garnished international critical acclaim and showed us in the West that in Hong Kong genre movies anything goes.