Customer Reviews

Liao zhai yan tan

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Movie Summary: A young tax collector named Tsei-Shen is forced to stay in the old almost abandoned Lan Ro temple while making his rounds. There he meets a Taoist monk/master swordsman/ghost buster who is the only other human staying at the temple. He also meets a very beautiful young woman, Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, whom he falls in love with. Although she resists at first, the woman falls in love with Tsei-Shen as well. This complicates things because she is a ghost and has been ordered to delete Tsei-Shen and take his soul.

My Opinion: At first I had a hard time with the poor English subtitles and strange story. But then I was pulled into the love story and began to understand what was going on. Some of the small things that happen in the beginning are a bit confusing but I think this is mostly due to the cultural differences and poor subtitles. I ended up liking the movie very much. It has horror, action, and romance all very well mixed up into an entertaining package. The special effects are quite good. The plot is very filled out as well. The Taoist monk is a very cool character and you can’t help but fall in love with the maiden ghost Nieh Hsiao-Tsing.

DVD Quality: Non anamorphic, no English language sound track, poor English subtitles

What You Should Do: Rent it. Don’t buy this edition, wait for a new version that has an anamorphic transfer. This movie is what I would consider a fairly hard core Hong Kong film. You need to be into this type of film to enjoy it. If you are into this genre you should definitely see it and also check out The Bride With The White Hair.

Chinese Ghost Story, as often happens, spawned a number of successors, including an erotic spin-off series. Leslie Cheung plays a hapless, clueless tax collector who falls in love with the ghost who intends to make him her victim. Unlike the American Ghost Story with Alice Kriege and Craig Wasson, this ghost, played by Joey Wang, falls in love with her intended victim and asks him to find her ashes and move them to a place where she can be reincarnated. Cheung tries his best, but other ghosts want to keep her from succeeding. Wang, like Kriege, is absolutely gorgeous. Kriege, however, can act. On the other hand, Cheung really does a great job with his part. The story and many of the visual effects are stunning, but some of the corpse effects are more gross than frightening. What makes this movie scary is the storyline, not the effects, and it does have some scary moments. The screenplay is wonderful, so far as I can tell. As often happens with Hong Kong movies, the subtitles do a lot to undermine a good screenplay. Some of them are simply awful.

I saw this movie almost seven years ago at an arthouse theater in Greenwich Village.Since then I have seen it three additional times and I can't wait to buy the video! It was then and remains now one of the most visually stunning and beautiful films I have ever seen (import or domestic!). Not to mention the action, the humor, the romance, and the mile long tongue! Do yourself a favor and BUY THIS MOVIE!!It is a thing of beauty and will last a lifetime.

Derived from Chinese legends and folklore, it's something different from modern Hong Kong action movies about gangsters and guns. Intense action is mixed with moments of whimsical humor and romance. Expect to see a lot of flowing robes and ghosts (yeah!) flying through the air. Very entertaining. Just goes to show that falling in love and fighting for your woman is a timeless theme in any culture. Leslie Cheung is fantastic - he's a bumbling naif who transforms into a stud at all the right moments, and Joey Wong is a genuine babe who's beautiful enough to go to hell and back for.

Perhaps one of the best oriental movies I have ever seen. Some may say that the film is lacking in a few areas, but the plot combined with director's magic touch blew me away. After seeing the movie I could not give it anything less than a full rating. The atmospere of the film is unique, at times sad, exciting and romantic, with the rare comical undertone throughtout the movie. The special effects might not be as good as the current modern hollywood superhit movie standard, but unlike most new movies which use special effects just to blantly impress the viewer and fill space, the effects of this movie enhance and complement the atmospere and the plot perfectly. A trully moving film.

A Chinese Ghost Story (Siu-Tung Ching, 1987)

A Chinese Ghost Story is the kind of movie that makes you wonder what it is the Hong Kong film guys are doing right that we're not. There's so much in here that Americans have repeatedly tried to do, and failed far more often than not. Here, it all works.

Ning Tsai-Shen (the late Leslie Cheung, fresh off his success in A Better Tomorrow) is a neophyte tax collector who's had a run of very bad luck. He asks where he can spend the night for no money, and is told about a haunted temple outside of town. After settling down, he's drawn to the sound of a lute, which is played by Nieh Hsiao-Tsing (Joey Wong, who also acted opposite Cheung in the recent Ashes Time). Of course, he falls in love with the girl, despite the warnings of Yen (Ma Wu of Iron Monkey II), a local hermit who's familiar with the haunted temple and the evils that reside there.

It sounds like a horror film, but it's not. In fact, it's a rather sweet, good-natured romantic comedy. (With zombies. See, Shaun of the Dead isn't the only one.) Tsai-Shen is a great bumbling hero, and the opening scene of him suffering misfortunes along the road into town is wonderfully done. Hundreds of American filmmakers could take a lesson from the combination of understatement and slapstick used in the opening sequence. (His oblivious search for his inkpad later in the film is another scene that stands way, way out from the crowd.) The everpresent martial arts sequences have a Three Stooges feel to them, but work better than Three Stooges routines ever did. With all this going on, most filmmakers on this side of the Pacific, assuming they could pull all that off, would let the effects become the movie and ignore the story. Not here, though to be fair the movie is a tad thin on plot. But then, it's a romantic comedy. How much plot do you need? Boy meets ghost, boy gets ghost, boy loses ghost, boy has to save ghost from eternal damnation. A tale as old as time.

One can't blame Siu-Tung Ching for this, but whoever does the subtitles at DirectMedia, Chinese Ghost Story's American distributor, really needs to go back to school. The subtitles in this movie are worse than anything I've ever seen from Tai Seng-- and that's saying something. Even though it's not the film's fault, I took off half a star simply because at times I had no earthly idea what was going on. (At other times, I didn't care, because the Engrish was so hysterical.)

Anyway, though, recommended. I strongly suggest seeing it with someone who speaks Cantonese so you can get an accurate translation of some scenes, though. *** ½

I have watched this movie again and again, and it never stops being a lot of fun. Romantic and creepy, action-packed and humorous, deeply haunting and cheerfully light-hearted, it somehow manages to blend these diverse genres and moods into a wonderfully convincing mix. Some of the scenes are just breathtakingly beautiful, too. And I don't want to go reading too much into what is clearly meant to be (and suceeds in being) good simple entertainment, but anyone interested in how Taoism and Buddhism (significantly, they aren't very distinct here) actually operate in the popular imagination could spend days analyzing this enjoyable film.

It must be admitted that (as others have noted here) the subtitles are about the worst I've ever seen. While the dialogue doesn't necessarily have a lot of nuance, and while the story moves along primarily through visual means (one could probably pretty much follow the story with no subtitles at all), still, some proofreading and perhaps some consultation with someone whose first language is English might have been a good idea. Oh, well. Anyway, their garbled English is still better than my complete ignorance of Cantonese, so who's to complain?

So watch the movie and see for yourself. I bet you won't be sorry.

This film started the "mortal meets ghost" trend in the late 80s, and as we all know, originals are the best.

The plot in a nutshell-a tax collector screws up during a collection run, and with nowhere to stay, decides he'll take his chances and stay in the deserted monastery on the outskirts of town. He meets a beautiful woman and a mad Taoist swordsman. When he discovers the woman is a ghost trapped by the Tree Demon he enlists the help of the Taoist in order to save her.

There are great performances from Leslie Cheung and Wu Ma-they both seemed to be born to play their roles. Joey Wong, thankfully, doesn't really have to act, so we don't have to cringe at her rather...limited...acting range This film is beautifully filmed, with some etheral scenes, such as the underwater kissing scene, and the special effects compliment, rather than detract, from the storyline. The characters are well-formed and I could definitely sympathize with the lover's plight. Well-written and highly recommended. - ew

I originally saw this movie when it first hit the USA market. No subtitles! All the Malaysian male students that I worked with were in love with the female lead in this movie. They kept talking about how graceful her hands were, they had never seen a woman so beautiful, so graceful who held herself so beautifully. I know one student watched it over 20 times. None of them spoke or read Chinese!

I, an American female, was so intrigued by their interest, I went and rented this movie. I had such FUN! watching the movie, and trying to figure out what was going on, I rented it over 10 times! Needless to say, the female lead is incredibly graceful, I was touched by the innocence of the male lead part. The male students were all invigorated by his innocence and good soul! and yet he could attract the attention of such a beautiful ghost.

This movie NOW! has come out with ENGLISH subtitles! Half the fun of watching this movie is laughing over the subtitles. I wish the other reviewers had a SENSE of HUMOR! Get a life people! This is a FUNNY movie! it is low budget, without the billions of dollars on special effects. It is touching because the characters are! The story is funny, warm, scary and loving because of the acting! characters! and the good direction! Out of all the three movies made this first one, really showcases! the innocense and some traditional values in the Asian culture, that I at least grew up with. I find it sad that it is difficult now, to find movies with this type of fun, funny, supernatural good story telling style.

I won't bore you with the entire plot, plenty of others have ruined more of the surprises! - then they ever should have. I plan on buying this DVD! I've searched for it since 1988! and finally found it! Yippee! Don't watch it if you are a dullard! It's for people who enjoy a wonderfully goofy story with a fantastically graceful woman, with hilarious "special effects", (low budget!), and truly goofy but well-meaning subtitles. If you have difficulty in translating some of the subtitles, you don't have much of an education! for example, instead of "one" they might have "on", (big deal, once in a while) they forget to type in the "e", big deal you can figure it out through the context. And to enjoy the story, there is enough action, and the plot is so obvious, you can enjoy it! plenty ! without any subtitles, whatsoever! Rent it for a good time! All three are a great time, you can rent them through their on-line program!

This is such a cool film! The magic is felt when you watch it. The moves of the actors, the music, the sets, the storyline and especially the visuals. The effects are natural and unique in this film. There is a transexual tree monster who rules the beautiful dead ghost, who has to be a vampire in order to survive in the ghost world. They are all living in a temple with a possible ghost or warrior, wasn't quite clear. The warrior stood for good and fought the evil. When a young man who is naive and doesn't realize the temple is haunted stumbles in and falls in love with the bewitched beautiful vampire ghost. He does not know she is dead yet and they have a lovely romance sequence. Soon he finds out she is a ghost and wants to help her escape her karma and be reborn again. With the sanskrit words and the help of the good warrior, they take on the tree monster and even go to hell to fight for the spirit of the beautiful ghost finally making there way back to the world. A shimmering image filled feat! Just like the haunted mansion you always wanted to see. Highly Highly Recommended. It has subtitles and they are sometimes hard to follow. This is a movie definately for art lovers and whoever else that is open to something new and different.

Lisa Nary