A Chinese Ghost Story
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | A Chinese Ghost Story |
| Original title | 倩女幽魂 Sien nui yau wan |
| Country of production | Hong Kong |
| original language | Cantonese |
| Publishing year | 1987 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ching Siu-Tung |
| script | Yun Kai-Chi |
| production |
Tsui Hark Claudie Chung Chun |
| music |
Romeo Diaz James Wong |
| camera |
Huang Yongheng Tom Lau Sander Lee Li Jiaogao Liu Putang Poon Hang-Sang Wong Wing-Hung |
| cut | David Wu |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
|
Successor → |
|
A Chinese Ghost Story - Seduction from the Realm of the Dead ( Chinese 倩女幽魂 , Pinyin Qiànnǚ Yōuhún , Jyutping Sin 3 neoi 5 Jau 1 wan 4 - "The ghost of a pretty girl") is a film about a romance between an intellectual and the ghost of a pretty girl. The story takes up motifs from a ghost story from the famous work Liaozhai Zhiyi ( 聊齋志異 / 聊斋志异 ) by Pu Songling .
action
The story takes place in ancient China . On one of his hikes, the childlike, naive debt collector Ling Choi San gets caught in a storm that destroys his debt register and is thus faced with the ruins of his existence. Now penniless, he looks for accommodation for the night and is referred to the orchid temple in the nearby forest.
There Ling meets the former Marshal Yin Chek Hsia, who had retired to the Orchid Temple to escape the corruption and hatred of the people. But even here he finds no peace, because another swordsman is on his heels to achieve the title of "best swordsman".
After a duel, the two split up on good advice from Ling Choi San. While Yin retreats to the temple to meditate, his opponent goes to the river to clean his wounds. There he is seduced by the beautiful ghost woman Nip Siu Sin and then thrown to her mistress, a thousand year old tree demon with an enormously long tongue, to eat.
Yin Chek Hsia arrives too late and only finds the dried up corpse, which suddenly comes to life again through evil energy and attacks Yin. However, thanks to his spiritual powers, he can defeat him and kill him for good.
Meanwhile, against the well-intentioned advice of Yin, Ling Choi San has set up camp for the night in the temple and tried to restore his debt register. When Ling hears the sound of a lute, he leaves the temple and meets the pretty Nip Siu Sin in a pagoda by the lake. She tries to seduce Ling too, but through his naive and also a little clumsy manner she quickly realizes that there is only good in Ling and spares him.
The following evening he meets again with Nip Siu Sin, who asks him to forget about her. Ling Choi San doesn't think about it and follows her to her house. There the tree demon Siu Sin tells that she has sold her to the dark prince who would marry her in two days. In order to be strengthened for the dark prince, the tree demoness needs more human sacrifices and counts on Siu Sin. Ling Choi San does not notice any of this, as he has to hide in Siu Sin's tub from the tree demoness's good nose. When he runs out of air and threatens to blow his cover, Siu Sin dives into the water and kisses him. After the tree demoness disappears, she implores Ling Choi San never to come back.
On his way back to the temple, Ling Choi San believes he will see Siu Sin. In truth, however, it is her wicked sister who is looking for meat for her mistress. She attacks him, but at the right moment Yin Chek Hsia comes by and exorcises the ghost. Ling Choi San, who believes Yin killed a person, flees to the court and asks for Yin's arrest. However, he also shows up at the court and clarifies the matter through his former position as marshal, which the judge will remember.
Yin leads Ling Choi San to the spot where the tree demoness' house was that night. During the day there is only a mass grave under a large tree. During the night, Siu Sin returns to Ling Choi San and confesses to him that he is a ghost. While on a hike, she was killed by bandits and buried under a tree by her father. However, when her father also died, her soul was free, was enslaved by the tree demon and henceforth used to catch people.
Since the tree demon senses that Siu Sin will not catch any more victims for him, he attacks the temple himself. Ling Choi San and Siu Sin only have to flee until Yin rushes to their aid and with his Taoist powers defeats the tree demon in a tough fight and banishes them for 100 years.
Ling Choi San promises to dig up Siu Sin urn and take her away so that she can be reborn. In a rest house, however, the trio is found by the dark prince and Siu Sin is drawn into the spirit world. Yin and Ling storm the spirit world. While Yin has to fight an army of ghost soldiers and a general, Ling Choi San manages to get to Siu Sin. However, the dark lord is stronger than Yin and Ling and both are badly injured by him. In the end it is Siu Sin who takes the sword of Yin, although it is blessed and thus harms herself, and kills the dark prince.
Back in the human world, the sun is already rising. While Ling holds boards in front of the window to keep the sun out, Siu Sin returns to the urn without being able to look into the face of her true love again. Ling and Yin keep their promise and bury Siu Sin's urn in a small ceremony so that she can be reborn. The two then go their separate ways, but promise to help each other should one of them get into trouble again.
criticism
Lexicon of the international film : Rapidly staged ghost story with some overly obvious effects. The laws of logic are suspended in a fascinating way, the events are cleverly resolved into movements, colors and moods.
Awards
- Special prize from the jury
- Best director
- International Fantasy Film Award
- Best production design, best music, best song
Remake
In 2011, director Wilson Yip released the remake A Chinese Ghost Story - The Demon Warriors .
Sequels
With the sequels A Chinese Ghost Story II and A Chinese Ghost Story III , a wuxia trilogy was created in Hong Kong in 1990 and 1991 . They are strongly characterized by the mixture of style elements of fantasy , Buddhist or Taoist traditions, the genre of horror films and comedies .
Web links
- A Chinese Ghost Story in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) in Hong Kong Movie Database (Chinese, English)
- A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) in Chinese Movie Database (Chinese, English)
- A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂) in Hong Kong Cinemagic (French, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c A Chinese Ghost Story in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on August 4, 2009
- ↑ A Chinese Ghost Story (倩女幽魂). In: hkmdb.com. Retrieved July 28, 2019 (Chinese, English).
- ↑ A Chinese Ghost Story - The Demon Warriors (倩女幽魂 2011). In: hkmdb.com. Retrieved October 4, 2017 (Chinese, English).