English name：A Chinese Ghost Story
Broadcast time：1986
Starring：张国荣（Leslie Cheung）、王祖贤（JoeyWong）、午马
director：程小东
Introduction
“A Chinese Ghost Story” is a fantasy film produced by Tsui Hark, directed by Cheng Xiaodong, written by Pu Songling and Ruan Jizhi, and starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong, Wu Ma, Wong Jing, and Lin Wei. The film was released in Hong Kong, China on July 18, 1987.
The film is a remake of the 1960 Shaw Brothers film of the same name. It tells the story of Yan Chixia helping Ning Caichen to deal with the tree spirit grandma and helping the love between the scholar Ning Caichen and the female ghost Nie Xiaoqian.
In 1987, the film won the “Best Adapted Screenplay” at the 24th Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards, and was nominated for the “Best Film” at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards in 1988.
Today let’s take a brief introduction of a famous Chinese movie named “A Chinese Ghost Story”.A Chinese Ghost Story (Qiannv Youhun) is a 1987 Hong Kong ghost film starring Leslie Cheung and Joey Wong, produced by Tsui Hark, and directed by Ching Siu-tung. The plot was adopted from a short story of Qing Dynasty Writer Pu Songling’s Strang Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai Zhiyi). The film is a classic of ghost movies in Hong Kong.
A Chinese Ghost Story is one of Hong Kong’s classic movies in the 1980s. It is the representative of ghost films almost unsurpassable by other films of the same type. The bizarre world of the demons, the beautiful image of the female ghost Nie Xiaoqian, and the romantic atmosphere of the whole film have become the unique imageries lingering in the hearts of the audience.
The plot is based on a story in Pu Songling’s Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. A scholar named Ning Caichen met a beautiful and alluring woman Nie Xiaoqian when he sought shelter in the deserted Lanruo Temple on a night. They fell in love with each other. A romantic love story between human and ghost thus begins. The unconventional love and the then most sophisticated special effects make the ultimate excellence of the film from content to form. As the first movie made by the Hsui Hark Film Studio, A Chinese Ghost Story created a box office legend in Hong Kong and led to much envy from film producers. A rush for shooting folklore ghost films thus began in Hong Kong film industry. Later, Tsui Hark produced two sequels of A Chinese Ghost Story.
A Chinese Ghost Story series keep the distinct feature of Tsui Hark – using the past to allude to the present. All the three stories happen at an age when the country was in political chaos and people lived in dire poverty. There was only undisguised interest relationship between human beings, while only the leading characters were filled with passion, ambition, and justice. But they were being laughed at as unrealistic and stupid. The issue of “Tao” that has been carried through all the three movies is also filled with realistic significance. Talking about Tao, is there a standard? Saints and sages have their own standards, so do the thieves and robbers. The civil world and the underworld, the yin and the yang, all have their rules. So what the hell is the universal Tao (standard)?
Plot
Ning Caichen (Leslie Cheung) went to Guobei County to collect debts. It rained heavily, so he hid in the legendary Lanruo Temple for a night, but was rejected by the Taoist Yan Chixia (Wu Ma) in the temple, so Ning Caichen sneaked into the temple. At night, Ning Caichen was attracted by a burst of piano music and met the girl Nie Xiaoqian (Wang Zuxian). Nie Xiaoqian suddenly showed murderous intentions, but fortunately Yan Chixia arrived and saved Ning Caichen’s life. Nie Xiaoqian felt her integrity and kindness, and gradually fell in love with her, but was stopped by Yan Chixia. Ning Caichen mistakenly thought Yan Chixia was a murderer and wanted to escape with Nie Xiaoqian.
The tree demon grandma (Liu Zhaoming) forced Nie Xiaoqian to kill Ning Caichen, but Nie Xiaoqian refused, so the grandma ordered the demons to kill Ning Caichen and Nie Xiaoqian. Yan Chixia appeared and saved the two. After the tree demon grandma and Yan Chixia fought, she was sealed in the palm thunder for a hundred years.
At this time, Ning Caichen learned that Nie Xiaoqian was actually a ghost. Because her body was abandoned in the wilderness, she was controlled by her grandmother. She looked for strong men every night to absorb her grandmother’s yang essence to increase her life. In order to prevent Nie Xiaoqian from being humiliated again, Ning Caichen agreed to send her body back to the countryside for burial and reincarnation. Unexpectedly, Nie Xiaoqian was taken away by the old demon in the underworld as his wife. Yan Chixia could not resist Ning Caichen’s pleading and decided to take action again, and finally rescued Xiaoqian.
Key words
香港Xiānggǎng:one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People’s Republic of China, the other being Macau.
清朝Qīng Cháo:also Empire of the Great Qing or Great Qing, was the last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China.
徐克Xú Kè: a Vietnamese-Hong Kong based New Wave film director, producer and screenwriter.
