A Chinese Ghost Story 1 (1987)

What can I say, another classic of Chinese folk movies. Beautiful music, expressive landscapes and atmospheres, lovable characters, humorous and tragic at the same time. Of course it may have its faults but, they are irrelevant stuff. I like a lot how humour and tragedy are mixed and also find all the amosphere very well achived, even with the technology they had in those years, its even better than some of the new CGI effects used nowadays. Also the music is a mix of traditional chinese music and some modern sythethizer pos stuff, so the sound environment is also very well chosen. I hope directors these days get more influence of how you can make a beautiful movie with few money, relying in good acting, good moral and philosofical folk story, good music and landscape.

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A movie low on plot and character, but high in visuals and style. There was a raw yet dreamlike quality about it, making it work beautifully as a mood piece.

This was the age before CGIs, so the production team got very, very creative. Watch for the tree demon and underworld battle sequences. These scenes were designed not just to wow, but to look as realistic as possible. This was exactly the kind of special effects that can withstand the test of time.

The acting was good all around. Leslie Cheung was, as always, a natural. Next to him, Joey Wong seemed to be trying a little too hard, but she was beautiful nonetheless. The love story was much too rushed and shallow for me. The comedic scenes were pure genius and more than made up for it. That outrageous Taoist rap had me laughing so hard I nearly fell off my chair.

You can't talk about this movie without mentioning Leslie's rendition of the theme song. There will never be anything quite like it. And there will never be anyone quite like Leslie Cheung.

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So that's where "Xena: Warrior Princess" got it from!

[Watched/Reviewed on Letterboxd 5/12/2021 ]

There's a lot about "A Chinese Ghost Story" that feels improvised (less so than its sequel, which felt all over the place) as it follows a down-on-his-luck and wayward scholar (who doesn't do much scholarly work), and becomes swept up in a supernatural tryst with a ghost forced to kill human beings to appease a tree demon. It's a good kind've improvisation, though.

The apparent influence of Sam Raimi's "Devil Dead (1981)" is hard to ignore, which makes A Chinese Ghost Story's influence on "Xena: Warrior Princess" (that underwater kiss between Xena and Lao Ma in "The Debt", the entirety of the season six finale, "A Friend in Need") a great example of how art is always in constant communication, influencing others.

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