#wu ma

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Have you seen A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onJun 28

[anhed-nia]

BLOGTOBER 10/19/2025: A CHINESE GHOST STORY (1987)

Blogtober is always a great time for me to fill in embarrassing blind spots and diversify my viewing choices, but this can also mean saddling myself with selections that I do not feel totally qualified to discuss. Case in point: A CHINESE GHOST STORY, a beloved classic of Hong Kong fantasy cinema with roots in Qing Dynasty literature, that established enduring film traditions for the future. For an ignoramus like myself, who can't illuminate all that without just regurgitating passages from Wikipedia, the most striking thing about this kung fu gem is its resemblance to EVIL DEAD! Or even more specifically EVIL DEAD 2, which preceded the release of A CHINESE GHOST STORY by just two months in 1987.

Ching Siu-tung's genre-bending fable concerns bumbling debt collector Ning Choi-san (Leslie Cheung), who falls in love with the beautiful but tormented Nip Siu-sin (then-basketball star Joey Wong) -- a ghost who is enslaved to a soul-sucking Tree Demoness (Lau Siu-ming). Choi-san recruits the ghost-hunting Taoist priest Hero Yim (Wu Ma) to help free Siu-sin from bondage, save her from an arranged marriage to the malevolent Dark Lord, and rescue her soul from Hell. At times this breezy horror-rom-com is surprisingly overcomplicated for a 98-minute FX extravaganza, but you don't really have to follow Siu-sin's dense backstory, or the complex instructions for her salvation, in order to enjoy this amusingly Sam Raimi-ish adventure. Even setting aside the familiar evil tree business, A CHINESE GHOST STORY appears to be a spiritual cousin to the kind of gonzo horror cinema Raimi established; it features fabulous little stop-motion ghouls, a gigantic tongue that tries to get in everybody's mouth, freaky flying heads, and this distinctly DEADLY SPAWN-looking motherfucker:

It's funny to see these reflections of nasty American horror movies in a perfectly innocent, comedic fairy tale like this one; there even seems to be a cheeky nod to DAY OF THE DEAD embedded in the final battle with evil. It's also interesting for a Western viewer to see so many familiar sights in something that is otherwise very distinctly, even traditionally Chinese. At times you can feel like movies are the same all over!

Anyway, I wish I had mapped out this Blogtober program a little better, because certain themes emerged that would have been fun to group together. Of course, I didn't know that A CHINESE GHOST STORY would be so evil tree-focused, and I also didn't know I was about to discover that THE GUARDIAN was originally devised for Sam Raimi, so maybe nothing could have been done -- but I'm posting a few things out of order now, just to maintain certain trains of thought. Oh well.

[brody75]

Just Heroes (1989)

[twilightronin]

The Dead and the Deadly

[silveremulsion]

Sammo Hung in Wu Ma’s The Dead and the Deadly (1982)

[filmfandojo]

Wu Tang Collection Wednesday feature Showdown at Cotton Mill starring Chi Kuan Chun and Tan Tao Liang. Directed by the late Wu Ma. Action direction handled by Chang Ping. This is one of the best non Shaw Brothers role in Chi Kuan Chun's career. Pay attention to the fight between the Southern style of Chi Kuan Chun and the Northern style of Tan Tao Liang.

[rafikecoyote]

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

Have you seen Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1980)?

Yes

No

Haven’t even heard of this movie

Voting ended onFeb 22