Jackson Booth-Millard The title made it obvious where the movie was from, this Catonese language film is one I found listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I was glad to read positive reviews by critics, so I was looking forward to it. Basically Ling Choi San (Leslie Cheung) is a timid debt collector, his job requires him to travel to rural areas, he arrives in a town, but his inability to collect a debt as planned. He is forced to seek shelter in a deserted temple in the middle of the forest, and that night Ling meets and falls in love with beautiful and alluring young maiden Lip Siu Sin (Joey Wang). However Ling becomes fearful and superstitious, as a Taoist mystic told him there are ghosts, and when he returns to the temple, his suspicions of Lip being a spirit are confirmed. Lip tells her story, she is eternally bound to the servitude of a sinister Tree Devil (Siu-Ming Lau), she is forever enslaved, as her buried remains are at the foot of the tree. Ling attempts to free her, he seeks help from powerful Taoist priest and master swordsman Yin Chek Hsia (Wu Ma), Yin battles with the Tree Demoness, but fails to free Lip, her soul is taken to the underworld for betraying her master. Ling is determined not to give up and insists that Yin help him, Yin opens a temporary portal to the Underworld, they enter and attempt to free Lip's soul from suffering. In the midst of thousands of other spirits they are unable to find Lip, eventually she and Ling see each other as dawn is breaking, but Lip cannot be exposed to sunlight or her soul will disintegrate. Ling holds on to a curtain to shield the urn, containing Lip's cremated remains, from the sunlight, she tells him that the only way to save her is to place the urn in a more auspicious burial site. Ling follows Lip's instructions and Yin's advice, he buries the remains on the crest of a hill, with Yin watching, a lights an incense stick and prays for her soul. Also starring Wai Lam as Hsia-hou, Zhilun Xue as Ching and Jing Wong as Judge. I assumed from the title is was just going to a bog-standard ghost drama, in fact it was more than I expected, it combined fast-paced fight sequences with some massive monsters and weird sorcery, it was both exciting and darkly funny, an interesting and likable martial arts comedy horror. Very good!

Humboldt This movie is one of my favourites. It is a genre-mixture with ingredients of the Action-/Horror-/Romantic-/Comedygenre. Some of the special effects may seem outdated compared to modern standards. This minor flaw is easily ignored. There is so much to discover in this story. The romantic relation between the two main characters is so beautiful that it hurts. The visuals are beautiful too. The action is great which is no surprise, it is originating from Honkong, birthplace of the world's best action movies. The humour sometimes seems a little bit silly but in a good way. Somehow this movie is being able to balance the different moods and keeps being good. Absolutely recommended.

jmbwithcats Sinnui yauman, is without a doubt one of the best ghost stories ever made into film. Written by Songling Pu and directed by Siu-Tung Ching, A Chinese Ghost Story has it all. Ling Choi Sin played by Leslie Cheung is a young man down on his luck who goes in search of a monastery for lodging, deep in the woods, a place the villagers seem very afraid to go near. The trek alone is perilous with wolves, and a crazy taoist monk lives at the temple.Ling Choi Sin meets Tsing, a beautiful and mysterious young girl who also lives nearby in a deserted temple. She is forced to seduce men for her evil mistress, but when she meets innocent Ling Choi Sin they fall in love.Ling Choi Sin is sort of a bumbling fool but his heart is in the right place, while Tsing tries to protect him from the other spirits in the woods, he tries to protect her from the monk who is trying to kill the spirits in the woods. There's great martial arts, even a monk that breaks out into drunken song as he performs ritual taoist sword forms. The movie does a lot of traditional old martial art films acrobatics, with magic and flying through the air, leaping from tree to tree, with elegant long gowns and scarves, but the movie genuinely flows, and everything is effective.Tsing is to be married to a evil tree monster, which cant be good, and we feel her plight in her home where we meet her sisters and stepmother who is truly not nice.In the end they must fight a tree witch with a deadly tongue, and go with Yin deep into the heart of hell to fight a thousand year old evil to save their souls, and bring Ling's ashes back to her home for a proper burial so she may have a chance at reincarnation.A beautiful story that truly pays attention to details. One is touched in many ways by this movie, you'll laugh, cry, and just have fun with the great martial arts and cinematography. And though at the end, Yin and Ling Choi Sin ride off into the morning sun under a enchanting rainbow, we never know if Tsing was afforded a reincarnation, but we do know her

Bungle-9 Well now, this is one fun movie! It is basically one of those interesting romantic-horror crossovers which, I must say, works quite well, although there are a few gripes.Some of the ideas in this film are very interesting, and the way that it was filmed and put together made me think "live action anime". The acting is good, the female lead is gorgeous, the action scenes are typically frenetic and yet possess a clarity not often seen in mainstream Western films. To be honest I wasn't expecting any action scenes at all before I started watching, not that I'm complaining. The film was also quite funny in places, as well as romantic, but not necessarily scary (at least by today's standards).Something I should say is that the film is fairly fast paced yet we manage to keep track of the story, but it moves so fast that we don't really get the chance to feel for the characters and they don't really have the chance to develop. The pacing itself was often uneven, but now I'm merely splitting hairs.Worth a watch.