A Chinese Ghost Story 4K 1987

Actually, this movie is a real revelation. It turns out that Leslie can be funny—very funny, in fact. When I first watched "A Chinese Ghost Story", Leslie began to surprise me right from the very first frames. His character, a young tax collector, is pure absurdity. Naive and perhaps a little cowardly—of course, when swords are flashing right under your nose, eager to chop someone up as soon as possible, not everyone dares to be brave. And as is typical of such heroes—kind and good-natured, yet absent-minded and clueless (how I love them; if only everyone were like that)—his first day on the job falls apart, and our hero is left penniless, which is why he heads into the forest to spend the night in an abandoned temple. That’s where the adventures of Lin Cai Shen (that’s the name of Chun’s hero) begin. At the same time, he meets a mysterious bearded man—either a warrior-monk or a bandit—and a mysterious girl named Xiao Qin, who plays the lute and has such cold hands; but our naive hero suspects nothing—in short, he falls in love with her and is ready to do anything for her. But he doesn’t know her little secret—this girl died a year ago, and now she works as a ghost, helping the Devil Lady, the temple’s mistress, to suck the life force out of people.

Oh, there’s just so much going on in this movie. The risen dead living in the temple’s basement—such cute and soulful little skeletons with their parched mouths wide open... Siu-Ming Lau, playing the Devilish madam—such a colorful madam who transforms into a huge, slimy tongue with a multitude of little tongues in her throat—aaah, I’m already in shock—her little legs tap-tap-tap-tap-tap across the floor.

And then there’s Siu-Tung Ching, who infuses the film with subtle humor, poking fun at the laws of old China and its warriors. And the characters in *Chinese Ghosts* are none other than the protagonists of a true romantic story imbued with the spirit of the past—a wise warrior-monk, a beautiful girl in distress, and a young man with a heart of gold. But all of this is filmed and acted with such enthusiasm that you simply can’t bring yourself to call it formulaic or anything of the sort. Quite the opposite—this story became so beloved by audiences that sequels soon followed, one starring Leslie Cheung and the other starring Tony Leung. I have nothing against this wonderful actor, but if you’ve seen Leslie Cheung’s version, it will be hard to watch the third installment without comparing the performance to the image Leslie has already created. And he is truly inimitable, the scene where he bids farewell to his beloved—when he must hold the shutters shut so the sunlight won’t turn her to dust, allowing her to escape and be reborn in a new body—these sacrifices that lovers make are possible only in this fairy-tale world, which is why they fill the heart with sadness, and I watch it with bated breath. You rarely see such purity of emotion on screen, and that’s why these moments become all the more precious.

“A Chinese Ghost Story” is a real treat that I’m always ready to enjoy, and this story will remain one of a kind—along with the one and only Leslie Cheung, who had the most golden and pure heart in the world.