Cinema
A Chinese Ghost Story
倩女幽魂
Ching Siu-tung · 1987
Synopsis
Ning Caichen, a shy and penniless young tax collector, gets lost in a forest and takes refuge in an abandoned temple, where a Taoist master, Yan Chixia, fights demons and warns him. At night, music draws him to a young woman of unreal beauty, Nie Xiaoqian, with whom he falls in love. He soon discovers that she is a ghost, forced by a demon to seduce travellers in order to deliver them to it.
Context
The film was produced by Tsui Hark for his company Film Workshop; it is loosely inspired by a tale by Pu Songling and by a Shaw Brothers film made in 1960. The Festival des 3 Continents sees in it a tribute to the fantastic, mixing martial arts, romance and musical comedy. Released in the colony on 18 July 1987, it was the fifteenth biggest hit of the year there, then was released in France on 28 December 1988. It had two sequels, in 1990 and 1991.
Who it is for
A ninety-eight-minute film, in Cantonese, which mixes the fantastic, fight scenes and romance; released in France in 1988.
Prizes and reception
At the 1988 Hong Kong Film Awards it won three prizes, for art direction, music and song.
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