A Chinese Ghost Story
Wilson Yip
The story: The young official Ning Caichen (Yu Shaoqun) is sent to Black Mountain to help solve
the village’s water woes. He meets and falls in love with a beautiful spirit, Nie Xiaoqian (Liu Yifei), not knowing that she is under the control of the 1,000-year-old Tree Demon (Kara Hui). Meanwhile, demon hunter Yan Chixia (Louis Koo) is out to vanquish the evil monster.
At its entertaining best, Hong Kong cinema offers genrehopping fare which merrily mashes up comedy, romance, fantasy and action.
Prime examples include Stephen Chow’s A Chinese Odyssey (1994) and Ching Siu Tung’s version of A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), which is loosely adapted from a classic tale in the 18thcentury Pu Songling collection, Strange Tales Of Liaozhai.
Similarly varied, director Wilson Yip’s take on the latter is an enjoyable offering, even if it does not hit the giddy heights of those films.
The arc here is largely similar to the 1987 movie: Boy meets ghost, boy falls in love with ghost, boy seeks to free ghost. Yip’s twist is to have the demon hunter fall for the lovely spirit even before the scholar enters the picture.
While this adds tension to the movie, it dilutes the pure love story between boy and ghost, one of the main reasons the earlier version remains ingrained in the memory of those who have watched it.
Ching’s casting was pitch-perfect: Leslie Cheung was the handsome and timid Caichen, Joey Wong was the ethereally beautiful Xiaoqian and Wu Ma was the gruff and righteous ghost-catcher.
Indeed, the film was responsible for boosting the popularity of both Cheung and Wong.
In the new version, Yu Shaoqun, so memorable in the Mei Lanfang biopic Forever Enthralled (2008), makes the role of the scholar his own.
The pretty Liu Yifei, last seen in the disastrous romance comedy Love In Disguise (2010), is less convincing when she has to play coquettish, but she and Yu do make a cute couple.
In comparison, the relationship between Liu’s Xiaoqian and Louis Koo’s demon hunter seems a little out of place, particularly towards the end.
The 1987 flick is also indelible for Lau Siu Ming’s high camp portrayal of the Tree Demon, which seemed to be both male and female as its voice swung between a rumbly growl and a flirty squeal.
Kara Hui has fun in the arch villain role as well and the voice modulation remains intact.
Perhaps where the US$20-million (S$25-million) remake has an edge is in the use of special effects and the epic finale is a glorious showdown of flying fabric, flying swords and flying hair.
And there is nothing quite like it in Hollywood movies.
(ST)